Ducklings

[Carrie]

 

Couldn't catch em on camera, but have you seen how fast those legs go when a duckling needs to catch up fast to mum? It's like a cartoon turbo whizzing duck!

[Christine]

The ducklings (?) of Great Crested Grebes are really funny too because their legs are so far back on their bodies. They look as if they have little outboards when they are wizzing about.

[Guest]

Just by our home there are some people who live on a residential wide beam. On Tuesday of this week they rescued a day old duckling that had been abandoned by its mum. I was talking to them earlier tonight and the duckling was running about all over the girls arms, head and neck and has really taken to life aboard. The duckling which they have Christened "Tuesday" lives on a staple diet of scrambled egg.

[dacaB]

A few years ago I saw a Duck with ducklings trooping down the road towards me (I was driving home from the 'school run')

Mum and the first half dozen ducklings jumped into the long grass to the right and struggled on towards a pond about 100mtrs away.

 

The dozy one at the back fell down a drain, right between the thick iron bars.

 

I stopped my bus, jumped out and stooped to look down the drain.

 

The duckling was paddling about at the bottom. I could see the huge sewer exit, it looked like the entrance to the Blackwall tunnel.

 

I grabbed the drain cover and ripped it out of it's 'hole', almost dived into the drain head first and grabbed the duckling by its legs as it was entering the Blackwall.

 

The ungratefull bird bit me on the hand as I lobbed it into the long grass, it landed about third in line. Maybe the dozy one is still towards the front, I hope so.

 

As it happens I would be bitten everyday for such a satisfying result.

[Howard]

Just by our home there are some people who live on a residential wide beam. On Tuesday of this week they rescued a day old duckling that had been abandoned by its mum. I was talking to them earlier tonight and the duckling was running about all over the girls arms, head and neck and has really taken to life aboard. The duckling which they have Christened "Tuesday" lives on a staple diet of scrambled egg.

 

It won't be getting any of the nutrients it needs to survive from scrambled egg ....

 

Year before last , i brought a duckling up from 1 day old to adulthood at the lock ( it was lost by it's mother in the barge lock at night , and would certainly have died , we tried to return it the next day but it was rejected ) following research and advice, i fed it on 'chick crumb' and iceberg lettuce .... the chick crumb is similar to what people feed partridges when they are raising them and can be bought from a good pet shop or animal food supplier ....

 

We still see the duck from time to time around the lock , we ringed her initially but it has since come off , however she recognises myself and Danny , another one of the Teddington crew , and will fly directly out of the lock and walk around with us at times ....

[Sir Nibble]

My missus adores the fluffy little things. Last week I called down to her in the boat....

"You know you always wanted to stroke a duckling? there's loads of them here, would you like me to kill one for you?"

I was only joking of course, but there was damn nearly a lynch mob formed on the towpath!

Coot and moorhen chicks are if anything even cuter, being like little fluffy black golf balls.

[StoneHenge]

We rescued a baby duck on Sunday which had just hatched and when it went into the water with it's mother, there were eight of them, six that looked like the picture in this thread, and two yellow ones. The dad immediately killed one yellow one and left this one for dead.

 

We rescued it and had been looking after it until this morning. It died unfortunately but we were warned it might happen. We were quite gutted as I had really fallen for the little chap/chapess, and it was such a sweet thing. We might get another one (but from a proper place and a few weeks old) unless we find another abandoned or rejected one. We had the duck crumb and everything. Such as life.

 

Miss his chriping already.

Edited April 25, 2007 by StoneHenge

[Purple Fairie]

Oh, that's sad, sorry Stonehenge.

 

Smudge found a piglet on Saturday night!

[Carrie]

Heard an interesting thing on't radio yesterday, about females having multi-partners. Even if birds get mobbed by lots of males, it seems they can select which one fathers their chicks, by ejecting the sperm straight after, without the male knowing! Ha! I feel sorry for those poor ducks being half-drowned by three males at once, so it's good to know they retain some control!

[Bones]

ducklings are just about the only thing that make me feel even vaguely maternal, I even go weak at the knees when I see them, they are just so cute.

[BlueStringPudding]

Ha! I feel sorry for those poor ducks being half-drowned by three males at once, so it's good to know they retain some control!

[Tullz]

Oh, that's sad, sorry Stonehenge.

 

Smudge found a piglet on Saturday night!

 

How on earth did he find that? Come to think of it - where the hell did it come from?

 

And, prey tell ... what have you done with it?

[Carrie]

Is Smudge a truffle by any chance? They're great at finding pigs.

[StoneHenge]

I do miss the little fella, but my daughter took it pretty hard. Really hard not to get attached to something so cute isn't it?

 

So we have promised once we have finsihed the refit in a couple of months that we will get them one from a children's farm we go to, as they hatch all year, are used to people, and if we have one a few weeks old, at least we should be past the critical survival time, and at £2.50 they are hardly an expensive pet, and we have a ton of duck crumb to use!

 

The step son called last night as he was the one who pulled it out of the water, he's 12 and he said he was just phoning up to make sure we knew where to pick him up from on Friday, then followed it by 'Oh, and jusr rang to see how the duck was (no name intentionally), and I told him it had died, and he said 'well, I knew it wouldn't make it' , but I knew he was probably quite upset. Even a 12 year old boy putting on a brave front told me that!

 

So we will be having one as a pet, and believe me the little thing will be spoiled rotten!

[Purple Fairie]

How on earth did he find that? Come to think of it - where the hell did it come from?

 

And, prey tell ... what have you done with it?

 

he drives a taxi at the weekends and was taking some people home to one of the villages at about 2 in the morning when he found said piglet in the middle of the road. he dropped the fair off but conscience got the better of him so he went back to find 'piggie'. he was in the same place, looking very sorry for itself, and only about a week old so he picked it up and put it in the car. what he thought he was going to do with it, who knows? quite by chance, when passing the vets, it was open! so he dropped it off there explaining what had happened.

 

they have since found someone to adopt it, it is well and feeding every 3 hours so good news all round! woo hoo!

[StoneHenge]

he drives a taxi at the weekends and was taking some people home to one of the villages at about 2 in the morning when he found said piglet in the middle of the road. he dropped the fair off but conscience got the better of him so he went back to find 'piggie'. he was in the same place, looking very sorry for itself, and only about a week old so he picked it up and put it in the car. what he thought he was going to do with it, who knows? quite by chance, when passing the vets, it was open! so he dropped it off there explaining what had happened.

 

they have since found someone to adopt it, it is well and feeding every 3 hours so good news all round! woo hoo!

 

Ahhh, at least it's got a home now. Good news there.

[Carrie]

Want a lovely pet anyone? Please pop along to your local battery farm and buy a couple of their young chickens and save em from a life of complete misery. Me and my brothers did this when I was a kid. We got 6 each (18 in all) and some couldn't stand up when were released on our small-holding - they didn't know how to use their legs! The following year, you wouldn't have recognised them - big, busty and beautiful, strutting about the fields like they owned the place.