We saved a duckling 9 months ago and now we don't know what to do...

[brobro]

Hello everyone. This is my first time posting here so please let me know if i need to post somewhere else. My wife and I saved a bunch of ducklings from a drain about 9 months ago. 18 fell in the drain in all, and we happened to get 16 out and successfully returned them to their mom. We went back and were able to get one more out but the mom wouldn't take that one. We had called the local rehabilitator and he said he was full at the time and that it wouldn't be too hard for us to take care of him and eventually release him. He gave us great info and we did our best, with the duck growing pretty quickly. Well long story short, now we can't get rid of him. We've taken him to multiple ponds with other ducks like him and he just doesn't want to go. We leave him but as soon as we walk off he just comes flying over to us. We absolutely love him and do our best to take care of him, but we're not in the best situation to keep a duck right now. So anyways, we're searching for some advice on what to do. We need to find a home for him, but we refuse to let him go somewhere that he won't be taken care of like he was with us, i.e. as a domesticated animal. Is he ever going to be able to be released in the wild again since he's been around us so much? We tried our best to not interact with him in the beginning, but its kind of hard when we have to constantly clean his cage and feed/water him. Worst case, we can hide him for one more year of renting till we get our own place where I can build a pen for him in the back yard, but I really don't want to get in trouble with a future landlord. Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated, and just fyi he is a black bellied whistling duck.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hello everyone. This is my first time posting here so please let me know if i need to post somewhere else. My wife and I saved a bunch of ducklings from a drain about 9 months ago. 18 fell in the drain in all, and we happened to get 16 out and successfully returned them to their mom. We went back and were able to get one more out but the mom wouldn't take that one. We had called the local rehabilitator and he said he was full at the time and that it wouldn't be too hard for us to take care of him and eventually release him. He gave us great info and we did our best, with the duck growing pretty quickly. Well long story short, now we can't get rid of him. We've taken him to multiple ponds with other ducks like him and he just doesn't want to go. We leave him but as soon as we walk off he just comes flying over to us. We absolutely love him and do our best to take care of him, but we're not in the best situation to keep a duck right now. So anyways, we're searching for some advice on what to do. We need to find a home for him, but we refuse to let him go somewhere that he won't be taken care of like he was with us, i.e. as a domesticated animal. Is he ever going to be able to be released in the wild again since he's been around us so much? We tried our best to not interact with him in the beginning, but its kind of hard when we have to constantly clean his cage and feed/water him. Worst case, we can hide him for one more year of renting till we get our own place where I can build a pen for him in the back yard, but I really don't want to get in trouble with a future landlord. Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated, and just fyi he is a black bellied whistling duck.

@brobro what state are you in? just the state. In NC there are a few water fowl rescues one called Carolina Water fowl rescue they are out side of Charlotte. They take in wild and domesticated birds etc. if you look them up on line and send an email I bet they can direct you to some one Like them. I hope they could anyway.

I am sorry you all have to give him up he sounds like he is pretty imprinted on humans and probably won't ever be able to live in the wild.

 

[brobro]

Hey there, thanks a ton for the reply! I'm in Texas, so a good ways away from there. I'll contact them though and see if they can give me an info. I really don't want to give him up because we have been able to take very good care of him and he is so domesticated, I'm just really worried about breaking the lease to our next place. Worst case, if we can't find a place we will just try and hide him for a year, and make a nice big pen for him when we get our house. Thanks again for your help!

 

[PoultryAddict 1]

Find a rescue or a petting zoo will take him I'm sure, there are plenty of people who want that breed.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hey there, thanks a ton for the reply! I'm in Texas, so a good ways away from there. I'll contact them though and see if they can give me an info. I really don't want to give him up because we have been able to take very good care of him and he is so domesticated, I'm just really worried about breaking the lease to our next place. Worst case, if we can't find a place we will just try and hide him for a year, and make a nice big pen for him when we get our house. Thanks again for your help!

Hopefully you'll be able to find a rescue that will help.

Or just keep hiding him. Your his flock. @brobro and Welcome to BYC!!

Hey awesome you were able to save all those ducklings amazing rescue.

 

[Herdcutter]

Hello

OMWord I just looked up your duck's breed and he is beautiful!!!
Sounds like you have a duck!

You should have him as a pet....since he kinda is anyway.

 

[brobro]

Thanks!