[SustainableTompkins] caring for baby ducks?

[Patricia Haines]

thanks so much - I'm letting Mama take care of her baby (there's only one so far) because she's just lost her mate. We've created an enclosure very near the house so I think they'll be safe. A duck listserv might find a lot of interest - myself included.

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--- On Fri, 6/13/08, Simon St.Laurent <simonstl at simonstl.com> wrote:

> From: Simon St.Laurent <simonstl at simonstl.com>
> Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] caring for baby ducks?
> To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" <sustainabletompkins at lists.mutualaid.org>
> Date: Friday, June 13, 2008, 2:24 PM
> goodsell wrote:
> > Caring for baby ducks is only slightly different than
> caring for baby 
> > chicks. You should be able to get a game bird starter
> at your local feed 
> > store. You might have to shop around if you're
> looking for organic feed in 
> > particular. But game birds require a higher protein
> level than chickens.
> 
> Tractor Supply Company had a general chick formula that
> included ducks, 
> which I used for a while, but I went to Game & Turkey
> Starter, then 
> grower, then finisher/maintenance from Agway.  Definitely
> stay away from 
> feeds with antibiotics in them, and ducks need lots of
> niacin, 
> apparently more than is in chicken feed.
> 
> Definitely make sure they _always_ have water to drink. 
> (They don't 
> need to swim, but they definitely need to drink.
> 
> > Keeping the chicks fed, watered, warm, clean, and safe
> are your priorities 
> > especially with the threat of a predator eminent.
> I'm not sure if you're 
> > planning on letting "mom" brood out her
> chicks or taking the chicks and 
> > brooding them yourself. Your situation and your
> decisions on how you wish to 
> > raise these little ones will depend how you should
> proceed.
> 
> I'm not sure what the current duck defensive situation
> looks like, I've 
> been using electroplastic fence while working on building a
> more 
> permanent home for my ducks.  (I had 11, and gave a pair
> away this 
> morning.)  It keeps predators away really well, but your
> ducklings might 
> be small enough to go through it, or worse, get stuck in
> it.
> 
> (I started with mail-order ducklings, so put them in a
> brooder box, then 
> in a rabbit cage, and then in a fenced area.  But they
> didn't have a 
> mother to help them at all, so that was different.  I hope
> to start 
> raising our own ducks next year.  I need to update it, but
> you can get a 
> sense of what we did at:
> 
> http://livingindryden.org/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=ducks&blog_id=15
> 
> )
> 
> I've been contemplating starting a Tompkins (or Finger
> Lakes) ducks 
> mailing list - if there's interest, let me know.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Simon St.Laurent
> http://simonstl.com/
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