Swan newbie here!

[laceynoelle]

Hey everyone. My mom just adopted Two parents and three baby mute swans. Just curious, is there anything i should know? Ive already raised chickens, turkeys, and ducks. Is it the same basic thing? I dont want to mess up the babies. Theyre still pretty young. Any special feed?

 

[crtrlovr]

have absolutely NO idea or answers to your questions, but I did want to say "Welcome!"

Hopefully someone knowledgeable will step in and give you some answers.

 

[duckyfromoz]

Yep....laceynoelle... You need to know where I live so you can send them to me!!!!! How lucky are you

They are just gorgeous. Sorry I cant help with suggestions for the care of them- I have never been lucky enough to have swans. I used to feed some years ago down at a pond- I took down layer pellets and grains as they were fed a lot of bread by other visitors and I wanted to make sure they were getting some good feed as well. They stayed around just long enough to raise the babies- but have returned most years for breeding. Black swans though.. not white look those gorgeous birds. I have always wanted to raise swans- but its definitely a few years off for me still.

Best of luck with those one laceynoelle...Simply stunning!! Im sure you will get much enjoyment from owning them.

 

[laceynoelle]

Hi duckyformoz,and thanks. Theyre surely gettin quite a bit of attention from the nieghbors. up until recently i thought it was normal to raise swans, but it guess not.

tell me when youre coming to visit, and i'll give them to you if i could get my mom away from them. she makes baby noices at them and theyre nice to her. I go up and daddy swan attacks me. blah. hahaha, no, im actually thrilled. Theyre really awesome. They came from a golf course, and the were going to be killed!!? The wildlife people called us becuase we raised some wild ducks from them last year. I cant believe someone would want to kill them though.

Thanks crtlovr, i have entered the world of swan raising, and im a little terrified. Theyre huge.

 

[chickenzoo]

Keep them all on a good layer feed, even babies and plenty of grass, Romain lettuce and a place to swim, especially water to swim, they need to exercise those legs.

 

[laceynoelle]

Thanks chickenzoo.

just the normal chicken layer feed will work?

 

[J3172]

looks like you have a royal, and a polish

 

[laceynoelle]

no, theyre both mute swans. The nevada wildlife people caught them and sent them our way until the babies are grown.

 

[rarnold]

Hi Lacy - I'm a newbie also. You are going to have a lot of enjoyment from your swans.

I have a pair of mute swans with two Signets (Six weeks old). The most important thing you need to do is to take the babies to good Aviary Veterinarian to have them sexed (see which ones are male and female), and have them Pinioned (Tip of one wing clipped). The Vet will clip the right wing of the males and the left wing of the females, so that when they are grown you can tell which is which.

We really enjoy them. The Daddy will get more docile as the signets get older. They like bread. I go to a local bakery outlet that sells out of date bread. They fix up a package of about ten loaves of old bread for one dollar. I feed them about 1 loaf a day (in about 1/4 of a slice sizes). The babies will take smaller bite size pieces.

Swans live in the water and go onto shore only for a short time. Their primary diet is aquatic vegetation. Mine are in a 1/2 acre pond that had a real bad weed problem. The swans eat all the weeds and keep the pond looking beautiful.

I also have a feeder that I give them whole corn. For two adult birds don't give them more than about 4 cups of corn once a day (either morning or night). If they don't seem to be waiting for the corn when it is time to feed, you probably are feeding them too much. They need to eat mostly pond weeds and grasses to maintain their health.

 

[rarnold]

As for feed for the babies. A real good one is "Laying hen Mash pellets" - they are small and have a lot of nutrients. I feed this to the adults in early spring when they are breeding.