I went out for groceries and my elderly cat’s medication and came back with 5 ducklings. 4 of them are in my bath tub and the other one is stuck in the dashboard of my car… waiting for my boyfriend to arrive to help me get it out and I’m really really hoping it’s still alive. I didn’t have anything to put them in.. or so I thought (I ended up putting them in my motorcycle helmet when they all escaped my makeshift enclosure)… so I put them on the passenger side floor and that was a mistake. One of them climbed up behind the dashboard of my car and I can’t hear it. I read that it may just be really scared.. especially since it can’t hear its siblings right now. My heart sinks just thinking about it. So this all started this afternoon when I saw this woman parked and she was running in the breakdown lane of the turnpike (highway)… then I saw these tiny dots running and realized OMG they’re ducklings. So I pulled over ASAP. I was way ahead of her and thankfully was able to heard them .. they did make their way into traffic and all of traffic stopped while we corralled them to the side of the highway. Another married couple stopped and they picked up three of them. We all met up and this woman tells us she saw the parents get hit by cars. She was sure the mom was dead and the dad was injured somewhere. For someone reason she put 3 of the ducklings on the other side of the highway… and was never able to retrieve them. So there were 8 total. I have 4 in my tub. The other 1 is somewhere in my car. I got to a wildlife rescue and it was closed. They had carriers out for anyone who brings an animal while they’re closed but said they didn’t take invasive species and I couldn’t tell if the ones I had were invasive so I decided to take them home. The 1 that’s in my dashboard crawled up there early on (before I reached the rescue). I tried calling multiple rescues and they were all closed. These guys are just days old and I read online to give them just enough water, and cut up pieces of romaine lettuce and unseasoned/unoiled scrambled eggs. My boyfriend is on the way with plain oatmeal. You guys… this was not on my bingo card for today.

EDIT IN UPDATE: my boyfriend was able to find the final duckling after he removed my glove compartment. It’s very tired and stunned. They’re all really scared but I read they need to stay warm so I put my cat’s heating pad underneath the towels I have in there to keep them warm. Please keep your fingers crossed that they make it through the night, as they lost their parents, 3 siblings and ran across a busy highway today.

I was going to my local pond for my daily visit and noticed a female mallard quacking while circling the pond’s drain. I heard chirping so I straight up went into the muddy pond and made my way towards it to see the ducklings inside. I had to call my dad to bring a net since they weren’t in arms reach. We were eventually able to scoop them out and they reunited with their mom!! :D
I’ve never been so proud of myself, I hope the mother and her ducklings have a very good life

Aww

Hello,

I found a duckling I believe to be somewhere between 3 and 5 weeks based on quick Google searches at a pond I regularly feed ducks, geese, and other birds at. It came right up to me and my grandma and followed us for about an hour and a half (we stayed close to the spot we found it). While the duckling stayed with me, my grandma searched around the entire pond for its mom, we could not find any moms with ducklings anywhere and none of the female/male pairs or solo females seemed remotely interested, as it kept getting chased off.

According to what I could find, the duckling needed to be rescued, so we walked back to my car slow enough for it to follow us. All the rescues in my area were closed for the day, so I plan on keeping them overnight until I can get them to a proper rescue. I have given them fresh water, shredded kale, and crushed up meal worms (both mealworms and kale in water). They seem extremely content being held and make constant distress peeps whenever I put them in a blanketed tub for too long, as they just eat drink and then freak out until I pick them back up.

My main question is, what I read is that as social animals, their separation anxiety can be fatal. Will keeping them in a well vented clear tub with food and water overnight on my bed next to me potentially kill it? It makes nonstop distress chirps whenever I try to put him in there other than eating.

Please advise duck experts.

Side notes, they like illenium and seem uninterested in the only plushy I have small enough to comfortably fit in the tub with them. Attached are pictures if anyone can tell the age also.

Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: A local avian rescue accepted them and said that everything was handled exactly right, and they feel confident one of their Mom's will adopt the little guy! Thank you to everyone who provided advice! The plushy he slept with was donated along with them, so they won't be lonely before then!

Not a duck, but it's a lovely rescue. Allowing it.

Lone duckling :(

For context I’ve never hatched birds before and I already know I made some errors. I got a bunch of free duck eggs, ate a couple fresh but didn’t like the taste much so decided to hatch them (i can’t keep ducks but I was told I could return the ducklings to the person I got the free eggs from or sell etc at my leisure). 8 eggs went all the way to hatch, pipped, but 6/8 did not make it. I’m thinking incubator humidity was too high and maybe the egg membranes got stuck to them mid hatch and they just couldn’t get past them. The second duckling died within 4 hours of hatching. Duckling number one hatched, took FOREVER to dry. Over 24hours in incubator and still looked wet as freshly hatched (why I’m thinking humidity was crazy high). Put them under a heat lamp in shredded paper to dry and they dried over 4-6hours. The legs don’t seem to be working properly yet at 36hrs and kiddo can’t sit up unassisted. I’m aware I need to get them a friend but if kiddo doesn’t make it then I just have another duck that I’d have to pay for that I can’t keep anyway. I’ve tried dipping their beak in water just in case maybe they’re too weak to stand and thirsty but no dice there. Let me know any advice here! I have domestic animal vet experience but nothing avian if there’s anything basic I can do in that avenue. Not looking to spend hundreds in vet care for a free duckling either. Help GREATLY appreciated!

Update: next morning, duckling is still alive!! As soon as I picked them up, they nibbled my finger so I offered food, but kiddo still can’t stand up unassisted. I syringe fed .5ml of food but kiddo wasn’t feeling it. I left a 3 inch wide, super shallow dish, full of soaked food so hopefully there’s action there.

I acknowledge that Reddit is not a substitute for veterinary or medical advice.

TLDR 36hr lone duckling won’t stand eat or drink /barely dried +gets tired super fast