The first Winter Ducklings have arrived (photos)
16 June 2017
Meet Adriel and her ducklings. Adriel hatched these little cuties almost a week ago. With temperatures where they hatched (North Loburn) dropping below zero at night, they had little to no chance to survive the cold weather long enough to get their adult feathers, so they have joined the rest of my Ducky family in Eyrewell Forest at 'Ducktopia'.
I am really hoping there are not any more winter ducklings, however my old neighbour in North Loburn said a number of other female ducks are displaying broody behaviours (ducks have quite distinctive quacks and body language that they only display when either raising young ducklings or incubating eggs).
These guys are spending their nights in one of my duck houses, with my only heat pad keeping them warm. So help is needed to purchase the following, both for these ducks, and for any others that may arrive. Without your help I will not be in a position to help any more winter ducklings and that does unfortunately mean that any others which hatch before spring will almost certainly die before reaching a week of age.
Urgently needed are:
At least one more pet head pad
Money to purchase materials to build a covered run (polythene) to give mums and ducklings an outdoor area where they can spend the days and be sheltered from wind and rain. Wet and windy weather is a real killer and unfortunately mummy ducks just will not willingly go indoors when the weather gets bad, so if am not there all day every day to herd them inside then lock them there in bad weather, they have to either be locked inside a small house every time I am not there in the day, or left out when I am away and hope they are ok....
The mother ducks do not do well if locked inside (not surprisingly, as they are a wild animal) and a mother duck locked inside a small house during daylight hours will fret and may abandon her ducklings, or inadvertently injure them trying to escape. So I would like to build a sort of cover/run, which has clear plastic polythene sides and top instead of wire netting. Something I could place in front of the door to their house on days where the weather is not looking great, and that way mum and babies have an outdoor area they can be in, which will not be windy and where the babies will stay dry if it rains.
Ducklings are not waterproofs ike ducks, their waterproofing does not come in until they grow adult feathers. Until then they have some waterproofing from their mums feathers, but it is limited in how well it keeps them dry. In rainy weather ducklings not covered can very quickly get saturated, and once this happens they usually die, often within minutes.
please donate. Or if you have a pet heat pad you no longer need, or any thick clear plastic that you could donate please contact me via the facebook page or text 020 406 41485