proletariatcsp

Yeah he's in the bath tub. This is where his nest box is for now. Twice a day I fill the tub and let him swim for an hour or so. Short but frequent swims for a couple weeks helped take the weight off his broken leg to allow it to heal, while remaining mobile. When I began, his ankle and toes had zero movement. Now he is able to run again and do standing paddles. You wouldn't even know he ever had an broken limb if he didn't lose his balance now and then. Another week or so it should be completely healed.

After watching this little one trailing behind the rest of the brood with a broken leg, I decided to intervene. I took it from its family to heal it's leg. Only, moments later someone came from the bird rescue and nabbed the rest of them. This is a Muscovy ducking, which are very disliked in our community. They do not get rescued, they get destroyed.

Needless to say his leg is healed, but now I am stuck with it. I really enjoy having it. Its just unfair to keep him captive. He is content and beginning to settle into his new environment. I plan to release him when he gets his feathers. Only, by then I'm afraid I will become too atached, as he may also. I don't know what to do, I don't have a yard or any way to keep him safe from the duck haters around here.

Hey yeah, no kidding. My cat sits on the tub watching the duck swim. I'm not worried he will try to get him because my cat is way too afraid of water. And my lab likes to smell and lick him, but I know she'd probably eat him if I let her. Than again I thought she'd do the same to the cat when he was 6wks. We were afraid of that, she just adopted him as her own.

Now the cat thinks he should be treated like a dog. And the poor dog never knew what she was until she spent a week outside with family's labs last year. LOL before then, she hated water and would never lay down outside. She's past all that but she still lays on the back of the sofa.

Taylor

Here's my Aunt's Muscovys in Naples, Florida. These sometimes get hooks in their body and nobody will help them (like you said, they are considered a nuisance).

proletariatcsp

Hey, thanks for posting that Taylor. It is nice that your Aunt likes these ducks too. We would love to be able to keep him, but we just dont have a private yard.

Farmboy

we started with ten last year and now we have atleast 70. I can easily see why they could become a neusance, but we wouldn't trade ours for the world. They are so ugly there cute.