The Duck Thread

[sryglet]

Hello all! My little crested babies are a month old now, and they are SUPER chubby and fluffy and adorable

We've been raising them in our living room, so they're the friendliest little babies ever. Here's baby Afro, the smallest of the four:



You can feel pin feathers under their down, and they have feathers on their butts... two are slightly older than the others and they have some feathers on their bellies. I've been putting them outside when it's not too cold, but my question is this: will pointing a fan at them help them grow in their feathers more quickly? These babies are getting HUGE and I'm due to have my first human baby on January 4th.... it would be nice to speed the process along

Thanks!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hello all! My little crested babies are a month old now, and they are SUPER chubby and fluffy and adorable

We've been raising them in our living room, so they're the friendliest little babies ever. Here's baby Afro, the smallest of the four:



You can feel pin feathers under their down, and they have feathers on their butts... two are slightly older than the others and they have some feathers on their bellies. I've been putting them outside when it's not too cold, but my question is this: will pointing a fan at them help them grow in their feathers more quickly? These babies are getting HUGE and I'm due to have my first human baby on January 4th.... it would be nice to speed the process along

Thanks!!!

Pointing a fan will not help. It's a gradual process AND they still need to be kept warm .I am thinking by the time your human hatches these will be nicely feathered. and putting them outside when it's cold may not do anything but cause sickness. They cannot control their body temp when they aren't fully feathered... Afro is absolutely adorable. At a month old 70* is the best temp for them..

 

[Julie Birb]

Hello all! My little crested babies are a month old now, and they are SUPER chubby and fluffy and adorable We've been raising them in our living room, so they're the friendliest little babies ever. Here's baby Afro, the smallest of the four: You can feel pin feathers under their down, and they have feathers on their butts... two are slightly older than the others and they have some feathers on their bellies. I've been putting them outside when it's not too cold, but my question is this: will pointing a fan at them help them grow in their feathers more quickly? These babies are getting HUGE and I'm due to have my first human baby on January 4th.... it would be nice to speed the process along Thanks!!!

Ooooohhh, she is so cute. I love her. Look at her webs on the waffle patterned blanket. She needs lots of kisses.

 

[sryglet]

Pointing a fan will not help. It's a gradual process AND they still need to be kept warm .I am thinking by the time your human hatches these will be nicely feathered. and putting them outside when it's cold may not do anything but cause sickness. They cannot control their body temp when they aren't fully feathered... Afro is absolutely adorable. At a month old 70* is the best temp for them..

Cool, it's about 70 in my house and we've just been keeping them at ambient air temperature. I've only put them out when it was in the 60's and they seemed to be fine - no huddling around eachother or anything, just playing.
I was just asking about the fan thing because I've heard from several people that exposing them to colder conditions on occasion makes their feathers come in faster.
And you really don't think they'll be fully feathered by the beginning of January?! They'll be almost three months old and bigger than my runners! The two big babies are already almost as big as the runners now!

 

[sryglet]

Ooooohhh, she is so cute. I love her. Look at her webs on the waffle patterned blanket. She needs lots of kisses.

She seriously is the chubbiest most cuddly baby ever. It's hard not to hold her all the time

 

[Julie Birb]

She seriously is the chubbiest most cuddly baby ever. It's hard not to hold her all the time 

You are speaking my language when it comes to bird. Chubby and cuddly at the same time. I would never be able to put her down either. So Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Cool, it's about 70 in my house and we've just been keeping them at ambient air temperature. I've only put them out when it was in the 60's and they seemed to be fine - no huddling around eachother or anything, just playing.
I was just asking about the fan thing because I've heard from several people that exposing them to colder conditions on occasion makes their feathers come in faster.
And you really don't think they'll be fully feathered by the beginning of January?! They'll be almost three months old and bigger than my runners! The two big babies are already almost as big as the runners now!

Yes they will be fully feathered by 1st of Jan. sorry if I didn't make my self clear on that. But please just let them feather in at normal rate. Just make sure if you put them out in 60's they can't get wet and it isn't windy. I wouldn't do it but the decision is of course yours.

 

[Pyxis]

If anyone remembers my issue with the neighbor's two ducks coming and eating my food, as of tonight it looks like the drake has permanently moved in. His female is nowhere to be found. For some reason Hershey, my drake, is now tolerating him. I don't mind him staying, but it was better when he brought his girlfriend with him - now my ratio is two drakes to one duck :/ And I can't fix it until spring - I practice biosecurity and no grown birds come here without extensive quarantine (except for these two ducks, who have proven to be disease free, thank goodness) that I can't do this time of year so I can't buy adult ducks, even if I were able to find them this time of year. I'll get some female ducklings to balance things out, but not until spring. So hopefully the low amount of daylight hours cools the drakes' libidos until then. Or Hershey protects Sugar from the new drake - I don't think he'll want to share anyway.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If anyone remembers my issue with the neighbor's two ducks coming and eating my food, as of tonight it looks like the drake has permanently moved in. His female is nowhere to be found. For some reason Hershey, my drake, is now tolerating him. I don't mind him staying, but it was better when he brought his girlfriend with him - now my ratio is two drakes to one duck

And I can't fix it until spring - I practice biosecurity and no grown birds come here without extensive quarantine (except for these two ducks, who have proven to be disease free, thank goodness) that I can't do this time of year so I can't buy adult ducks, even if I were able to find them this time of year. I'll get some female ducklings to balance things out, but not until spring. So hopefully the low amount of daylight hours cools the drakes' libidos until then. Or Hershey protects Sugar from the new drake - I don't think he'll want to share anyway.

So another one gone from preds probably. How long has she been missing? Hopefully this time of year things have calmed down considerable and the 2 drakes will be okay together,.. I hope the other female shows up but if not an excuse to get more ducklings sounds good too.

 

[Debs Flock]

If anyone remembers my issue with the neighbor's two ducks coming and eating my food, as of tonight it looks like the drake has permanently moved in. His female is nowhere to be found. For some reason Hershey, my drake, is now tolerating him. I don't mind him staying, but it was better when he brought his girlfriend with him - now my ratio is two drakes to one duck

And I can't fix it until spring - I practice biosecurity and no grown birds come here without extensive quarantine (except for these two ducks, who have proven to be disease free, thank goodness) that I can't do this time of year so I can't buy adult ducks, even if I were able to find them this time of year. I'll get some female ducklings to balance things out, but not until spring. So hopefully the low amount of daylight hours cools the drakes' libidos until then. Or Hershey protects Sugar from the new drake - I don't think he'll want to share anyway.

Bless your heart. I'll admit that I was kind of hoping this would happen. It seems that you'll give him better care than he was getting. I do hope his girlfriend shows up just so we know she's okay. They've been coming over for a while now so no chance she's just lost, I guess.