Today I swapped out the waterer for the full-sized one, removed the duckling feeder, introduced them to the paint tray pool, and to leafy treats. An exciting day for ducklings!

With the previous ducklings, I introduced the pool and treats on day 15, so I’m a couple of days earlier than before, but they seemed ready. I also decided that since the pool is easy to get out of, I could leave it there full-time from the start, instead of only having supervised swims for the first week. I am keeping a close eye on them via the camera, though, just in case. And “swims” is an exaggeration; there’s only about an inch of water in the tray today, so all they can do is wade a little, like they could in the ceramic dish before today, so there is little risk of drowning.

Since they can all reach the feeder tube now, I decided it’d be a good time to remove the duckling feeder too. And as their bills continue to grow, it’s also about time to move them to the full-sized waterer, so they can immerse their full bill to clean it.

The first step was to remove the old waterer and feeder, and the bricks they were sitting on:

Here are the removed ceramic dish, feeder, and waterer, plus the paint tray and ramp I’m about to add, and a kneeling pad so I don’t have to kneel in the muck:

I took the opportunity to muck out the dirty straw, and remove the shelf liners; the ducklings bravely watched from the back, not freaking out as much as the previous ones did:

The full-sized waterer, paint tray pool, wooden ramp, and fresh straw:

I then introduced them to leafy treats, which they checked out fairly quickly:

It didn’t take them long to get excited about the treats; did you see the video?

And they were quick to go into pool, too:

Much more quick than the previous ducklings; I’ve noticed that female ducklings are really into being in water, more so than male ones.

Here are all of them except the Blue Swedish duckling:

Another angle:

Preening and drinking; ducks have a gland near the base of their tail that secretes waterproofing oils, so this Rouen is probably rubbing on that to help spread it (I recently saw a fascinating YouTube video about duck waterproofing):

Today, several pictures of ducklings on top of the EcoGlow, and in the water dish. Oh, and we’re thinking about names for these ducklings; read on for details.

The newest ducklings are all female: one Khaki Campbell, a breed developed in England, so we want a “C” name suitable to that area, to join Clyde and Cora. Plus one Blue Swedish, so we want a Swedish “S” name to join Sven and Sonja. And four Rouens, which originated in France, so want four suitable “R” names, to join Rémy. We have some ideas, but I’d welcome other suggestions, if you have any.

Last night, I spotted one of the Rouens sitting on top of the EcoGlow heating panel:

They’re supposed to sit under it, but seem to enjoy the top more than underneath. This morning, a Rouen and the Khaki Campbell were both there:

A duckling in the water dish — which is fine; it’s there as a bathing intro, to literally get their feet wet on the concept:

But it’s also available for drinking, at least until they splash all the water out:

Watching me:

It’s fun to stand in the dish:

Again on the EcoGlow (and you can see her tongue):

Two:

Today I added a ceramic cat dish to the duck house, as a baby-sized pool from which they can enjoy drinking and wading. Next week I’ll upgrade that to the red paint tray pool, but this is a good start.

Ducklings can drown if allowed in too much water too soon, as they don’t have the waterproofing oils yet. (If they were raised by a mother duck, she would share her oils with them.) Wading in shallow water helps them develop and spread their own oils.

Hey what’s this?

Looks like it’d be fun to step into:

Yep:

My turn:

Mine too:

This is fun!