Help me name the duckling!

[Queso]

I found a little duckling wandering the barn isle today. I looked all over for his mother, but no ducks live anywhere near the barn and I couldn't just turn him loose to find her because the barn dogs would kill him in a heart beat. So now I have a pet duck! lol He's living in a spare stall for now. He looks like he's only a week or so old (all down still)

He (or she, I don't know) needs a name though! The barn owner and I have been brainstorming, but we can't think of anything thats not tacky lol. So far we've come up with Lucky (cheezy I know, but it's a miracle that he didn't get squished by a horse or eaten by a dog) Daffy, and Quackers. As you can see, we seriously need your help naming him lol. The names need to be gender neutral (unless someone knows how to find the gender of a duckling?) but other than that we're open to anything. Also, if anyone has any tips for rasing a duck we would be gratefull. At the moment its eating wildfoul starter feed and living in about a 2' by 3' section of a horse stall with shavings for bedding and a bowl of water to drink and to swim in.

[SarahCun]

XD Cute! My friend has a pet duck, but it's slightly out of place here in the suburbs of a large city.

I think Lucky fits nicely^^

[Tanitsja]

wiki says the following

[img]Sexing

It can be difficult to determine the gender of the young ducklings due to the lack of external genitalia or other differences. Venting is one common method. This entails gently squeezing the duckling to cause faeces to be expelled, which forces the cloaca to open slightly, permitting the sexer to view the sexual organs. However, these are almost undifferentiated in hatchlings.

As a male duck matures it acquire a curled tail feather called a drake feather, and their vocalisations become much weaker. Coversely, the female develops a loud quack. Venting is also easier when the ducks' genitals are fully mature but is not necessary because of the readily apparent external differences between males and females.[/img]

Lucky is as good a name as any actualy and gender natural

Also have you tried name generatiors, it will give you things chategoricaly, i used one and set it to historical names for pets

one i got that i liked i then run through wiki for more info on the name

Avalon is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend, famous for its beautiful apples. It first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical account Historia Regum Britanniae ("The History of the Kings of Britain") as the place where King Arthur is taken to recover from his wounds after his last battle at Camlann, and where his sword Caliburn (Excalibur) was forged. The concept of such an "Isle of the Blessed" has parallels in other Indo-European mythology, in particular the Irish Tír na nÓg and the Greek Hesperides, the latter also noted for its apples.

Just struck me fitting for the situation if you wanted something less common then lucky per say. And Avalon can work both for male and female

[Cecelia]

If you need any info on raising ducks pm me.I have gleaned a little bit of information from the New Duck handbook.lol
Avalon is a wonderful name.I really like it but if you don't then I have many other name ideas.
Mystery
Mackenzie
Chick
Friday (the day you found him)


If you want any more pm me.I'll try to be of as much help as possible.Meanwhile you might want to dig up some worms.Chicks and Ducklings love em.He might need a temporary pen made for him to avoid being stepped on by the horses.Who knows the mother might come around soon.Good luck with your new addition.You might want to contact someone who has had experience with sexing ducks before.I'm so excited for you.Please post pictures if you decide to keep him.

[Tanitsja]

even if the mom did come around the risk is she wouldnt want the duckling back after several days when it smell of human, she migth not recognise it, animal use smell to identify other animals

[Misty Glen]

according to a keeper at the zoo i used to work at, birds actually have a very poor sense of smell, and the story that if you handle a baby bird the mother won't want it back because it smells of human is a complete myth. mostly people just tell it to children to keep them from picking up every baby bird they find. even if the mother sees you holding the baby bird, she'll still take her young back. so if you see the mother around i would suggest you try to reintroduce the baby to her. birds mostly recognise their young by sound rather than sight or smell, so there's a good chance she'll take it back.

[Tanitsja]

ah may be a missunderstanding based on well animal animal does like the type humans have most knowledge and experience with as cats and dogs and whatnot

[PinkStar]

I think.. Taffy, Puddles and Chicky

[Cecelia]

Eek!!!!!
I just reread the first post.If the baby is as young as you say please be careful with the bowl of water.My friend's baby chicks have drowned in a couple inches of water.maybe it's different with ducklings but I'd be careful.

[mash]

I personally wouldn't worry too much about the duckling drowning. They have a natural instinct to swim (even at that age) as long as the water isn't TOO deep that is (better be safe than sorry).

I have very little experience of ducklings. However what I used to do is bed the duckling on hay, but shavings sounds fine, feed it chick crumbs lightly soaked in water (most the time ducks food is watered down) and gave it a small bowl of water to drink/paddle in.

Unfortunatly that is all I know, and not very good advice

But good luck with him/her. They can make fab pets

[Tanitsja]

yeah ducklings and other water birds pretty much can swim from birth, the water is the safest place for them when out of the nest

the fact you found it out of the nest means its more then likely to make an exelent swimmer, we used to go to a pond when i was little, and we got a pond at school and i seen the ducks out there with the ducklings already

so by the timing i would say the bowl shouldnt posses any danger at all as long as there is a way to get out of it

[Queso]

Wow guys, thanks for all of the support! Don't worry about the water, the bowl is very shallow, its only about an inch in the deepest part and he can easily hop in and out.

We moved him into the barn owner's house to prevent it from catching a disease from all of the barn swallows and finches that live in the barn. We also got him a girlfriend to keep him company! I don't actually know if she's a girl or not, but we've named her Daisy because she will grow up to be white (if it turns out to be a boy we'll change it to Donald). She's only 2 days old and is a bit bigger that he is, so I'm guessing that he was only a day or so old when I found him. Poor little guy. He and Daisy are already imprinted on the barn owner and me, they cheep like crazy whenever we leave them and will follow us around. They love to be hand fed, so I will deffinatly have to try and find some worms for them.

I like the name Avalon, but I already know a horse named that so it wouldn't work out. I really like Friday, it's unique. I'll have to discuss it with the barn owner. She kind of likes the name Rocky, but there is a horse here already named that so it should be easy to change her mind.

It sounds like they might be to young for us to sex them, Friday (I really love that name!) is a mallard so it will be easy to tell once he gets his plumage in so I'll probably just wait. As for Daisy, I might see if I can try sometime next week once she's had a bit of time to grow.

[Cecelia]

Glad to know he's doing well and glad to know that you like the name ideas.Please keep us updated on how he's doing. Ducks are so adorable maybe you can post pictures soon.