The Duckling who won't let me sleep!!!

[MissusDee]

A feather duster too, that it can crawl into and snuggle with.

 

[PlumTuckered]

Ducks really don't sleep like we do. I'd give Charlie a Mirror so he thinks he has a friend right now and move his brooder to another room where he can talk to his new friend without disturbing your sleep. I hatched out 2 Pekins 2 yrs ago, one only lived 11 days, Scrappy was miserable so I gave her a mirror and a stuffed toy and she did so much better. Of course if she could hear my voice she wanted me and not her "friend" (mirror) but if I left the room she happily talked to her friend and played with the stuffed toy.

Michelle

 

[duckyfromoz]

Brex- I have this set up works for me with chickens and ducklings when I have a lone one to raise.

The legs hanging down move with the baby making it seem like the stuffed friend is alive. I just use a rubber band around the neck to keep the ostrich attached to a coat hanger.

Pity you didnt hatch a muscovy. The little one I have here the same age as your Charlie is a little angel. So quiet and happy to just sit in the brooder. How do you provide heat for him?? I am presuming a lamp of somekind ..... You could try using a hot water bottle instead and then he would be in darkness as hopefully after a period for him to settle - he may just give you a little more peace during the night.
I usually use a hot water when I have a single one to raise just so I dont have the light on day and night- but I do also find it does make them sleep through the night in most cases.

 

[Baralak]

I understand completely.. We had a pair of ducks that my son was rasing till a cat dispatched (and thusly the cat was rehomed). We got it a friend, but for the couple of days till we got the friend it would do the same thing... We gave her a stuffed duckie, and that did the trick.

 

[The Duck ABC's]

Ducks are like cats they take short naps, but never sleep for several hours in a row. I brood mine in the kitchen so I do not hear them at night. My suggestion it to move him to his own room. It's like children eventually you have to ween them off. In nature mother ducks do the same and eventually they even chase them off, if they are to attached. It's hard with a lonely duckling, because they will get more attached then if you have 2 or more. I currently raise a single gosling and he is getting very attached too.

 

[Duck_feeder]

Have you tried covering the little guy so he doesn't have light at night? The darkness tends to make ducks stay quiet. If you're using a light bulb as a brooder heater, you might want to switch to heating pad instead.

When I got Moxy and Norie I kept them in separate brooders in my bedroom and they would peep constantly for me during the day, but once the lights were off at night, they never peeped (but sometimes got really noisy playing with the toys I gave them. They love parrot toys with bells but those get obnoxious at 3am....)

 

[Brex]

SUCCESS!!!

Truly sleep after not sleep is the sweetest!

Thank you all for your tips, and a BIG Thank you to desertdarlene!

In the end I did not have a ticking clock, but something similar...
I found an iPhone app simply called 'duck' (free in the appstore).
I'm not sure of it's intended purpose but it makes a quack noise at regular intervals.

Charlie would talk with it and was comforted by the sound in the silence.
I intend to get Charlie's sleeping pattern more akin to our own and eventually do away with the iPhone technique.

Again THANK YOU ALL!

 

[desertdarlene]

Oh cool! I'm glad something like that worked.

 

[askjcm2005]

We have 4 ducklings that are almost 2 weeks old and 1 hatched today so I had to keep the new one separate and it kept crying non-stop. I put a mirror in the cage with it and it rarely leaves the mirror. It looks at it all the time and peeps at it but its a quiet content peep...

 

[mrsengeseth]

Quote:
that was going to be my suggestion too.

but I love your solution...made me think of the commercial: "There's an App for that!"