If you live in a large wooded area, have a pool, or live in a remote location, you’ve probably had a family of ducks wander onto your property and visit for a few hours. While it can be fun to watch baby ducks play in your yard, sometimes mother ducks abandon their ducklings, leaving you with a sticky situation on your hands.
As humans, it’s often our instinct to swoop in and rescue an abandoned duckling. However, without proper care and equipment, ducklings often perish without the necessary love and affection. If you are caring for an abandoned duckling, you must have all the information to make sure your duckling has a long, happy, and healthy life.
Below is some guidance for caring for an abandoned duckling.
What To Do With Abandoned Baby Ducks?
Sadly, even domesticated ducks abandon their children. This happens when something scares the mother, whether it be a loud noise, disruptive humans, or another animal. The mother flies away and won’t return until she deems it safe. If too much time passes, the mother may fly away and never return.
If you notice that one of your ducklings is abandoned by its mother or a duckling has stumbled into your yard alone, you must wait before taking action. A duckling has the best chances of survival when they are with their mother, so you don’t want to interfere and have the mother fly away permanently.
Once you’re sure that the mother has orphaned its duckling, bring it to a wildlife rescue habitat, or you can try to care for it on your own. However, keep in mind that caring for a duckling is challenging as they require a lot of care and attention.
If you are considering adopting an orphaned duckling, make sure to purchase the proper materials and consult with an expert, so the duckling has the best chances of survival. It’s also imperative to check your local and state guidelines as many states deem it illegal to raise a wild animal.
Do Baby Ducks Die Easily?
Unfortunately, when ducklings are young, they can die fairly easily. They are vulnerable to weather shifts because their down feathers are not fully developed (down feathers are the element that insulates ducks and keeps them warm).
Although they love water, when they are young, ducklings have not learned how to swim, so they are very susceptible to drowning. They also make easy prey for various predators, and the emotional trauma of being separated from their mothers can cause ducklings a lot of stress. As a result, these factors severely impact their health and well-being.
Luckily, you can take a lot of precautions to make sure your duckling survives into adulthood. Creating a brooder with the proper temperatures is an excellent first step to ensuring the health and safety of your baby duck.
Bonding with your duck is also a great idea as ducks are very social creatures. Bonding helps ease the stress of being separated from their mother. You can also get your baby duck more ducks so that they have a sense of camaraderie and support.
Survival Rate
If you are a realist, you may be wondering what the survival rate of ducklings is. Surprisingly, the survival rate of a duckling with its mother is only 30 to 50 percent.
When ducklings are abandoned, their chances for survival drop considerably. It’s very important that if you have the option to give the duckling back to the mother, you should do so. Otherwise, the odds are high that the duckling will not survive without its mother.
Sometimes, mother ducks will adopt other ducklings. A duck that already has babies will adopt abandoned ducklings if they are roughly the same age as her ducklings. It’s a little unknown why this happens. One proposed theory is because the mother duck cannot tell the ducklings apart or because she already has powerful instincts in place.
How long does a mother duck stay with her ducklings? Typically, ducklings remain under the protection of their mothers until they are roughly one and a half to two months old. Once the ducks have grown their adult coats, learn how to swim, and know what to eat and what not to hear, ducks will separate from their mothers.
How Do You Save a Dying Baby Duck?
If you notice that your baby duck is exhibiting fever, runny nose, watery eyes, or is losing feathers, your duckling may be sick or dying. While this is a scary realization, if you remain calm and follow the proper protocol, you drastically improve the chances of saving your duckling.
The first step is to quarantine your duckling to ensure that whatever they have isn’t caught by your other ducklings or other pets. Even if you’re confident your duckling isn’t contagious, you can never be too safe if you have other pets or other ducklings.
The second step is to hydrate. Like with any living creature, when ducks get sick or are dying, they’re often dehydrated. Water is essential to equipping their bodies with the strength to fight off disease. Therefore, making sure you hydrate your duckling is a critical step to saving their life.
The third step is to call a vet and take them in for an appointment. Avian vets are a little harder to track down, so when you first adopt your baby duckling, research the nearest vets in the area. This way, if there ever is a problem, you can save yourself a lot of time and stress by having your vet’s number and information ready to go.
Taking them to the vet to get a diagnosis and medication is important if your duckling is exhibiting signs of illness. There can be many things wrong with your duckling, and it’s always better to have a reliable medical diagnosis.
What To Feed Baby Ducks In An Emergency
Again, if your baby duck has a medical emergency, the first step to take is to feed your duckling water to make sure they’re hydrated. If your duckling has difficulty drinking, try adding electrolytes to the water.
The vet will have a clearer idea of what is wrong and have a better idea of what to feed your duck during this emergency. Typically, baby ducks need to be eating non-medicated duck starter with powdered vitamins.
Final Thoughts
Caring for an abandoned duck is a tricky but rewarding task. Whether your duckling was already domesticated and abandoned by its mother, or you found your duckling orphaned in the wild, taking the proper steps to ensure your duck is healthy is essential for improving its chances of survival.
Make sure to keep proper temperatures in your baby ducks brooder as they won’t be receiving the proper amount of heat from their mothers. Baby ducks require much care, so always chaperone your baby duck when it tries to go swimming or running around in your yard.
Lastly, have fun with your duckling! Baby ducks grow up fast, so make sure to savor the moments with the newest addition of your family by cuddling your duckling, taking lots of pictures, and showering it with love and affection.
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