Oh btw you can get niacin at most drug stores or health supplement stores like vitamin shoppe....my Peking did fine without it but I did give it to my runners to help one of their slight pigeon toedness...
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Oh yes, lol I agree....yeah I spent quite a bit of time with mine as well. I would just let them wander about the kitchen with me and they would sit on my feet under the table (there was some poop wiping off the floor of course) but it was so fun! They love treats and bath time and mine would follow me around the yard and down the street...the only sort of sad thing is when I had to leave them finally to go about my day and put them back in the brooder they would cry...it's so sad...but they would stop after a bit.My runners are quite sociable and love visits with humans.
I spent as many waking hours as I could with them from day one. I set up Brooder II to be large enough that I could sit in the brooder with them after each cleaning, which, some days (I did not have the water management handled very well) was five times a day.
I checked in on them often, talked to them constantly, gave them bath time, after a week started giving them lettuce and peas as treats once a day.
At the age of three weeks, when they all decided I was an axe murderer (a predictable developmental stage with most ducklings), I squatted down low, moved slowly, kept up with the treats, and just waited patiently. Eventually they came back around.
They talk to me, interact with me, "tell" me things about their environment, and seem to get a big kick out of time with me or with any other person.
There are many ways to keep the water from soaking the bedding and making a stink and causing a risk of mold and health issues. The basic idea is to keep the water out of the bedding. I used a splash catcher and it worked pretty well. But with eleven ducklings, it was still pretty high maintenance. We never had an odor problem, I will say that.Amiga-
One more time, tell me a little more about this water management thing please. I can already tell Im not excited about them thinking Im an axe murder. hahaha About how long does this awful stage last?? hahaha!! We are changing our plans a little bit. Instead for the next couple weeks we are going to get a large storage bin for the first few weeks. Then we are also going to get a total of four, (instead of two.) Lucy, Ethel, Daffodil (Daffy for short,) and Daisy. We went to our feed store and have Niacin and other vitamin powders and duck feed for them. I cannot wait!!!