Suggestions for Lucky...help keep her sane!

[secretquail]

So Lucky is growing into a big duckling!

I am tempted to say Lucky is a she, but don't want to speak too soon! But here is the ?. 'She' is about 3 weeks old. I'd like to start her outside during the day within the next 2-3 weeks. By then I'll have a pen with shelter. The problem I'm having is how to help 'her' deal with it. She is always around us, or in the tub in the washroom. After we leave her, she peeps like crazy for 30 minutes sometimes.

I know she will cry even more when left outside. Of course I'll make it a slow transition, and stay with her for long periods of time, I can handle the common sense stuff. What I'm hoping someone will help with is maybe something extra I can do. She will be a lone duck until next spring. Does anyone have experience with having just one duck for a while? Maybe I could find and borrow a duck? Would that even work???

 

[duckluv]

Probly shouldn't use the borrowing plan. She might get REALY attached and would cry even more when it left.
Or she might attack it.( Any duck could).Sorry nothing else.

 

[suburbanduckmom]

We had a similar situation. We rescued a muscovy duck (Daisy) and we were worried that she would get lonely so when she was about a month old I got a Pekin from Metzers (named Little Bit). We kept them in brooders with mirrors next to each other until they were similar in size and let them socialize while we watched them.

At first Daisy was overly interested with the baby and we didn't trust her not to run over the tiny Little Bit.

The pekin grew a lot faster than the scovy so it wasn't very long before they could be trusted with each other. Even though the scovy is much smaller than the pekin she is still the boss. They became the best of friends and I don't think they would be easily separated without distress.

I would recommend getting another duck! Borrowing one could just cause more sadness.

 

[secretquail]

That's what I thought about borrowing, but it's all I could think of for the moment. I think we are just going to have a house duck for a while, unless she REALLY loves being outside.

 

[veronicasmom]

Just wondering why you can't just get another duck for company for her? Two really aren't much more work than one. There must be a female somewhere around that needs a nice home.

 

[sheila3935]

Do you have chickens? Monday we lost one of our 2 ducks to a predator. We think maybe raccoon. Our little girl was in her pen calling and calling for her sister. We put her out to free range with the chickens til we could get some more ducks. Everything went ok. Then come evening I didnt want to lock her up by herself so I put her in the babies coop with them. The next evening when it came time for bed she followed my 11 week old barred rocks right in the coop, and follows them around all day. She thinks she is a barred rock now

Today I have her mom, dad and hatchmates coming. We will have 7 ducks now. So I am wondering will she just go with the ducks or will she still hang with the barred rocks? Will be interesting to find out. But if you have chickens you can try that and see if that helps til you can get her a playmate. By the way she is a Kahki Campbell.

 

[secretquail]

I'd definitely think about getting a mate for her, but I guess I'm being a bit selfish.... I'd like the same breed (Silver Appleyard) or some hookbills. They are hard to come by this time of year. Metzers doesn't have either. I looked all around, and even contacted about 12 local farms.

Lucky loves us so much, and we have the time to give her the companionship (I'm a stay at home mom) so I don't feel too bad about the situation.

We don't have any chickens, kind of pushing the covenants with duck and quail as is.

AHHHH, when one day we have enough money to but a farm, or just a bit of land to turn into a farm, I'd be in heaven!