We briefly covered some overall differences between chickens and ducks in the last post but we wanted to go into more detail about raising baby ducks.
Water is Life
Similar to chickens, you'll need to provide your ducklings with a warm space with access to food and water at all times. The biggest difference here is ducks require water to digest their food and keep clean, so their water dish does need to be deep enough for them to submerge their entire head. This can present a problem since young ducklings do not have their adult feathers or waterproof oils. Usually, the mother duck can share her oils with her babies to help provide some resistance to water, but if you purchased your ducklings or hatched them yourself, you'll have to ensure the ducklings stay dry and do not submerge their body in water.
Tasty Foods
The other key difference with ducks is their feed. Ducks cannot ever be fed medicated feed, which you'll often see used for baby chickens, and they must have a niacin supplement in their diet to protect their health. Without the right amount of niacin in their diet your ducks could develop issues with their legs that can cripple them, leaving them unable to walk. Enlarged leg hocks, bowed legs, or inward-pointing / pigeon-toed feet are all signs of serious deficiencies.
Swimming Lessons
Another quirk to raising ducklings is that they need exercise - specifically swimming lessons daily - to help them build strong legs. When we first started with our original trio - Lucy, Desi, and Chuck - their swimming lessons were a breeze! We filled a small tote with water as they didn't need much space when they were tiny. You'll want to be sure they have access to a low spot where they can stand and rest if they get tired, but your ducklings should take to the water very quickly. They will need a quick towel dry afterward to stay warm and dry.
Unable to resist the cuteness of our trio, we jumped head first into duck ranching and had to really step up when we had 12 more ducklings delivered to our local post office. The ducklings were growing quickly and very quickly outgrew their small practice tote. To make wrangling 15 ducklings a little easier on ourselves we set up a temporary yard with plastic poultry netting and a small baby pool with rocks for the ducks to get in and out with (they can't use ramps as well as chickens). We'd highly recommend setting up a space outdoor space for your ducklings as it will allow them to swim and sunbathe without constant supervision.
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