Question about Ducks

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I was wondering, if ducks get attached to the first thing they see, would they be really sad if they got taken away from the first thing they saw, like their mother? I was just wondering :)

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:confused:

[dab_20]

Most ducks are taken away from their mother eventually. If they are ducklings, it's best to keep them with the mother because she knows how to raise them better then any human, but if you need to take them the ducklings will be fine.

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Thank you :) I was just wondering because at pet stores they also have baby duckings.

[dab_20]

Most likely at petstores they aren't healthy. If you are going to get them anywhere, I would get them at a place that breeds ducks and then incubates the eggs and once they are born they will give them to you. Those ducks are usually pretty healthy. You can look in farm ads in the newspaper and they usually have a couple buisnesses.

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Okay. But what about from the wild, would that be cruel :confused:

[dab_20]

I think it would probably be cruel to take wild ducklings from there mother in the wild.

[Flatcoatluver]

I wouldn't suggest ducks, from my expeirence of spending tons of money. They stink really bad, there hard to tell their sex when their babies so you might end up with four males like I did. They can get really aggresive. What do you want them for? Pets, meat, breeding, eggs???

[dab_20]

I wouldn't suggest ducks, from my expeirence of spending tons of money. They stink really bad, there hard to tell their sex when their babies so you might end up with four males like I did. They can get really aggresive. What do you want them for? Pets, meat, breeding, eggs???

I think you would know a little more, because I think she's using them for pets. Ours are for breeding and pets, I guess, just not ones you would normally pick up and stuff. It's true, they stink bad.

[Sophist]

I've had ducks before... I wouldn't reccomend pet store ducks. But I also wouldn't worry about them being imprinted on a mother duck, as I can pretty much promise you the first thing they saw was the roof of an incubator and tons of other ducklings packed in around them. Outside of the wild and maybe pet/small farm ducks, I don't know of any commercial producers letting poultry set and hatch their own eggs.

For sure, though, get at least a small flock and not a lone duckling. As far as sexing goes, I have had pretty good luck with Murray McMurray (I think that's how it is spelled) for when I was raising/breeding/showing purebred ducks. Otherwise, I was lucky enough to be able to wander down to a farm and pick up some cool mottled black and white mutt-ducks that were great pets. I didn't have a male duck then, and one of the ducks stole a chicken egg and hatched it and raised this HUGE black astralorp rooster as her duckling.... that was when I was a kid, though. I don't havy any ducks right now.

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I wouldn't suggest ducks, from my expeirence of spending tons of money. They stink really bad, there hard to tell their sex when their babies so you might end up with four males like I did. They can get really aggresive. What do you want them for? Pets, meat, breeding, eggs???

Pets.

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I've had ducks before... I wouldn't reccomend pet store ducks. But I also wouldn't worry about them being imprinted on a mother duck, as I can pretty much promise you the first thing they saw was the roof of an incubator and tons of other ducklings packed in around them. Outside of the wild and maybe pet/small farm ducks, I don't know of any commercial producers letting poultry set and hatch their own eggs.

For sure, though, get at least a small flock and not a lone duckling. As far as sexing goes, I have had pretty good luck with Murray McMurray (I think that's how it is spelled) for when I was raising/breeding/showing purebred ducks. Otherwise, I was lucky enough to be able to wander down to a farm and pick up some cool mottled black and white mutt-ducks that were great pets. I didn't have a male duck then, and one of the ducks stole a chicken egg and hatched it and raised this HUGE black astralorp rooster as her duckling.... that was when I was a kid, though. I don't havy any ducks right now.

Thanks so much :) I was planning on have one, what would be wrong by having only one? Do they just get along better with a flock?