Baby Ducks: A Plain Guide to Raising Ducklings Properly

Field notes from the brooder, week one, March.

The short version: ducklings are easier to raise than chicks if you get four things right - a warm brooder (32°C falling 3°C per week), waterfowl-formulated feed (not chicken starter - chick feed lacks niacin and ducklings get leg problems on it), shallow water deep enough to drink and dip but not deep enough to drown in, and patience with swimming until they’re three weeks old. Get those four right and a clutch of eight ducklings becomes eight healthy juveniles inside a month.

The four-week timeline

The whole brooding stage is roughly four weeks. Each week has a different priority.

Week 1. Indoors, brooder at 32°C (90°F) under a heat lamp. Soft shavings (not cedar - the oils are toxic to small lungs; use pine or aspen). Shallow water dish only - not a bowl deep enough to drown in. Waterfowl starter feed available constantly. Ducklings sleep 70% of the time.

Week 2. Brooder at 29°C (85°F). Same feed. The water dish can now be deep enough for them to dip the head but still not deep enough to swim in. They start to chase each other and play.

Week 3. Brooder at 26°C (80°F). They start exploring more. Their first short, supervised swim in a shallow tub of warm water - 10 minutes maximum, then dry them off and back to the heat. Their down doesn’t waterproof yet and they chill fast.

Week 4. Brooder at 23°C (75°F). Move to a larger pen. Feed transitions to grower formula. Outdoor time in mild weather, with constant supervision against predators. They are now feathered enough to swim unsupervised in shallow safe water.

After week four they go outside permanently in a predator-proof coop, but they’re not adults until 12-16 weeks.

The niacin thing

The single most common mistake new keepers make: feeding chick starter. Chick starter is formulated for chickens and has roughly half the niacin a duckling needs. Ducklings deficient in niacin develop bowed legs, weak joints, and difficulty walking by week three. The damage is often permanent.

You have three options:

1. Waterfowl starter feed (e.g. Purina Duck Starter, Mazuri Waterfowl, Manna Pro Duck). Best - formulated for the right nutritional profile.
2. Chick starter + brewer’s yeast. If waterfowl feed isn’t available, add 1.5 tablespoons of brewer’s yeast per cup of chick feed. It’s a workable substitute.
3. Chick starter alone. Don’t do this. The leg problems are real.

Avoid medicated chick feed entirely - the medication (amprolium) interacts badly with the way ducks metabolise feed.

Water - the part that worries people

Ducklings need water to drink and to clean their bills (they get feed stuck in nostrils and need to flush them). But they cannot regulate body temperature in cold water, and very young ducklings can drown in surprisingly little water if they get tired or chilled.

The setup that works:

• Week 1. A shallow saucer or chick waterer. Deep enough to submerge the bill, not deep enough to climb in. We use a 5-cm-tall plastic chick waterer with a narrow base.
• Week 2. A slightly deeper dish. Still no swimming.
• Week 3. The first supervised swim - in warm tap water, 10 minutes, then towel-dry and back to the heat lamp.
• Week 4. Unsupervised swim in shallow safe water - a kiddie pool with a ramp out is the standard answer.

Never leave a young duckling alone with water deep enough to swim in until it can climb out unassisted. Most duckling drownings happen when keepers underestimate how quickly a tired duckling sinks.

For the wild-duck side of the same question, see can baby ducks swim - the same physiology applies, just without our help.

The brooder build

The brooder itself doesn’t have to be expensive. Common builds:

• Large plastic storage tub (the kind sold for under-bed storage) with a screen lid. Cheap, easy to clean, sized for 4-6 ducklings.
• Cardboard box ringed with a heat lamp. Free, works, fire risk if the lamp falls. Anchor everything.
• Wire dog crate with a heat plate for older ducklings (3+ weeks).

Substrate is pine or aspen shavings, never cedar. Change daily once they’re past week one - ducks are messy and a wet brooder is a sick brooder.

The coop they'll graduate into

By the end of week four they need to be outside in a proper duck house. The single biggest cause of death in backyard ducks is predation - raccoons, foxes, mink, weasels, stray dogs. A safe coop has hardware cloth (not chicken wire) on every opening, a two-step latch on the door, and a buried wire skirt or a solid floor.

Our recommendation for the wild Wood Duck nest box also works as a properly built duckling-to-juvenile transition house:

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The mistakes that kill ducklings

In order of frequency:

1. Deep water. Drowning. Avoidable by sizing the water container.
2. Chick feed without brewer’s yeast. Niacin deficiency. Leg problems by week three.
3. Predators at the brooder. Cats, raccoons, even rats. Lock the brooder.
4. Cold drafts. Brooder too cold or too well-ventilated. Cluster of huddling ducklings = too cold; ducklings panting in the corners = too hot. The right temperature has them spread evenly.
5. Single duckling. Solo ducklings fail to thrive. Always raise at least two.
6. Overhandling. Stress kills small ducks. Touch only as much as you need to.

Two more, particular to wild rescues: never feed a found duckling bread (see why bread is wrong - same logic), and never raise a single wild duckling alongside a domestic flock - they imprint wrong and won’t release successfully.

Finding a duckling that needs help

If you’ve found a wild duckling without a mother, the first move is always to look harder for the mother. Hen Mallards leave the brood briefly to feed and the brood looks abandoned but isn’t. Wait 30 minutes from a distance.

If the duckling is genuinely orphaned, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Wild ducklings have specific dietary and imprinting needs that domestic raising will get wrong. They are also legally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the US and similar laws elsewhere - you cannot legally raise them yourself.

For our broader breakdown of the duckling-into-adult question and whether to keep them, see are ducks a good pet. For the predator pressure on young ducks once they’re out, see duck predators. For the basic vocabulary, see what are baby ducks called.

The bottom line

Brooder warm, feed niacin-rich, water shallow until week three, predators excluded. Get those four right and the rest is patience. By week four you’ll have feathered, confident, slightly cocky ducklings who follow you round the garden and grow into one of the most rewarding small flocks you can keep.