Quak Quak

Hello! im the new dad of seven little baby ducks (all born on Thursday 22nd April 2026) im 21 (2005) and am going to be blogging about my experience with my little baby ducks

[the-duck-father]

The birds today :>

[the-duck-father]

This is outdated as they now have a much bigger bath but they loved having this thing as their first semi-perminent birdie bath

Edit: also the fence you see there is finished now, wire right to the bottom and berried 2ft down

[the-duck-father]

Hi!!! I wish you luck with your biddies, I have experience with raising ducks and they are such a mess ^^; I wouldn't trade em for the world though. A quick tip for you as the babies get older— make sure you check the bottoms of their feet for black scabs. Bumblefoot is incredibly annoying to deal with. Whenever I'm dealing with it, I give them foot soaks in unscented epsom salt water for twenty or so minutes, and then carefully see if I can remove the scab or, if it's gotten bad enough, the kernel. If it bleeds and looks raw and you're worried about it staying clean, bandage their lil foot and keep the duck inside for a day or two. And if your babies start looking like they're having trouble walking or have no strength in their legs, that's usually a Niacin deficiency. You can buy drops to put in their water to help with it.

Wishing you the best of luck with your little ones!! They wag their tails when they're happy, so keep an eye out for that if you want serotonin :D

Thanks so much for your message! Bumblefoot is one of the things i havent done much research into but ill definitly add it to my weekly health checks (just spending 5ish mins per duck to check their energy, their eating, their wings, their eyes and their bums for anything off)

For Niascin we were supplimenting their water with a poultry tonic that had extra niascin for them while they were on chick crumb, but after that we transitioned them to proper duck/goose grower/finisher feed, suplimenting with poultry tonic only very occasionally now as their feed has everything they need

Theres so much i wish id known before i took them on- didnt know niascin was a problem until i saw reddit posts on angles wing and splay foot- didnt know you had to take them off starter crum before moving them outside- but now that im confident in their care i love seeing them every day

[the-duck-father]

They also love wagging their tails whenever they think theyre being sneaky OR when they first get let out in the morning OR when i sit down and they can untie my shoelaces

[the-duck-father]

Whoops havent posted in a while

Update- the ducks are loving life

We just sexed them with the pickup test and we have six girls and one boy (flash is the boy, the pretty white one)

They got their proper bath now

[the-duck-father]

Hi!!! I wish you luck with your biddies, I have experience with raising ducks and they are such a mess ^^; I wouldn't trade em for the world though. A quick tip for you as the babies get older— make sure you check the bottoms of their feet for black scabs. Bumblefoot is incredibly annoying to deal with. Whenever I'm dealing with it, I give them foot soaks in unscented epsom salt water for twenty or so minutes, and then carefully see if I can remove the scab or, if it's gotten bad enough, the kernel. If it bleeds and looks raw and you're worried about it staying clean, bandage their lil foot and keep the duck inside for a day or two. And if your babies start looking like they're having trouble walking or have no strength in their legs, that's usually a Niacin deficiency. You can buy drops to put in their water to help with it.

Wishing you the best of luck with your little ones!! They wag their tails when they're happy, so keep an eye out for that if you want serotonin :D

Thanks so much for your message! Bumblefoot is one of the things i havent done much research into but ill definitly add it to my weekly health checks (just spending 5ish mins per duck to check their energy, their eating, their wings, their eyes and their bums for anything off)

For Niascin we were supplimenting their water with a poultry tonic that had extra niascin for them while they were on chick crumb, but after that we transitioned them to proper duck/goose grower/finisher feed, suplimenting with poultry tonic only very occasionally now as their feed has everything they need

Theres so much i wish id known before i took them on- didnt know niascin was a problem until i saw reddit posts on angles wing and splay foot- didnt know you had to take them off starter crum before moving them outside- but now that im confident in their care i love seeing them every day

[the-duck-father]

The buppies live in their semi-permiment home now

They'll always live down the gardens from now, but they're living in their first proper home

