here are my beautiful mandarin Duck. I love to sit down by their cage in the evening and watch them
For Becky
close-up of daddy
original cage set up
close-up. They are perching ducks so we have oak logs arranged for them to fly up on
babies
flower bed in front of the cage to partially hide the cage from view of the front door
Oh my gosh are they ever beautiful! How many total do you have? They don't try to fly away or do you have them completely caged in? I love the blue kiddy pool! It's perfect!!! Do they come up to you since you are hand-feeding them? Did you hatch them from eggs or get them as babies or full grown ducks?
That is so neat, Donna!
I've been wanting to hatch some duckling and/or chicks in my class. Another class at the school does it every year and we go in and see the babies. They are sooooo cute!!! I just don't have any place to keep them once they hatch and get bigger. That really awesome! I love your water babies!!! :-) Thanks for sharing them with me and everyone else! :-) :-) :-)
NOTE: I posted this before I saw all the photos! I see that the cage is completely closed-in. Your babies are so cute. Do you keep them or sell them or give them away?
This message was edited Jun 9, 2007 9:51 PM
DH doubled the size of the cage before this years babies were born. It is now 15' W x 13' L x 6' H. The pool is now in the new half and the original cage is the dry area with plywood over half for a total dry area from rain over their oak log perches. I have gone from 4 to 9 ducks right now with the 3 one month old babies and more babies due anyday. Only had 2 babies survive last year out of 5. They kept getting out of the cage so I ended up having to put fine mesh wire over the chain link on the lower half. Only lost 1 baby this year so far. Also in the new half we left it grass since they like to nibble it while the old cage is 6" deep with pine straw
This message was edited Jun 9, 2007 9:56 PM
oh Becky they won't eat out of my hand but they don't run from me. If I started hand feeding them worms they might eat out of my hand. I always throw worms in there when I find them. I buy bait minnow and put in their pool once a month and once a week while they are breeding. You should see them go after the minnows. It is to funny. They are spoiled. Their new big rectangle pool has a slide and a seat ROFL!!!!!!!!
Donna - That is so funny! I bet they are a hoot to watch in the pool. How long have you had them? Did you have them at your old house, too? That's so cool to have such beautiful ducks as pets. I've had rabbits, snakes, and rodents as pets, but never ducks!
Didn't have them at the old place. They are something I had wanted for many years. Think is was Febuary 2006 when I got the 4 that were almost 1 year old. I was supposed to release them to the pond when they got used to us lol but Our pond almost dries up a few times a year and I would have to clip their wings to keep them from flying off with their cousins the Wood Duck. I just can't do that to them because then they would be easy prey for hawks, coyotes etc.
Donna - I was wondering why you were keeping them confined in a cage. Now it all makes sense to me. Boy! Don't they have the good life!!!! lol Swimming pool, seating areas, good meals, plenty of shelter, a flower garden right next to their cage, and kind hosts! Hmmmm .... Can I move in, too???? lol
They are such striking ducks in appearance. I would be like you and sit out there with them every day, too! I do that now with my little squirrels and field mice. They have gotten used to me now and I can get about 5 feet away from them and just sit and watch them (while they watch me ... lol) eating and chasing each other around. It's a hoot to watch them! It's so strange.... I haven't seen them on the screen of my porch since a couple days after my cat died. I swear they were doing it just to tease the cat. And my cat Lucky loved it! I think it was a little game they played. Too cute. Miss seeing that now. :-(
Donna,
Those are great!!! Very handsome looking males and lovely females...and those little one are soooooooo cute!!! Don't have just love the way they 'nibble' on whatever is close by. Sad but easily understandable to know they'd make easy picking for coyotes and hawks and such.
Becky...yeppers...squirrels seem to know the limitations of windows and screens. I think they figure out cats and dogs can't get out and they must surely think it's squirrely fun to tease pets.
Whenever I clean out my pantry I gather up the stale cereal and take it with me when I drive around the back pastures in the golf cart. I toss food around the areas they like to congregate. They quickly scurry away when they see me coming but when I drive back around the food is gone...hopefully I'll be able to get some photos of them soon. Have noticed the 'fruit loops' is the first cereal to go...they must have a sweet tooth!!!
~ Cat
to funny Cat. I know the Racoons have a sweet tooth. They love stale Doughnuts and HoneyBuns
Oh gee ....... so now you both are making me seem like the meanie feeding them healthy nuts and seeds! LOL
Here's 2 of my little clowns today chowing down. They kept chasing the field mice off because they don't like to share.
But the mice keep coming back and finally the squirrels decide they'd rather eat than chase mice, so they share nicely. :-)
oh I feed them or shall we say they steal plenty of my good seed. I just throw out stale sweets for the coons. It is not really good for them but it is a treat once in a while
Stale honeybuns and doughnuts...what a happy life your raccoons must lead!!! Would love to see a photo of one muching down on a honeybun...that would make a funny photo!!! Guess next thing is you'll be pouring coffee into a dish so they can dunk their sweetbread into it!!! ROLF!!!
Aarrrghhh...mice!!! Those look awfully big for mice. I remember mice from school...tiny little white ones...cute. Alas, we do have big ones like that and even bigger ones that make nests in the old wood piles. Rarely see them in the light of day...that's something having them come out in the daylight to feed.
I also toss out bird seed and we have deer and wild pig feeders out in the brush...so there's usually lots of ground squirrel holes around those areas. They are good at ferreting away any corn that falls on the ground and is missed by the wild game. Freaky thing is they often take corn kernels down into their burrows and you'll see a big hole at their burrow entrance. Seems the wild hogs must be able to smell the kernel of corn and they start digging into the dirt to try to get to it.
~ Cat