The birth and death of a "good" idea

[priss]

Leahin,
Well I think you're great. If you come to something fresh then you go by what you're told. Coming to this website however is the best idea ever. These guys help me out on a weekly basis. So now my advice to you? PREDATOR PROOF YOUR BACKYARD, GET A POOL AN GET SOME DUCKIES IN IT!!! You will not regret getting them as pets. They are the cutest, funniest most rewarding little people. Look, look how cute they are:

PS
Doog wouldn't survive two minutes in the wild. He can barely go five minutes in the back garden without yellin for something!

 

[Duck_feeder]

Quote:
All domestic breeds are considered domesticated regardless of how they were raised. They have been selectively bred for characteristics that generally make them bad at survival in the wild. All feed store ducks are domestic varieties.

Any bird that imprints on humans is generally not going to act like a wild bird. When breeding endangered or wild birds, the breeders are very careful to not let the birds imprint on them (often feed them with puppets that look like adults of their species) - this could cause them to want to socialize and breed with humans instead of other birds. Pretty much any duck you get from a feed store was hatched in an incubator and imprinted on humans since there were no adult ducks around.

Any bird conditioned to socialize with humans will likely develop abnormal habits. For example, constantly feeding ducks at a pond will make them see humans as a food source. Being fed in winter months may cause them to stop migrating. From what I've read, some rescued wildlife can't be released back into the wild because the learned to depend on humans.

 

[LeahinTexas]

All domestic breeds are considered domesticated regardless of how they were raised. They have been selectively bred for characteristics that generally make them bad at survival in the wild. All feed store ducks are domestic varieties.

Thank you for the clear explanation here! I was beginning to suspect this was true, but wasn't sure!

Any bird that imprints on humans is generally not going to act like a wild bird. When breeding endangered or wild birds, the breeders are very careful to not let the birds imprint on them (often feed them with puppets that look like adults of their species) - this could cause them to want to socialize and breed with humans instead of other birds.

Now that you mention the puppets, that sounds familiar and makes a lot of sense.

Pretty much any duck you get from a feed store was hatched in an incubator and imprinted on humans since there were no adult ducks around.

Any bird conditioned to socialize with humans will likely develop abnormal habits. For example, constantly feeding ducks at a pond will make them see humans as a food source. Being fed in winter months may cause them to stop migrating. From what I've read, some rescued wildlife can't be released back into the wild because the learned to depend on humans.

That all makes so much sense. Education!

Leah​

 

[LeahinTexas]

Quote:
Careful -- you'll talk me into it. They are amazingly cute!

 

[MuranoFarms]

Quote:
Think of it this way. Lets say you find a day old baby deer. Mama was hit by a car, so you take it home and take care of it. Keep it safe, fed and cared for. Do you think it would stand a chance if you just dropped it off at the park one day when it was grown? It now thinks people are 'safe' and givers of food. It has no fear of predators or knowledge of how to find food, or where its safe to sleep. It was brought up having everything provided for it and now has nothing provided for it.

If the same deer was raised by its deer mommy she would have taught it how to find food, who to run from, where to sleep...etc. So yes, duckfeeder is right in that some birds/animals are genetically altered to be pets and won't do as well in the wild. However, a lot of it has to do with an animal being 'taught' to be a pet as opposed to it being 'taught' to be wild.

Case in point...feral cats. Ever pet a truly feral cat? You wont. They were raised by their feral mommas to hunt for food, run from predators and find a nice cozy place to bed down for the night. I rescued ferals for 2 years. One particular litter I took a few 2 week olds off the momma before she tried to attack me. We raised them and they are happy house cats now. Their litter mates though, raised by momma are truly feral. I caught 1 in my safe trap once and wow was it crazy! (got it fixed then released)

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
All domestic breeds are considered domesticated regardless of how they were raised. They have been selectively bred for characteristics that generally make them bad at survival in the wild. All feed store ducks are domestic varieties.

Any bird that imprints on humans is generally not going to act like a wild bird. When breeding endangered or wild birds, the breeders are very careful to not let the birds imprint on them (often feed them with puppets that look like adults of their species) - this could cause them to want to socialize and breed with humans instead of other birds. Pretty much any duck you get from a feed store was hatched in an incubator and imprinted on humans since there were no adult ducks around.

