Semi-wild muscovy duck questions

[SolarDuck]

Hello, on christmas day while visiting a local park I found some ducklings that were abandoned and almost eaten by seagulls. I saw their mom fly away from them she was a muscovy. After watching over the ducks for several hours without her coming back for them I decided to take them home and raise them. At the moment they are a little bit more than a month old as they were no more than 3 days old on christmas they were very tiny. My question is, when is it okay to bring them back to the park and let them go. This is an entirely fenced in park with a large pond with lots of ducks and many many people coming in every day to feed them. I could not find any answers on the internet related to my specific situation so I came here for help. I live in Florida so weather is not a problem right now they are outside in a very very large dog crate meant for a great Dane and they seem to be about 1/3-1/2 the size of the full grown muscovies. What age/size is a good one to release them??

2 are male and 3 are female I believe

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’d give them at least a few more weeks. And I hope someone will be feeding them because they are dependent on you now. They are beautiful I hope they do well. Bless you for taking them in.

 

[SolarDuck]

Thank you, I will be sure to keep a very close eye on them as the park is only about a block away from my house, and I will continue to feed them if need he but even at their age right now they are quite good at chasing down flies and mosquitoes

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are very blessed to have you watching over them.

 

[SolarDuck]

Update, here is what they look like now. Gotten bigger look like completely different ducks

 

[Miss Lydia]

Gorgeous Muscovy! It is amazing the transformation they make as they mature.

 

[SolarDuck]

So I've brought them to the park today, we have been here for a few hours and they have not yet went into the pond for a swim, and some of the wild muscovy drakes are well. Being muscovy drakes and picking on them a bit

 

[johntfs]

Hello, on christmas day while visiting a local park I found some ducklings that were abandoned and almost eaten by seagulls. I saw their mom fly away from them she was a muscovy. After watching over the ducks for several hours without her coming back for them I decided to take them home and raise them. At the moment they are a little bit more than a month old as they were no more than 3 days old on christmas they were very tiny. My question is, when is it okay to bring them back to the park and let them go. This is an entirely fenced in park with a large pond with lots of ducks and many many people coming in every day to feed them. I could not find any answers on the internet related to my specific situation so I came here for help. I live in Florida so weather is not a problem right now they are outside in a very very large dog crate meant for a great Dane and they seem to be about 1/3-1/2 the size of the full grown muscovies. What age/size is a good one to release them??

2 are male and 3 are female I believe

None. You're in Florida. It's illegal to release them back into the wild - which includes that park: https://southerntrappersflorida.com/Muscovy_Ducks_2.html

You should do your own research, but the way I'm reading it, once you took the ducklings home, they're yours at that point and you're not allowed to release them again.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are young and interlopers so of course they are going be be picked on even try to run them off. I hope they will be okay on their own. I’d be very worried that they haven’t gotten into the water since that’s their only protection.

 

[SolarDuck]

They have gotten into the water just took them some time to explore and check everything out