Bananas!

I don't feed the ducks bananas. ^_^  (although there is a papaya tree across the canal and the wild ducks peck at the hanging fruit in the late summer and devour it).


Since I have so much, I feed bananas to the iguanas. And I make banana bread at least once a month. I am blessed to have this luscious fruit growing in my yard. When they fully ripen, I keep them in the freezer, so when the tree is dormant in winter, I have organic fruit, at the ready.

Feeding Time At The Zoo

As I said, I did quite a bit of reseach on what to feed these ducklings while they are in my care. I am using Purina Start & Grow. I mix 50% feed and 50% water. The instructions say to feed Star & Grow to them for the first 6 months. I supplement their diet with Romaine lettuce. There's really no need for the Romaine (except that they love it) with all the grass they consume and all that it contains. This is not a product endorsement - this is the only starter food my feed store carries. How are they doing on this food? Stay tuned. You aint seen nothin yet. :)

Just Hangin'

The routine around here (duck wise) - was every morning I got up at sunrise and got the babies out of the brooder in the garage. I took them out to the play pen, fed and watered. I cleaned the brooder, washed the towels, and set it up for that night's use. While I worked, they splashed & napped. Other canal ducks wandered thru the yard and checked out the play-pen, peeped at the The Peepers and moved on. If we had a storm, I put a tarp over part of the play pen, to try and emulate the ducklings being protected under Mama's wings.

Such Love Bugs!

Experts - BAH!

Every day I did research. What to feed ducks, when, how, why. Water. Excercise. The "experts" said that the duckies couldn't swim without Mama.

Don't get them near water, except for drinking because they'll sink.


The Engineer, said "They're ducks"! He bought a large paint tray and put it in the play-pen. He barely got the thing out of his hand and they jumped in. PARTY IN THE POOL!

Like a duck takes to water as they say.





(My folks always told me, don't believe everything you read. This is so true here. Go with your gut)

Duck Speak

How are you today? Just "ducky"!

How corny! But it's fun - here are some other quacky things you may need to know, should you find
 yourself in my position. 

o_O

*WTF? = What the Flock?
*Cooped Up
*Lame Duck
*Don't fowl your nest
*And you my fine feathered friend….
*WebTV
*Don't get your bill in a snit
*Goose bumps
*What's good for the goose is good for the gander
*DUCK!!!!
*Silly goose
*Like a sitting duck
*Waddle like a duck
*Lucky duck!
*A quack
*Get your ducks in a row
*Goosed
*Don't get your feathers ruffled
*Water off a duck's back
*The goose that laid the golden egg
*Like a duck out of water
*Like a duck takes to water
*Loose as a goose
*If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck
*Wild goose chase
*Your goose is cooked
*Bottoms up!
*Take a gander
*Going quackers


And my personal favorite:


AFLAC!!!!


^_^

Play Pen In Action

 

This is about 3pm in the afternoon. The baby Muscovy ducks get out of the brooder and the garage! 

Fresh air and excercise. Yahoo! 

My gosh they are adorable. The yellow ducks are Spentie and Angel. I can't tell the other ones apart enough to name them yet. "The Peepers" is working for me so far.

So Now What?

What do you do with 12 ducks, and no mama? You can't just let them run around your yard all day. Cotton Mouths, hawks, raccoons, you name it - not safe. Not to mention - I can't baby sit - I work full time. Plus I have two parents, and 3 cats - one of them sick. EEK!


This is where "The Engineer" comes in.


They need a play-pen so they can be outside during the day. And be safe.

Enter "The Play Pen" ~

One Bummed Dude

As I said, during all of this, I had a sick cat. JB, had crystals in his bladder. After a week at on a catheter, he had to have surgery. He was at the vet's for 2 weeks, spent 2 weeks in solitary and then another week or so with a cone around his neck.


Not a happy baby. :(




                                 

Inside The House

Animals outside, animals inside, ain't we got fun???


So while all of this time and energy is being spent on ducks and lizards, the inside babes need attention too. Cat boxes, food and water, the whole shibang!

Meet "The Boyz".

Birds Do It, Bees Do It.....

Even Iggy the Iguana does it....

My back yard is the Playboy Mansion for beasts. o_O !!!