Any bird conditioned to socialize with humans will likely develop abnormal habits. For example, constantly feeding ducks at a pond will make them see humans as a food source. Being fed in winter months may cause them to stop migrating. From what I've read, some rescued wildlife can't be released back into the wild because the learned to depend on humans.

This is true. Before I worked as a wildlife rehabillitator, the place I worked at received a great horned owl as a freshly hatched owlet. They were pretty sure that he had never so much as seen his parents, at least according to the person who brought him in. He was hand raised and completely imprinted to people. When I came along, even though he was a fully adult owl by then, I could reach into the cage and have this huge raptor climb on my arm and peep and twitter like a chick, asking to be fed! There was no plan to ever release him into the wild, because even though he displayed the behaviors of wanting to hunt, he had absolutely no fear of humans and would have likely been an easy capture for the black market as a pet. He could also have gotten injured by someone thinking he had malicious intent by coming toward them...who would expect a huge owl to come to people? So he was kept rather as a living display to educate people up close and personal about this sort of raptor, while any wild owls that came in were treated and released if possible.

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
Careful -- you'll talk me into it. They are amazingly cute!

That's what we're trying to do! I think you need a Call or runner duck to smile at you just once...it'll be all over then!

 

[AHappychick]

I am glad you saw that it was not a good idea. If the pond you speak of is a good one that will withstand wildlife then wild ducks will find and use it.

I have a small pond I built and there are a few larger ponds in the area. I have Mallards, egrets/cranes, and Canadian Geese visit it all the time. They can spot my little tiny pond from a far distance and I still cant figure out how they manage to land on it so gracefully.

What you could do is look into those floating islands that wildlife people and others who breed waterfowl use on ponds to give a safe predator free area for ducks to nest in. The foam islands even have spots where you plant grasses and water plants so that it grows over and looks natural. Just tie it to an ancor and set in the middle of the pond or at least 15 feet from shore. You build it and they will come

here is a pic of some http://www.shop.naturalwaterscapes.com/category.sc?categoryId=2&gclid=COiszui_s6ACFVk65QodZXU1Sg

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
All domestic breeds are considered domesticated regardless of how they were raised. They have been selectively bred for characteristics that generally make them bad at survival in the wild. All feed store ducks are domestic varieties.

Any bird that imprints on humans is generally not going to act like a wild bird. When breeding endangered or wild birds, the breeders are very careful to not let the birds imprint on them (often feed them with puppets that look like adults of their species) - this could cause them to want to socialize and breed with humans instead of other birds. Pretty much any duck you get from a feed store was hatched in an incubator and imprinted on humans since there were no adult ducks around.

Any bird conditioned to socialize with humans will likely develop abnormal habits. For example, constantly feeding ducks at a pond will make them see humans as a food source. Being fed in winter months may cause them to stop migrating. From what I've read, some rescued wildlife can't be released back into the wild because the learned to depend on humans.

Sorry Duck feeder, but being the nit-picker that I am, I must point out some errors, generally when one makes absolute statements an exception can be found. Consider the Mallard, that most domestic ducks were developed from, if feed store ducklings are raised by a wild mallard they will be wild, by humans domestic. The practice of doing so is illegal. Take Muscovies they return to the wild so well that as of the end of March it will be illegal to allow domestic Muscovies to reproduce (I haven't figured out how I could possibly stop them) this was is the result of a federal regulation that was made because fural (sp, ones that return to the wild and reproduce as wild ducks) have become pests in southern states and many urban areas in the north.

 

[toadbriar]

Leah you are awesome

This is how it's supposed to work! Pity about the feed store guys. They're just thinking about selling merchandise, whether it's live animals or a bag of feed. Good to know that about them, I suppose. We should be able to trust people selling X to tell us the best info about X, but it's just not safe to do so. Sadly, pet stores are often the same: "goldfish bowls" are really WAY too small for goldfish, "heat rocks" for reptiles cause terrible burns because they're too small and too hot, and so on. I am so so glad you took your research further. Rock on!

I don't have numbers to back me up but I theorize that the internet has improved animal care practices incredibly.

You know, if you want to raise and release something this spring, I bet there are frog eggs in that pond. (And, those would be tadpoles guaranteed to escape being eaten by ducks...)