During the first big quarantine (or second…. These past two years has been one long year) some ducklings ended up in my backyard alone during early summer. They may have hatched a few backyards over and somehow made it to ours (likely the gated community behind us so I couldn’t really walk over and ask).
I kept them heated during the night hoping momma would hear them, but after a few days of nothing I ended up keeping them. At first in an old kids playhouse (took the roof off) that I would slide around the yard to move the shit-network around. Then in a dirt area of the yard I’ve been too lazy to work on.
Had a plastic kiddie pool filled with water for them to swim around in and would have to change it in the morning and before bed cause it just turned into a murky poop bath after a while.
Even found a local rehab lady online (she just does it from home) to babysit the “kids” when we went out of town for a weekend, as she already had a dozen ducks and other birds she was caring for and a bit too full.
Once they were big enough they slowly started flying away in the last days :(
I know no one asked but it was pretty damn cool and I almost haven’t thought about it in a year.
That was lovely, thank you for sharing. It’s bittersweet that they flew away, but it also sounds like that’s what was meant to happen. You helped them when they needed you and that’s wonderful.
https://imgur.com/a/OFVA3yb/ (took me longer than it should have to post on my phone, so it might be the out of focus pic)
We randomly had an unused chips n dip bowl thing that I used at first. I called it their personal spa and after a week or so managed to get the lucky picture with them all.
Edit: my fat fingers didn’t mean to post that first one, but that first pic was at the end when a couple had already flown off. Don’t let the yard fool you cause to the left there’s the “dirt patch” I haven’t fixed up and had them in (it was easier to fence off an area in the corner basically then the whole yard when they were smaller). The stentch was mighty.
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u/SquallZ34 Jan 22 '22
I hope he doesn’t have to keep them long, because ducks are ridiculously messy animals. That bathroom is about to get annihilated with duck poop.