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canada gooseB7692

Thinking of Keeping Ducks as Pets









Always give ducks clean water to drink.


In the case of ducklings, they should be fed with a duck starter, a food exclusively for ducklings, for the first 2 weeks, and then with a duck grower for 3 7 weeks. Don’t feed baby ducks with whole grains or bread. Make sure that you give them the right food as they face lot of health problems and it becomes difficult for them to survive.


If you have a pond with no enclosure, ducks are easy targets for predators. Many domestic ducks can’t fly, so providing a secure coop is essential.


For keeping ducks as pets, it is necessary for one to know the types of ducks available with a little information on their salient features. They are large in structure with a round head and heavy body. During the breeding season, the males can be recognized by their green heads and yellow bills, and the females by their brown feathers. During the non breeding season, the males can be recognized through their bright orange feet. These are easily tamed ducks, and come under the category of dabbling ducks.

Pekin Ducks


Runner Ducks

Runner ducks are compared to the wine bottle due to their shape and long legs. They are often trained by exhibitors and lays good number of eggs. Runner ducks are quite friendly, but can easily panic if disturbed. They are brownish black in color with purple plumage. Muscovy ducks don’t like to be over handled by humans, and are less prone to illnesses as compared to other ducks. The average lifespan of Muscovy ducks is seven years. Muscovy ducks are tropical birds and can adapt to extremely cold conditions very easily. Muscovy ducks do not swim much, like the other ducks.

Rouen Ducks



Rice for ducks? Is it bad? As we know rice expands when added to boiling water. If you add it to just a pot of water it will stay hard, the hot water softens the rice and allows it to absorb water. A bird’s digestive system is like this it swallows food then it goes to a bag like extention of the throat called the crop. The crop has moister in it that is similar to saliva and has the same purpose it’s a predigestive. There isn’t enough water to cause the rice to soften and it doesn’t stay in the crop long enough to make a difference. You can test it by keeping an uncooked piece of rice in your mouth for an hour and see what happens. From there it goes to the gizzard and is ground up, as if the bird had chewed it’s food. The rest of the bird’s digestive system is just like a mammal’s a stomach, small and large intestanes, colon and out. I don’t think uncooked rice will hurt them, but if you fed them only rice it may cause them to be malnurashed. As for cats and dogs, they will kill ducklings it’s garenteed. If you expect them to spend alot of time together don’t bother getting ducks, or keep the cats inside and get rid of the dog that’s what I’d do.

Adam [November 26, 2013]

Cheryl, your ducklings should be kept inside until they are fully feathered. Once feathered a peking or a mallard can survive very cold winters. As is I would be surprised if they lasted an hour without a heat source. Remember duck eggs are laid in late april early may, and hatch early june. The bird is completely fledged and flying (for wild ducks) by august. Then they migrate in october.

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