Will my ducklings follow me?

[Erinbez]

Hi, I recently bought 13 Pekin ducklings, 10 of which are only about 5 days old, 1 2 week old, and 2 4 weeks olds. They'll happily eat out of my hand and at the moment im keeping them in a small cat cage as a brooder. I do also take them into the bathroom to run around and have a little swim. Will they ever follow me though? Any tips on bonding with them? I also would like to know if there's any treats I can feed them at this age? As I know they love soggy bread even though it's very unhealthy for them. :/
Thanks!

 

[Crazy4Fowl]

Hi, I recently bought 13 Pekin ducklings, 10 of which are only about 5 days old, 1 2 week old, and 2 4 weeks olds. They'll happily eat out of my hand and at the moment im keeping them in a small cat cage as a brooder. I do also take them into the bathroom to run around and have a little swim. Will they ever follow me though? I also would like to know if there's any treats I can feed them at this age? As I know they love soggy bread even though it's very unhealthy for them.

Mine love meal worms, I feed mine live worms from petsmart and petco, they have bags of dead ones for chickens/ducks but I never buy them.

 

[Crazy4Fowl]

Mine love meal worms, I feed mine live worms from petsmart and petco, they have bags of dead ones for chickens/ducks but I never buy them.

Another thing, when mine were ducklings I bought some little gold fish at petsmart for like 19¢ each. I filled the bath, put the ducklings in there and poured the goldfish in. They were small goldfish and I got like 20. They loved them and it was cute watching them dive under water to get the fish.

Edit:They were a bit older tho, maybe like 6 weeks old

 

[Miss Lydia]

Any time you feed ducklings anything other than their duck starter or chicken starter they need grit, poultry grit can be bought at feed stores. They have no way of chewing their food, grit is what they use to grind it up. Just put a bowl down close by their feed and they will eat as needed.

 

[needlessjunk]

Spend as much time with them as you can. Really small minced up greens should be okay. After a week or so I started giving luke warm peas. With that many it is going to be harder to get them to be one with you so to speak so it can go either way if they will keep following you around. Mine would to start with but now at 6 weeks they don't. They do however come when called so I'll take that.

 

[Erinbez]

Ok, Thx for all the replys so far.. I don't live near any pet stores, but can I make any grit?

 

[needlessjunk]

Grit will be found at feed stores but it is just crushed granite. I think corse sand can work but I'm not 100% sure. Hopefully someone else will have some ideas. If you just feed them duck/chicken feed they don't need it but once you add treats then it's a must.

 

[solarpup]

Ducks are creatures of habit. Spend lots of time with them, and use repetition. With mine,I always whistled for them the same way, and they learned that that was my call, and would follow me around the yard while I whistled. Somewhere around 4 months old they stopped following. They still think I'm a large duck, but now they want me to follow them, rather than visa versa. However, when they get lost in the woods, they still will follow my whistle to find their way back. Or when I get home, I whistle and they will answer back with their greetings quack.

For a while, we used peas to try and clicker train one of the ducks. (Every time they perform a behavior you want to reinforce, click the clicker, and give them a pea. Eventually just clicking the clicker should make them do the behavior.) We successfully clicker trained him to eat peas If he turned his back or walked away, clicking the clicker would have him run over to us and ear a pea.

 

[Erinbez]

Hi just another question.. I've noticed after allowing them to swim in the bath tub they seem to be getting snotty noses, is this something to worry about? Also what's the best way to dry them after?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi just another question.. I've noticed after allowing them to swim in the bath tub they seem to be getting snotty noses, is this something to worry about? Also what's the best way to dry them after?

Do you use warm water when letting them swim? and make sure to get them out before they chill and the water chills? very important. you can take a soft wash cloth pat them dry and put them straight back into brooder under the heat lamp. Do you mean snotty like just water running out or actually mucus?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/750869/raising-and-caring-for-ducklings#post_10611711