I need Your Opinion (Again!) ASAP

Hi Ash,

Even if you just have dogs in the neighborhood, you want to make sure the pen is secure -- including a roof. Do you have hawks? They can kill a duck in no time flat -- our Quackers is terrified of them. She is constantly watching the sky and she'll come running to me when she sees one!! (I must look like quite the fool: waving my arms and "shooing" the BIG BAD MEANY HAWK away!! :D

I just came in from cleaning Quackers pen a bit. Yes, you need to clean the poop -- lots of different ways to do it. We line her pen with a bunch of hay in the winter (although we're going to switch to straw next time I hit the farm store -- it's supposed to be better because they won't be as tempted to eat it -- which could cause an impacted crop ... <ouch!>

So I just clean off the top layer of hay and out goes the poop!

In the summer, I hose things down more. Since it's a chain link enclosure, and it's sloped a bit, the dirty poopey water just runs down and fertilizers the grass. Good deal!

However you do it, it's important to keep it clean -- and to keep the bedding dry. Ducks can get sick from the mold that spawns in the wet bedding. We have her pen covered with several tarps -- I also put plexiglass panels over it for the winter. That way she can still see out and it feels like "outside", but it keeps the wind out and also the rain and snow.

Another thing to be cautious of is any shiny metal foreign object (coins, screws, staples, wire, etc). Ducks will eat it and it can kill them. It's really sad and easy to prevent if you know up front. Just be careful when you work on the pen to pick up all the nails and stuff.

Quackers eats duck chow. We get it at the feed store and it's relatively cheap. 25 lbs bag for less than $10 ... and she doesn't eat that much. I supplement it with greens, tomatoes, pears, apples, carrots and some corn. Have to watch the corn, since it's fattening ... but in the winter I think the extra fat is probably good. Other treats are mozzarella (she LOVES IT!!!) and meal worms (she TOTALLY loves them ... I get them from www.thewormman.com -- way cheaper than local pet stores and they have good service).

You could get the feed the web, too, if you didn't have a local place. It would probably cost as much to ship as it does for the feed. Not sure .... but you want to use duck chow, not something like medicated chicken food -- that's not good.

We have a great e group at yahoo where there are others who can tell you a lot more. The mom of Nibbles the duck (a former pet of the day ... Nibbles, I mean, not mom) is on that group ... that's I got on here, too. You can join us and find out more duck info here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/petducksrus/join

I hope that helps. Ducks are GREAT pets!!!

deb

I fell in love with Quackers and all of your pets when I went to your website, Quackersduck. :)

Ash, you can find duck feed at the local feed store/farm store. In my area you can get a 50 pound bag of feed for $5!!

Hey, take some pictures if you ever get a chance! It would be nice to see the cuties in their nice house!!! :D :D

hey all,

just realized I made a boo boo in my post about the meal worms ... I get them from here:

www.wormman.com

if you put "the" in it (like I did first time) you get a different site ...

oops!

deb (that's me ... "quackers ducks" is our duck!!

;)

Hey Logan!

I saw the blinking pics of your pets next to your name. How did you do that???

the blinking one of your yellow lab looks JUST LIKE my sister's yellow lab, Casey! She was visiting with us for a week when they sister and family went to Florida. She's an OLD lab, but still sweet!

My sister complains that Casey is incontinent alot ... both #1 and #2 (to be polite :D ) ... we didn't have as much of a problem with that when Casey was here ( we live in the woods and she could go out with with our dog and just hang out and poop whenever the mood hit her)

do you have any suggestions/tips about older labs and incontinence problems???

thanks!

deb

ps ... I will see if I can post a pic of Casey ... you'll see your dog's twin!!

hi again,

here's Casey .... yellow lab look-alike!

She's cute -- but NOT as cute as our Rugby ... part lab, part whatever happy mut!!

:D
deb

Casey is so cute, Deb!! Actually, if you look at my signature, rather than my avatar (which is quite old), you can see our whole gang. The "lab" you saw is actually one of our Golden Retrievers. We now have 3 Goldens, but do have an older Yellow Lab lady, Murphy (who turned 14 in February). I love them all!!!! I figure they are all "cousins", anyway, being Retrievers and so lovely! I know that Cookiebaker(Anna) and Tatsxxx11 (Sandra) will love seeing Casey too, though because they both have Yellow Labs, Malone and Star, respectively! :)