duckling help please (1 Viewer)

A month ago my daughter found an injured duckling on a cycle path by the canal. There were no other ducks around so I am wondering if maybe it was dropped by a gull or something.

I have been feeding it on Bill Oddie's mealworm crumble mix from a pet shop, this has been fine while it was tiny but I am worried that it wont be getting the correct nutrients now that it is older. It has trebled in size and seems healthy now.
I have been supplementing its diet with live meal worms and earth worms dug up from the garden (which it loves)

Does anybody know the very best food to feed it on until its old enough to be taken back into the wild?

Cheers

Try some 'chick crumbs' available from a good pet store, if they are good enough for domestic ducks to ensure they grow correctly then they are ideal for your little chap.

It sounds like you're doing ok, but you could supplement with 'egg food/mix' or 'soft food' (dried egg crumbs) from pet shops, which domestic finches feed their young on http://www.haiths.com/product-Nectarblend-Rearing-Softfood-sfnecble/. Also give it some grain (wheat will do, nice and cheap in pet shops - try it in shallow water and then it should start taking it from the ground) http://www.haiths.com/product-Duck-and-Goose-Mixture-PFDUKGOO/, and give it access to grass and other vegetation, and it will also need grit - let it run around in the garden a bit and turn over some soil so it can find tiny pebbles, or give it a big clod of earth wherever you're keeping it. Give it another few weeks, until it has full wing feathers (if it hasn't already) and then release it onto a pond/lake in a park or nature reserve. It will be pretty tame by now, so it will need easing back into the wild a bit, and a park is the ideal place. it will get a regular feed from visitors, and can drift away when it feels like it. It will need to be outdoors in the sunshine and have access to water to splash about in, in order for the feathers to be waterproof and develop properly. Some kind of run will be ideal. Also, don't handle it. I know it will be cute and tempting, but it needs to be a bit wary and not too tame if it's got any chance at all.

Incidently, how do you know it was 'injured'? And does it still have any injuries? Quite often, ducklings just get lost or left behind when the family moves off. When they're chilled, they can be quite lethargic. Maybe it wasn't injured at all? You probably did the right thing in picking it up though - if you couldn't find the family then it had no chance. I found 2 ducklings like that once, and found the family 200 yards away. I had to underarm throw the ducklings to the far side of the river (they're tough, and can easily handle a fall onto the ground, never mind water). Twice they swam back to me because they didn't land close enough to see the others. But eventually they clocked each other and regrouped.

Thank you very much for your help and suggestions. He seems to be thriving.

I will be releasing him when he has his full flight feathers, I am taking him to an rspb reserve.

Many thanks again

cheers B