Introducing Pippy, the smallest of her litter passed onto us by a friend. She’s about ten weeks old and very little and dainty. This is a photo from the first time she’d ever been outside. We will be taking Oscar to the vets to be castrated and then introducing her as his companion. The ducks are not impressed.
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(8/365) When we put the ducks to bed, sometimes Alice decides she’s going to climb back out the window…
(4/365) We took the silly banana Alice indoors for a bath. She sits around for about twenty minutes until she decides it’s okay to like the odd people-tub.
The hardest part of letting an animal into your life is losing them. Their lives are so short in comparison to our own. The duty of being their parent or owner, however you see it, is to make their journey through life as enjoyable as possible. Monty was born on the 31st of May 2012 and died on the 26th of January 2013 from a suspected hormonal seizure. I can only say it wasn’t long enough. He was passed on to us with his sisters Bea and Alice at eight hours old, Monty at only 6 hours. We were told he needed help to get out of his egg, then that his mother did not think he would live and rejected him. For the early part of his ducklinghood he remained half the size of his sisters, and we were praised for keeping him alive. His weight started to snowball and soon we had the most handsome, gentlemanly drake we had yet the pleasure of meeting. I thought it only appropriate his final photograph on the blog was one with Alice. If I have ever seen romance between two ducks it was these two. Despite Alice’s sight problems we knew he would look after her, he would always herd her where she needed to be. The girls were so quiet after his death and are still not their usual selves. Out of the six siblings Monty, Bea and Alice left behind, three then passed away. We are certain he would not have lived without us, and we would probably not have met him or his siblings without the also untimely death of Angelina, who was also the smallest of her own clutch. My partner joked as he drove us to the crematorium that I should stop asking for the runts. Holding Monty in my arms I answered through tears that it was worth it. It is. Again, I thank you all for enjoying his life with us. Thank you.
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（；_；）
Uh-oh! We have some competition. Look at these two fluffing their heads up! Edwin seems to fluff his crest up to make himself taller and Monty fluffs the back of his neck to make himself bigger. Monty wanted to include Edwin when he was a duckling but as he grew older and started to show off with his flying skills (as larger breeds the others can do “assisted jumps” but nothing like Edwin’s 20-foot-soars) the girls started to take an interest in this tiny pilot. Monty is not impressed and shoos him off.
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Edwin puffed up in the garden. We clipped his wings with help from a brilliant video on YouTube. He sat and watched it with us which we feel did calm him. You can see the beautiful green shine coming through on his head feathers :) We also now have a Facebook page!
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I just had to post! So here’s another photo of Edwin from this weekend. So ever since he was a baby (admittedly I just forgot to do it every now and then when he was still tiny and fuzzy and always wanted his mummy no matter what) I’ve been picking him up gently from underneath with the word “up”. He would then tuck his legs up onto my hand and stand up. The last few weeks I’ve been putting my hands open in front of him with the same command. He’s normally needed to be poked and prodded, but tonight… Tonight I went to where he was standing on top of his cage, put my hands down as a platform in front of him, calmly told him “up”… And on he steps, one foot, two foot, slowly and deliberately. I am so thrilled! I will probably start devising simple tricks for him to learn on a reward basis. Had to share!
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Edwin looks up at the sky. His head has darkened and flecks of green is coming through. Also he no longer has a speckled tummy, it’s turned into a beautiful, smooth rusty colour. Under his tail (where he’s growing two curlies) he has a buzzy grey area only about an inch and a half wide.
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Firstly, apologies for the delay on updates and I hope all our followers had a wonderful holiday and New Year! On the 3rd of December Alice came in and sat with us in the lounge in her nappy. She hadn’t worn one before but once it was on she didn’t mind it at all. Because she has trouble cleaning herself due to her eyesight and it’s very cold, we sometimes take her in for a lukewarm bath and let her dry herself indoors before she goes back out. This includes mealworms and lots of cuddles. This is a photo of her sat across her peopledaddy’s shoulders, she sat there whilst we watched TV and fell asleep whilst Edwin sat on his lap. She and Edwin get on very well but her greetings can sometimes alarm as she’s so much bigger!
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すっかり別嬪さんにならはったなぁ(*^_^*)
Edwin being cheeky stood on his cage on the 17th of December (that’s Oscar the rabbit’s cage in the background), I am in love with those bright little eyes! We had all concluded Edwin was a girl when their voice started to quieten until we heard a “quack”! We have a little boy! He still follows us all around the house and he comfortably talks to us in duck, a little of which I’ve picked up :)
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So Edwin hatched on September the 14th, in a week she will be two months old. What a roller-coaster… Here’s a long blurb sharing my experiences :)
From my duck’s blog :)
Jemima scratching her head after jumping out the paddling pool :)
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Oscar relaxes on the path whilst he watches the ducklings.
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