Hiya, I just joined the site as i can't find information anywhere on a situation i have at the moment ! !
I guess id better explain if i want to get anywhere ! lol!
Up until recently, we had two pet Call Ducks, Barry and Vera ! about about a year old. Vera kept laying eggs all around the garden and abandoning the nests and making new nests. Having been told that ducks don't make very good mothers, my partner took 4 eggs to his fathers house for one of my father in laws chickens to sit on.
Anywayyyy......
to cut a long story short, Vera managed to sit on a nest of her own with about 5 eggs after this for about 3 weeks and then she dissapeared and the eggs had been eaten. We were all really upset about it esp the kids as she was a pet
we are assuming it was a fox.
Yesterday my Father in Law called to announce that one egg hatched and he had a little yellow duckling for us to pick up and take home.
So we picked up the duckling and the chicken, because as far as the chicken is concerned this little baby is hers ! and the baby thinks the chicken is its mum. which is fine i dont mind having the chicken with the duck until its old enough. However i am unsure that the chicken can raise the duckling properly as im unsure as to whether a duck feeds differently from birth etc needs to be taken into water etc.... correct me if im wrong.... i could well be ! i really have no clue whatsoever!
i did buy some starter crumbs and dampened them, took the duckling into the house to introduce them to him, and he ate a tiny bit. i also put him in a tupperware of shallow water. then went and put him back with the chicken. At the moment he is living in a hutch with the chicken in my shed...do i take the duck away from the chicken and raise him myself or do i leave him and he will be fine? or do i just take him away from time to time to feed and introduce water etc? any advice would be so very much appriciated! thanks for taking the time to read!!!!