My kids found a baby duck?

Question

It was wandering around on a bike trail by our house, so they brought it home. Should we keep it? How do you care for it? Or is it better off at a petting zoo or something?

Answer 1

Caring for it at home is fine if you have a safe place for it to live.  Something that will keep it warm and cool respectively, and out of the reach of other animals.  Put hay or straw (straw is cheaper) down for bedding and to act as an absorbant.  They will eat finely chopped fruits or veggies, or bugs and worms too. (Nothing too big, hes got no teeth yet) Or unmedicated chick starter or duck starter.

DO NOT FEED them whole grains, onions, dry bread, wild birdseed or caged birdseed. And of course they need water, but not too deep, or they will drown in it (I know, they are ducks, right?!?)  

We have a baby chicken whos brothers and sisters died and he is the only one left.  We didnt want him to die of loneliness, so he has become our pet - almost like a dog.  He follows us around and will jump up on our shoulder when he's lonely.  He sleeps in his cage at night, and in the morning we let him out and he always stays close by with in sight of us.  The kids have a greta time with him.  Let them keep him, He'll be ok!

Answer 2

You can get a small kids plastic pool, for it to swim in.  Go to the pet store and buy it some duck, chicken feed.  They also like pieces of bread with water near by.  My kids did the same thing once and this is what I did.  When the duck got real big, I finally had to take him to a place near our house that had a pond.  He just became to messy pooping all over the patio for me to work all day and then clean up every night after him.

Answer 3

When I was a kid I actually snatched an egg from a nest and it hatched the next day (lucky me). It followed me around like a loyal puppy, it was adorable, i took it everywhere. My mom had me soak dog food in water until it was squishy and i fed him that, when he got big enough he ate the dog food as whole kibble (they were smaller and flat, not big round balls). He grew up super healthy and very pretty. But when he got big enough we had to make him an outside pen (instead of the cage I had in my room) and then we let him roam free in the yard when he was an adult. We had a canal across the street so he'd go swim and come back any time.