Anyone here have pet ducks?

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

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My friend has kind of talked me into getting a couple of ducklings as pets. I have no idea what is involved apart from giving them some sort of paddling pool and something akin to a chicken run.

Are they low maintenance? How often do they need fed? etc.....

The names sold me though. Duck Norris and Count Duckula.
 
A friend of mine had 2 ducks a few years ago called Reg and Malcolm. They were ace and I'd be extremely jealous if you got a couple! They eventually had to go though due the fact their garden wasn't quite big enough and the ducks made a lot of mess :(

Also about 5 years ago I managed to rescue a duckling from the local gang of cats and kept him for about a week. He used to follow me round the house wherever I went, was such a wrench when we had to hand him over to a wildlife sanctuary!
 
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From memory for food you just leave a large bowl (high enough that it doesn't get wet;)) and they'll eat from it as/when they are hungry.

A fairly large run (what size ducks are they?), and lock them up at night unless the run is extremely well made and you're checking it daily for any damage no matter how minor (foxes can/will worry at wire mesh repeatedly until they get in).

The downside is that they will turn the ground under the run into mud in fairly short order unless you can move them round every few days, and the water will need changing daily/every couple of days.

If they are female ducks the eggs are lovely :)


P.S.Has anyone called you quackers for taking them on yet? :p
 
my mum had ducks as pets when she was a kid, she loved them, but i remember her telling me that they ate all the garden plants....so keep an eye on them haha
 
The gay blokes next door to me have them. They are big. They lay eggs. I picked one up the other day and it was slimy and still warm. I didn't like it.

PS. Sorry, can't help.
 
An ex-girlfriend's Mum had two pet Ducks, they were fantastic at keeping the garden tidy, no slug, beetle, bug, worm, fly or wasp was safe, they kept the lawn down and they used to attack visiting cats, my dog was also quite terrified of them. You need a pretty large garden for them and obviously some sort of water feature will keep them happier.
 
Buy duck food (pellets) from an animal wholesale place. Ours had the run of the garden, just a small fence to keep them inside - my old man clipped their flight feathers to stop them doing a bunk.

They absolutely destroy whatever is on the floor by the way, it will be a slick of mud within a few months.
 
I look after ducks on a farm. Pretty low maintenance. Aslong as you change their bedding once a week in their "house" and have a bowl of food/water topped up they'll be fine. Somewhere they can have a dip is favourable too. :)

Only major thing is the run does need to be pretty big.

Edit: Also they poop LOADS.
 
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My friend has ducks, apparently they just showed up one year and now there are about 50 of them. He does have a pretty big pond though.
 
We were thinking about getting some ducks to start herding training with our border collie puppy. Would never keep ducks as a pet though.
 
I used to at my old house (And this was on a housing estate - big garden though).

Best recommendation I can make is to go buy one of those "Clam" sand pit / water pools and sink it into the ground, you can clean it easily and makes them a great pool, the ducks really mainly need water to dunk their heads in and clean their nostrils.

You'll also never have snails in your garden they eat them all.

Our ducks got so big they chased off cats!

We feed them once a day usually when we had our tea - Mashed potatoes mixed with grain.

Rich
 
I'm close to someone with pet ducks (5 I think).

They are Call Ducks so quite noisey, very low maintenance but they will destroy the garden. Any paddling pool of water will be reduced to mud in an impressive amount of time as well.

They live in a very large fenced off pen and most of the grass is now mud.

It's funny seeing how excited they get when clean water is poured into the pond though :D

They need to be locked up overnight in a run, they have lost a few to foxes.
 
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