Ducks as pets?

Question

I have 3 year old twins who really want a pet. My husband and I work full time, so I wouldnt want a dog as I dont think its right leaving them alone all day. My kids both love ducks and would like one as a pet, but do they make good pets? I have a garden with a pond and I think it wold be ideal for a pet duck. How do I go about getting one and will it need to have its wings clipped? There are 3 neighbourhood cats. Would they bother the duck?

Answer 1

Ducks can make excellent pets in the right environment. But, as many other answerers have stated they are incredibly messy creatures. They are flock birds, so unless you have the time to be their flock mates, a single bird will undoubtedly be unhappy. It's difficult to sex young ducklings, so you wouldn't necessarily be able to chose the gender. Drakes (males) can become very aggressive. Especially during mating season if he has no females. Also, I wouldn't expect most three year olds would be able to handle a duckling as gently as is required. A lot of ducks are bought as ducklings each year, and a staggering number of those are dumped in local ponds once they lose their cuteness, and begin to make your garden into a quagmire! These deserted pets (if they are able to survive) cause huge problems for native water birds. I would strongly recommend that you find a pet that doesn't require a full time companion, and one that your twins will be able to safely handle. As an aside, all domestic ducks, other than Muscoveys, are flightless. Only the Muscovey, which is actually a South American goose, has the power of flight.

Answer 2

Ducks CAN make good pets. However, there is a lot to learn about them. I'm going to make several points:
1. They are messy little mud factories who tend to turn grass into quagmire.
2. The female ducks are not aggressive, and you can keep only females (not only in pairs as another poster said). They will lay eggs even without a male.
3. How big is your pond?
4. Cats won't normally bother a duck, in fact the ducks will go after the cat in a lot of cases. Dogs, however, are another story and I have heard far too many stories of poultry being killed by the owners / stray / neighbours dogs. There is also foxes, badgers and hawks to think about, more if you live in the USA, like raccoons, opossums, wolverines, bobcats etc.
5. Go read some books about ducks - they are not as simple to look after as it may seem, and they need to eat more than just bread or whatever (seriously, ducks in ponds regularly fed with bread get malnutrition and die).
6. You can get bantam ducks. What are those I hear you ask? Well, they are ducks smaller than normal size ducks. Bantam ducks are simply a size, and there are many breeds with different characteristics to look for.
7. If you have any fish / frogs / toads / whatever else in your ponds then let me just say that ducks like to eat all of the above, as well as slugs and snails (brilliant for the garden :) )

Clipping the wings is a very simple job, but make sure you know which feathers to cut off before you do the job - there really isn't any need for a vet to do this in any bird.

Answer 3

Having pet ducks for kids are a great idea!!
If you dont want them to fly away , then yes you will need to have them clipped. If you are buying from a breeder you will find that they have already been clipped! If you have a pond I would recommened getting ducks called Mandarines they are gorgeous to look at and very hardy!!! They will become tame if you feed them regulary in the same spot each day!! If you go for the usual ducks people go for e.g muskavies , large farm drake kind of ducks you are going to end up with a very muddy garden and very messy!!! Mandarines are smaller ducks and dont turn up the ground as much, they will tend to stay on the water at night, which will keep them safer from cats and foxes.I would recommend maybe getting some small trees put around the edge! as they like to climb, and nest boxes quite high above water!!! Well goodluck if you choose to buy ducks!!!Your kids will love them!!

Answer 4

Why not get them a bunny or a ferret or even a cat?
A duck would be good. Maybe even a goose. The cats will bother a duck. You can usually call a vet and they can tell you where and how to buy an animal. They could also clip the wings. If your kids are three they would probably be happier with an inside pet like a gerbil, hamster, guinea pig, bird, bunny, ferret or cat. I understand not wanting a dog b/c they are more work then the other animals i mentioned but the ferret and cat can be litter box trained and the other animals live in cages. Ask your children. Let them decide but before you do narrow it down to ones you want in your house.

Answer 5

Ducks are very smelly and destructive birds. They will take your nice garden and take all the dirt and put it in the pond, and take all the pond water and put it in the garden. In wet weather they drill into the dirt and make holes the size and length of their head and necks looking for worms and bugs. if you choose a larger size duck, cats are generally not a problem. Hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes, dogs, and every other carnivore are. you can get ducks as day old chicks but generally there is a minimum of about 25 chicks per order (they need the other chicks to keep up their body heat for the journey). If you only want one, wait until just before easter and go to your local farm stores. they usually have a bin of 'chicks' and 'ducks' although they may or may not know what variety of ducks they are. Some larger domestic ducks do not need their wings clipped, some do. Better to err on the side of clipping rather than find out too late that it was needed.

Answer 6

The cats may bother the ducks or the ducks may also scare the cats off. Ducks can be trained as really good pets but watch them they can break skin. You can have them clipped but if you live in a place with cold weather at anytime of the year make sure you have a very warm place for them. My grandpa used to have pet ducks and they did just fine with the children and once they establisghed themselves the other animals left them alone. Sometimes they flew away for the winter and came back at spring. Sometimes they stayed and slid down snow piles. :D

Answer 7

I got Peking when my daughter was 3 yrs old I thought she would be rough with him but she actually carried him around everywhere. I was the one he bonded with as a "mommy duck" he was an indoor duck. I had a harness for him that could have a Pull UP cut in half pinned to it so that when he was walking around the house he wouldn't poo everywhere. He was a very loving duck. He came to his name, was protective of me if I so happened to have a friend that was male inside the fence to my house. You feed a baby duck flock raiser healthy start do not get the medicated version because this is for chickens and that will over medicate a duck. In the winter when they cannot get the nutrition from the grass you need to feed them alfalfa. The yellow ducklings you see are Pekin ducks they are a white duck as an adult which they will get to be full size at about one and a half months. Many people have house ducks and they make great pets. If the duck starts to pinch or bite at people gently grab the beak and tell the duck no. The biting stops about five times of doing this. If one of the children get nipped more than once then the child might have done something to provoke the duck. I plan to get another one after I get over loosing Peking today.

Answer 8

Ducklings are very delicate and may get hurt by your kids accidentally. They even may become crippled for life. (that happened to me- but I took care of the duck anyway)

It would seem it's an easy thing to have ducks as pets but they need a lot of care and attention:

-protecting them from predators, (cats included)
-preventing them from eating dangerous things -they eat everything stands in their way-,
-feeding them the right kind of food,
-you have to clean up constantly, etc) even if you get them when they're adults.
-they may live up to 15 years, so you have to consider doing all the above things for all this time

My opinion: I think the dog is better than the duck. At least at this moment. Maybe if your kids were a bit older.

Answer 9

I had a pair of pet ducks at one time. They live in the yard, and there were cats in the neighborhood; the cats didn't bother them. I'd be more protective with a small duckling, though.
Mine were not very good pets; I think this was partly because they were a pair and bonded to each other. They didn't bite (or hardly), but they were not friendly. The male was friendlier than the female. He would have been more tame, but the female would scold him every time anybody handled him!
I think a single duck could be a good pet for young children, as long as they spent time with it. It will also eat the slugs and snails in your yard.

Answer 10

There are varieties of ducks that are land bound. I am familiar with the Indian Runner that we have in our campus pond. I have never seen them fly. The cats here dont bother them much. But when the stray dogs come, the ducks gang up behind their friend, a huge goose.

Heres a website i found when hunting for ducks ... they even have a section on raising ducks... http://www.hffinc.com/Ducks.htm