Raising Ducklings
What to expect when you are expecting ducklings.
It’s spring time; your local farm supply store has all sorts of cute chicks and ducklings about and you want to take them all home. Before you start picking out the most adorable ones of the bunch there are things you need to be thinking about. Just like bringing a puppy home you need to think about where they will sleep, what type of food they need to eat, what to do with the end result of them eating, etc. Chicks and ducklings being birds, not mammals, have a few extra needs.
Zoning
Oh joy, zoning maps! All sarcasm aside, before going any further you need to see if you are allowed to raise ducks. If you live in the United States there is a chance you need to look into your local zoning regulations. You might be limited on how many ducks you are allowed to have, if you can have any at all. Another thing to check is if you live in a Homeowners Association (HOA). HOAs can be restrictive and might prohibit you from owning poultry even if your zoning regulations allow it. Thankfully backyard chickens and ducks have become a more popular hobby over the past few decades and zoning regulations are changing to meet the demand.
Heat
Just after a duck lays an egg it starts brooding. The mother duck will go for much longer periods of time without eating or drinking in order to keep the egg warm. This need to keep it’s young warm doesn’t end once the duckling has hatched. Ducklings need additional heat as they grow up and have their adult feathers come in. When you first bring ducklings home from the store you will need a heat lamp, a way to slowly lower the temperature, and a way to measure the duckling’s temperature.
We have made heat lamp hangers out of pvc from the local hardware store for temperature control, but feel free to get creative in your solution. You can email us if you would like more details about our solution. We have used remote thermometers from La Crosse Technology to wirelessly monitor the temperature where the ducklings live. Our current recommendation as of writing is the VA1 Project Alarm Clock. You can download their app and set alarms to always know what temperature the ducklings are at.
When you first bring your ducklings home they should be at 90 degrees F (32 degrees C). As they get older you will want to decrease the temperature by about 5 degrees F (about 2 degrees C). This is a guide, not a rule. If your ducklings huddle away from the heat lamp it may be too warm. If they huddle under the heat lamp they may be too cold. When setting up your bathtub/duckling area make sure the heat lamp is at one end so that they can get away from it to cool down while you are away.
Location
Until the ducklings can live outside at the current temperature you will need to keep them somewhere that you can keep them warm. We have used a spare bathtub successfully to raise ducklings in the past. In order to keep the ducklings from stinking up the whole house or clogging the bathtub’s drain, you can tape a painter’s tarp in the bathtub and put fresh straw in the tub. The ducklings will eventually soil the straw, so you will need to refresh it every so often. It is also easier to keep a bathroom at the needed temperatures rather than cranking up the heat for the entire house.
Food
Ducklings do need a special diet in order for them to properly develop. The local farm supply store where you can get ducklings should have duckling specific feed in stock. A large dog bowl is great to have to make sure they don’t run out of food. In addition to the special feed, ducklings also need more niacin. A good way to get them the additional nutrition is with brewer’s yeast. Just sprinkle a little brewer’s yeast over the food when you fill up their bowl and you should raise some happy and healthy ducks.
Water
Ducks are waterfowl. They have evolved to be in and around large bodies of water. As such they have developed a special need for water. Their nostrils, located on top of their beak, close to their eyes, need to be cleared often. Like you would use a tissue to blow your nose, ducks dip their beaks in water to clear theirs. You need to provide them with deep enough water for them to clear their nostrils in addition for drinking. Make sure the bowl is deep enough to dip their nose, but shallow enough for them to get out.
Teddy Bear
A duckling shouldn’t be raised without a mother duck and you have a life to live. That’s where a stuffed animal comes in. It doesn’t have to be a duck, but it should be soft. Don’t get attached to it since it will get dirty very quickly and you will probably want to throw it out once the ducklings are ready to go outside. You can even use a feather duster.
Cover photo by Ray Harrington on Unsplash