Care & Feeding of Ducklings
The information on this page is believed to be correct and is based on our own personal experience plus reading many sources on the care of ducks. If you believe something is incorrect, please let me know.
This page is under construction.
Housing:
Ducklings need to be kept confined and warm for the first several weeks of their lives. If they are without their mother, you will have to provide artificial heat. It is possible to buy brooders, but they are expensive and not necessary if you are only brooding a small number of ducks. A nice sturdy box and a good heat lamp works well. Ducks should be kept at around 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the first week of their lives and then you can begin decreasing the temperature slowly. 85 degrees the second week, 80 degrees the third week and so forth. Their brooder must be large enough that there is space for them to move away from the heat source if they feel they need to. The heat source must be far enough away from them that they can not touch it and burn themselves.
We purchased the largest clear plastic "tote" that we could find. (those big plastic boxes you can buy to store stuff in). We used this for a brooder. We placed pine shaving bedding in it. We also provided old T-shirts for them to lay on. They seemed to like that for the first couple of weeks, but be ready to throw the t-shirts away or do some heavy duty laundry :)
We used black lights for the heat lamps so that it wouldn't be so bright for them. We carefully monitered the temperature so that it wouldn't be too hot or cold. The lamps were mounted on the wall a few inches above the brooder. Below is a overhead view of about half of the brooder which shows the feeder and the waterer.
Feeding:
Ducklings should be fed some type of poultry starter food. We obtained a "wild fowl starter" from our local feed store. I have heard that it is ok to use chicken starter foods, but you must be careful of chicken feeds. Some chicken feed is medicated and this medication can be harmful or fatal to the ducklings. The first day or so, the feed should be in several shallow containers so it will be easily found by the ducklings. Within a couple of days, the ducklings will be much more active. At this time you can place one or two deeper feeders in the brooder instead of several shallow ones. If there are too many feeders, the ducklings are likely to soil their feed. The starter food can be fed up to six weeks of age.
Water:
Ducklings need plenty of water. Make sure that you have provided enough drinking water that they cannot run out. Try to place the water so that it is somewhat close to the food, but not right next to it. The ducklings will need the water after every few mouthfuls of food. But if the water is too close, they can get their food wet and spoil the food. Try to make a water container that the ducklings cannot get into. Down is not water repellent, and they can drown. However, they do need to be able to dip their beak into the water to rinse out their nostrils.
This page was last updated May 16, 2000 I will be adding more info soon.
email: roseselene@worldnet.att.net