Warm Water!

[Duck Mad]

Hmm I'm not convinced about the fact ducks dont feel the cold, (ducks have no nerves in feet so they can swim in icy water and dont feel it)
My ducklings have been pampered lots, nice warm water baths etc.. When it comes to living outside, a couple of my ducks WON'T go in the paddling pools if the water is cold, but if i fill them with warm they happily jump in and play for ages!
I have picked up the ducks many times and put them in the cold water, and they jump out faster than i put them in..

Has anybody else noticed that their ducks would rather not swim about in cold water?

 

[veronicasmom]

Mine will swim in icy water. Maybe yours are just used to the warm water and need to get acclimated to the colder water. Maybe try taking the water temp down in stages?

 

[Duck Mad]

Quote:
Thanks

I guess the getting used of it over time is the way round this .. Need some hot weather so they apprieate cold water hehe ..

 

[The Duck ABC's]

One should ask what temperatures are they used to otherwise. Are they getting a heated duck house at night? Do they have access to a heated place in the daytime? How warm is that place? It think these have an impact on how much down feathers they carry. A lack of down feathers makes them more sensitive towards cold water. In general mine swim all the time with ice and snow. They do not when the temps go below 20F, that is when they only want to sit on hay. They are miserable if they walk at temps below 20F. You can see that in their faces and they do hold up their feet. This winter we had temps going down to -8F. We did make sure that there was plenty of hay down to prevent frost bite. They went through it without any problems. I do heat the duck house for my little girls, but that is to promote egg production in winter. I keep the temp slightly above freezing, usually around 40F. This keeps their downs in place during winter. More heat will force them to reduce their downs. So I think your ducks do not have an issue with cold feet, it may be more of an issue with down coverage.

 

[Duck Mad]

The Duck ABC's :

One should ask what temperatures are they used to otherwise. Are they getting a heated duck house at night? Do they have access to a heated place in the daytime? How warm is that place? It think these have an impact on how much down feathers they carry. A lack of down feathers makes them more sensitive towards cold water. In general mine swim all the time with ice and snow. They do not when the temps go below 20F, that is when they only want to sit on hay. They are miserable if they walk at temps below 20F. You can see that in their faces and they do hold up their feet. This winter we had temps going down to -8F. We did make sure that there was plenty of hay down to prevent frost bite. They went through it without any problems. I do heat the duck house for my little girls, but that is to promote egg production in winter. I keep the temp slightly above freezing, usually around 40F. This keeps their downs in place during winter. More heat will force them to reduce their downs. So I think your ducks do not have an issue with cold feet, it may be more of an issue with down coverage.

Thanks for that great reply ..
My ducks night time bed is on my kitchen, because they were hatched join cold weather.. they are mostly outdoors in the daytime, Winter temperatures average 4.4 °C (40 °F )

Summer temperatures average about 15.6 °C (60 °F () Like you say tho, its the fact they probably aint got the right feathers to take the cold as much. maybe like their next mault being outsdoors will change.. I probably made the mistake of giving them wrm water in the tub from ducklings, and seeing that they splash about and have more fun in warm water, it seemed like the right thing to do..
Like im under the impression for ducks to stay warm, they need to keep their feathers clean by bathing oftern, Which they wont bath unless its warm.. i think taking it slowly getting them more used to not so warm water is best thing.... I cant keep filling paddling pools with warm water lol​