Our Duck Story

Back in May James and I bought 2 ducklings! James had been hinting to me that he wanted to get a pet but I am always resistant to getting any because I don't want to take care of them, or find a sitter when we go out of town, etc... So some how he convinced me to get baby ducks!

This is how small they were back in May:

Now, I have never had a pet in my life! I don't know what I was thinking! After we bought the ducklings and took them home, I realized that I am going to kill these things unless I learn how to take care of them. So I researched everywhere online so I could learn as much as I could about ducklings - and now I am probably a professional when it comes to taking care of ducks :) I think I have fallen in love with these guys.

James and I went to the store and bought poultry food, heat lamp, water feeder, and bedding for the ducklings. They are actually pretty high maintenance as babies. They get fed 3-4 time a day, and I have to change out their bedding every day, and I give them a bath every other day because they throw their food all over!

Back in June, I let the ducks out in the morning to give them some food. As I was placing their food dish down both of the ducks flew into the air and started flying towards me. I initially thought that they were really excited to get their breakfast and were just flying towards the food, but instead of landing by my feet they flew right over my head. Now if you don't know where James and I live, our backyard is a wildlife preserve and then Utah Lake. So when our ducks flew over my head, they continued flying over the preserve. I just remembered watching them fly away, high in the sky over the preserve. It was such a cool experience. Our ducklings had flown a little bit above the ground but never like this! As I watched them fly away it looked like they were not going to come back and for a short second I thought that it would be cool because it would be their time to go, but I got really sad. As I thought this, both ducks flew past each other circling back towards the house and started diving down for a landing. The boy duck aimed for the front yard and the girl was aiming for the back yard. As the boy dived down he landed to soon and crash landed in the tall bushes of the preserve! As the girl reached the back yard, she was still going to fast and as her feet touched the ground she rolled a couple times before standing! Haha, I was laughing so hard. It was the cutest and most amazing thing that I had ever witness. I got to see their first flight and also their first crash landing. Once they landed they started squawking for each other. I ran into the house to tell James and he told me that he could hear me screaming in the back yard. :) I guess I got pretty excited.

To finish our duck story, back in the beginning of July, James and I planned a trip to go to New Mexico. After we booked our plane tickets, I realized that we would be leaving for two weeks and we would have to plan what to do with our ducks. There are a lot of ponds out where we live, but I wasn't very comfortable leaving them there because of all of the wildlife that lives by us. I didn't want to leave them where predators could get them. So then I started thinking about safer ponds where a lot of ducks are, like the BYU pond. I knew that they would be safer in a pond like that. The only thing about taking them to a pond where a lot of ducks live is that ducks are very territorial and I had read a lot about how ducks will kill other ducks. I weighed my options and decided that we should take the ducks to the BYU pond. Once we took them their and sat them down, I noticed the other ducks in the pond were eying our ducks. I thought that our ducks would jump into the water instantly but the didn't they just walked along the edge checking it out. After a while of just watching them, James walked them over to the water to encourage them to get in. Once they got into the water, there was not going back. They started swimming around and checking the place out. It was crazy how the other ducks in the pond were effected by them being there. A girl duck swam over to our girl duck and started pushing against her beak trying to push her head under the water! Once our boy saw what was happening he swam over and charged at that girl duck. It was awesome! Natural instinct of survival kicked in and our boy duck started swimming around all over the pond letting the other ducks know they were there to stay. James and I watched the ducks in the pond fight it out for about 30 minutes until it settled down. It was pretty crazy, haha. James and I left for dinner and after dark we came back to the pond to check on them. They were just swimming around together, still in that pond. We called for them, but when they saw us they swam away - which is a good thing. I know that they are happy and safe :)

I told James that we will never again get wild animals as pets because it is too hard for me. I get to attached to them. Overall it was a great experience and I am glad that we did it.