Well, yesterday was the day … the day to set them free. More or less…
We have brought our ducklings (now already ducks) to a wild animal shelter near the town of Soltau. The wild animal shelter has two hectars of space, where they take care of wild animal until they can be set completely free into wilderness.
Since our ducklings still cannot fly (luckily), they have enough time to learn from some other ducks how to live completely off of food they have to find themselves.
According to the wild animal shelter, we did everything right, especially in providing a grass space on our balcony with worms and other ground animals they could pick for. This way, they’ve already learned more about feeding themselves than would have otherwise.
The wild animal shelter is great, there they have enough space for birds like ducks, geese, and some other wild ground birds and they also have a pond. This aviary is large enough for a lot of birds and has a lot of grass/wild grass area where they can learn feeding themselves. Additionally, they can also start swimming in a bigger pond.
Within 2-3 weeks, their feathers should have grown fully to be able to fly. After that, they will be set free into a bigger pond area without an aviary protection with some other ducks and can then … fly to freedom.
We think we did everything we could in order to give Huey, Louie, and Dewey a good start into their life… after a very tough start on first day. And we hope (rationally) never to see them again — but emphatically, we would like to see them again, maybe coming back to us next year?
We still don’t know whether they are male or female, but we have a hunch that two of them were male (Huey and Louie) and one female.
Good luck, ducks, may your life be happy and lucky…
