Emergency care for baby duck? Please help?
Question by YerMuther: Emergency care for baby duck? Please help?
Baby duck emergency question!?
I need to know what to feed a wild baby duck, and if it needs a heatlamp. Right now it is in a big bin, with a good sized shallow water pyrex, and a small amount of chicken crumble for laying hens. I was planning on going to feed store first thing tomorrow to get duck food.I have no idea if that is good enough. It has a nice fuzzy warm blankie, and it is snuggled up, but do you think it will need a heatlamp, if kept inside?
I found it running down my driveway full of skunkweed stickers, and it was all sticky, so I used warm water, and gently washed it, and dried it. It seems content right now, but I am interested in raising this baby duck as a pet. What do you think? It’s mom and dad were nowhere around, it must have gotten seperated. Please help! I’ll give you ten points!!
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7 Responses to Emergency care for baby duck? Please help?
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OMG THAT’S THE MOST ADORABLE THING IVE READ ALL DAY 🙂 i know how you feel when you get a animal and you don’t know what to feed it i have 4 kittens and a baby duck i don’t know what it is but my mom got this special food from doing research
ilovekahleb
February 24, 2014 at 5:00 pm
small bite sized pieces of bread or PLAIN cereal like cheerios
Natty
February 24, 2014 at 5:56 pm
Depending on how little, but i would get a heat lamp for it just in case. Search for a tack and feed store near your house to get baby duck food. Im really not sure how tiny or young it is but they are supposed to have heat lamps for the first month or so. Goodluck! She sounds adorable!
lovelovelovee<3
February 24, 2014 at 6:52 pm
Keep on with what you are doing. Don’t let it get in any drafts! You won’t need the heat lamp unless it is still ‘fuzzy;’ and if you decide to use one, set it up on ONE side of the box so the duckling can get away from it if he gets too hot. Egg crumbies is PERFECT for right now, but be sure it is not the medicated feed. Some of the crumble feeds made for chicks have medication in them and wild ducks cannot handle the antibiotics in the crumbles. But, usually hen crumbles won’t have that so you should be safe. Check the label on the feed sack to be sure. Another good feed is just straight corn, at least for a short bit. If you don’t have anything else, you can toast some bread and crumble it up for tonight. What it will need is ‘game diet’ which you should be able to buy easily from a local feed store, but egg crumbies should be fine for tonight until you have time to go to the store. Enjoy, ducks make great pets!
Joust
February 24, 2014 at 7:50 pm
Hmmm you can turn on a lamp above him but if he has a blankie and it’s inside and it’s not cold or anything he should be fine. You don’t want to cook him! 🙂
Chicken scratch should be fine for tonight. Buy chick or duckling “mash” tomorrow. Mash is for babies. Several easters ago my family got a baby duck and some chicks. The duckling grew up just fine eating the chickens food.
If you touch it enough it will grow into a nice pet. But he will need constant human interaction to make him tame.
Oh and make sure you and anyone else who touches him washes your hands with soap first since you can pass germs onto him.
Hope this helps!
courtneynyc
February 24, 2014 at 8:24 pm
milk with bread and rabbit food thoses green little things you feed rabits (i had ducks)and it does not need a heatlamp trust me.
NATHALY
February 24, 2014 at 8:43 pm
YOU DEFINITELY NEED A LAMP, and DO NOT allow the duck to get wet or chilled again. Use a regular lamp, but only a 20 watt bulb. Then the duck can snuggle directly up to the bulb without burning itself. Believe me, I just lost four of six total (3 ducks, few days old, and three chickens, ~2 weeks old. I have one duck and one chicken left.)
Put it in a tub (like a recycle or storage tub), with a shallow tray of water and baby chicken/duck food (free feed for farm ducks, not sure about wild), cover it with screen (if you have cats) and cover at least 3/4 of the top with blankets. Don’t worry about it suffocating, their respiratory systems aren’t that active. One guy told me that they could probably live (the one duck and one chicken I have left) in a totally sealed tub for a day without suffocating, but that guy was strange and I’m not going to allow him around any more. (Unfortunately, it was the person who gave me the birds and I don’t know ANYTHING! Anyone experienced with baby animals, please feel free to email me.)
By the way, since it’s a wild duck, you really should call a wildlife rehabilitator tomorrow (today is Sunday). They will probably take the duck, but it’s perfectly acceptable to go out and get another duck (a real farm duck), and think of the valuable lessons you will have learned from the wild baby duck and the wildlife rehabilitator. 🙂 Who knows, maybe they will tell you it’s fine to keep it, too. Just DON’T LET IT GET COLD!!! Mine got hailed on yesterday (they were covered but COLD) and I lost one of the two remaining ducks. The only two left are the two biggest, strongest ones of the 6, and before this all started all six appeared perfectly happy, energetic, and healthy. A dying baby bird in your hands is a really sad thing. I would really call the rehabilitator. Good luck.
Plantlady
February 24, 2014 at 9:40 pm