Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone!!
To start off, my name is Scott and I have recently been looking into raising a few ducklings (of which I have a few questions tha Ill ask in a minute). Ive been looking in this forum for a while now and just now took the plunge and registered...looks like there is some priceless info here!! Im looking foward to getting to know everyone here!!!

Ok now a few questions I have...
I am thinking about getting maybe 3 ducklings (maybe Mallards) but what gender(s) should I get? I dont know if it would be better to get all females...all males...or maybe 1 of one gender and 2 of the other. I know males are usually more aggresive than females, but I dont know if I want them to have eggs. Do eggs take alot of work or are they hard to take care of? For their cages I was going to use some old wire rabbit pens with hay on the bottom (maybe some old t-shirt in there for them to snuggle up in). Should I also get a small doggie pool for them to swim in for the summer? (its also ok to put them in a luke-warm bathtub right?). Its still gets a cold down here in Texas (right now only between 60-70 in the day and 40-45 at night) so would it be ok to just throw a few fleece blankets over their cages at night? (that the method we used for rabbits)....
Ok I'll leave it at that for now (I still have a few more, but I know this is more than enough to read lol). Sorry about the novel!! Thanks in advance for the help!!

Hi Scott, i'm Mel

There are many different breeds of duck, mostly domestic that all have different characteristics. And i would suggest that you do alot of research into the available breeds in your area, and make sure that you get a good choice.
Mallards are lovely ducks, but also check out any other breeds close to you.
I would recommend that you get 1 male, and 2/3 females. It's normally best to get more females as this is a more natural selection, and as you said males are generally more aggressive.
If you get ducklings, make sure you get experiance at sexing ducklings, or that the person selling the ducks can do this, as otherwise you may get 3 drakes or something.

Rabbit hutches are a good idea for ducklings at a young age, but they will need alot more space as they grow. They would have to have some heating supply, such as a heat lamp/heat mat, as ducklings without their mothers cannot produce enough body heat to keep themselves warm.
A rough guide for anyone with limited space, is that you should allow 1.5M square for every duck you have. Ducklings grow very fast and love to roam around. Make sure that when they go outside they have plenty of straw/hay for bedding to keep them warm, as well as fresh water.

A few notes...

*Don't let the ducklings swim in water until they are about 3-4 weeks old. Ducklings are not waterproof when they hatch and also at a young age, and many die due to getting wet and then developing a chill. When they do start to begin swimming, keep the water luke-warm and put them near a heat source until they dry off.

*You can feed ducklings on Chick-crumbs for the first week or so, and then move them onto mixed corn or grains.

A couple of good books that are very good and understandable for beginners are;

Ducks and Geese - A guide to management, BY Tom Bartlett
The Domestic Duck - BY Chris and Mike Ashton
Both books have a guide to domestic breeds of duck, general health care, enclosures, feeding and nutrition, incubation (natural and artifical) and hatching, and also caring for and raising ducklings.

I also found a few websites that may be able to help;

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/jim55/husbandry.htm
www.indianrunnerducks.com
http://www.feathersite.com//Poultry/Ducks/BRKDucks.html
http://www.liveducks.com/breeds.html

I hope i've helped abit, you'll probably think of more questions in time as you'll constantly be learning. Good luck...

Mel X

Hi Scott,
My name is Pam and I have five Pekin ducks. Mel has covered some excellent stuff for you to consider and resources to visit. Liveducks.com is one of my favorites and I too use that site as a reference quite a bit. I'm relatively new to raising ducks so I'll not try to provide generalities, but give you some info on Pekins. They are the white farm ducks that you may have seen growing up. They are a large duck and are really great pets but they do have a couple of things to consider. They are generally messier than other breeds so they require quite a bit of space. They also grow super fast. What housing you have set up for a 1 week old duckling will definitely need increased by week 3 and so on until full grown size at about 2-3 months. Males are bigger and more aggressive than females and the ratio Mel indicated of 1 drake for 2-3 females is accurate. Think of it as providing a harem for drake.

We live in Tennessee and bought our ducklings at Easter and so we kept them in a pen, in our garage with a heat light until they were fully feathered. You can purchase a heat lamp and bulb at most farm supply stores such as Tractor Supply for around $10. I prefer the red or amber bulbs as they are dimmer than the bright white and the ducklings are able to sleep without a bright light shining in their eyes.

You may also want to think about whether or not you will allow the ducks to free range during the daytime when they are grownups. If you do, you will still need to provide housing for them at night as they will become prey to hawks, owls, foxes, racoons if you do not. I currently use dog kennels that I purchased from Options Plus Kennels online. I like them better than cyclone fencing because you can easily put them into any shape and they are portable. We've moved ours several times and it only takes a few minutes to do so.

Pekins will lay eggs, alot of them, but they are not good sitters so unless you want to incubate them yourself, they will not hatch. So if eggs and more ducklings are a concern, the Pekins might be a good choice. Mine have been laying eggs since the middle of summer and I did incubate the first clutch and hatched one duckling successfully. It was an experience but I don't wish to do it again as it was difficult for me to deal with the ones that did not survive. Now I simply dispose of the eggs.

One final thing I want to stress is that ducklings and ducks need a constant supply of fresh water. This is probably the most important tip I can give you. Ducks have no teeth and therefore use water to make their food mushy. Also, if water is unavailable for an extended period of time they will develop a condition called staggers, and they may die.

One final thing. Welcome to the forum. I have found it to be extremely helpful in learning about my ducks.

Hi Pam,

I've only just learnt what your name was.
I learnt quiet abit about Pekins from the stuff you wrote. I've always kept Mallards, Indian Runners and Muscovys (or Muscys as i call them hehe) and haven't really been involved with any other breeds.
I have limited space currently, and so i can't have too many ducks. I'm actually seriously thinking of renting some land in time to keep my ducks on.

One thing about this message board is that everyone is so friendly, we all obviously have at least one thing in common, ducks.
I enjoy talking to people, it's great to learn new things, and to make friends that have the same interests as me.

Mel X