Apologies for the ugliness but this is a very function > form type of build

The floor is made of concrete pavers to raise the structure off the floor, offer stability, level out the ground, and prevent rats and other predators from being able to burrow into their house

The walls are made of four main components, 1. Strong wooden beams to hold up the roof, 2. Discarded fences to offer stability and structure to the walls, 3. Roofing board to cover the gaps left by the fences, offer more stability and slight insulation 4. The blue stuff which keeps the walls water resistant, and offer real insulation for the ducks

The roof is a really heavy and sturdy roof that I stole from somebodies shed... all materials were found borrowed or stolen (reduce reuse recycle guys smh)

The whole thing is held together by 6inch nails, various found screws, hopes and dreams and is incredibly sturdy because of it (I have very solid dreams)

E.g. to test it's stability i have personally ran into it, accidentally kicked it, accidentally dropped very heavy wooden beams on it and climbed on top of it several times-- it's also survived very heavy rain and wind while keeping the interior dry

I call it semi-perminent as the end goal is the build them a new home from brand new materials designed with every ducky comfort and ease of maintenance in mind but until I have the materials and the design that's not gonna happen, for now it's going to keep them safe and warm as they grow

The next project for them is to create a fully enclosed run, currently they have a small fenced off area about twice as large as the hutch however they are disinterested in it and would rather stay inside -- the run would be multi-purpose... primarily to give them an outside area that they can have access to all the time meaning i can leave their hutch door open from morning till night while keeping them safe from predators

[the-duck-father]

It's been a while since I posted but here are our guys now

They're about 5 weeks old, only a week or so until they're down at the gardens for their permanent home

They currently live in the cage at the back there but as soon as next week comes they'll be living in their proper hutch with a small fenced run temporarily until their enclosed run is built

[the-duck-father]

So you know that snake that hates markiplier?

We had jackepticeye playing on the living room tv all day- and when we went to turn it off and go to bed the buppies freaked out!

Went up and down stairs four times trying to figure out what was distressing them so much... only to realise they wanted to watch him on the TV again

So thanks sean smh- ducks love you

[the-duck-father]

I know they're in a cage rn, but dont worry, its not perminent, its only for now as theyre too big for their brood box and we didnt want to seperate them

We take care to keep the home at a safe temperature when its cold, and they have their heat lamp at night though during the day we have started to ween them off it

[the-duck-father]

The birds are doing good today- all of the yellow ones are running into my hands so I can hand feed them with snacks and treats

Dooby and duckula are more reserved- they will eat from my hand but wont do the rushing pushing past thing- i gotta bring it to them

[the-duck-father]

Buppies

[the-duck-father]

I think everybody should have a garden at some point in their life-

Properly seeing where food comes from first hand is a uniquely wholesome experience

I dont think its fair to expect literally everybody to have a garden all the time though - if you cant tend it because of disability or injury or lack of time then you cant so its not a problem that you dont - and especially if your getting animals of any kind, you have to be able to go every day

[the-duck-father]

No name has an official name now, theyre called peeps, named by my little sister because they are the loudest and peepiest of the birds

Lil guy has a name now, PEEPS

[the-duck-father]

Im gonna post a lot of updates today since I got a backlog of info and stuff from weeks before they hatched all the way to today

So sorry if the orders a little funky

[the-duck-father]

My first post? You should meet the full roster of my little dudes

We hatched them all ourselves from eggs (myself and my partner) and plan to keep them in an allotment to use for eggs and have as pets to keep me company down there

Youll probably see a lot about my garden alongside these little guys (apologies if your not into that) but thats gonna be their forever home after theyre feathered so its worth posting about)

On this blog your gonna get my basic experience raising ducks and tending my allotment, if you got any questions or asks or even just advice about raising ducks please let me know

The attatched photos are old, being a few days after they hatched and as a result the makeshift brood box you see there in the background has been replaced twice since then

Cheers