Wild mama and babies

[BelovedBirds]

Just curious if my waterfowl pellet feed will be safe for wild ducklings to eat, its not layers or anything like that. Just food designed for ducks, and safe for geese etc.
The pellets are very small so I don't see a choke hazard, and they can be turned to mash with water.

Reason I'm asking is because there's a mama mallard who has nested in my town, in a very narrow stream. It's surrounded by roads and people and filled with seagulls, loose dogs, rats, etc etc. Aside from the odd mallard drake, this place is not typically inhabited by ducks. Terrible place to raise babies.
6 days ago there were 12 seemingly day old ducklings with her, I said there and then that I couldn't see more than 1 or 2 surviving with the amount of dangers... and two days ago there were only 4 left.

I've kept an eye on them and mama seems to be a first timer, she's not great at keeping them close, they don't follow her very well even when danger is nearby, and they have very little natural food to eat, few bugs, and very small amounts of land which mostly consists of pavement.

I'm sure she's managing to feed them something, but this could mostly be bread by the public. So I just really want to go give them some better feed and at least rule out one risk for them.

Is my duck feed going to be safe, perhaps with a little nutritional yeast, or should I get something else?

 

[BelovedBirds]

Just curious if my waterfowl pellet feed will be safe for wild ducklings to eat, its not layers or anything like that. Just food designed for ducks, and safe for geese etc.
The pellets are very small so I don't see a choke hazard, and they can be turned to mash with water.

Reason I'm asking is because there's a mama mallard who has nested in my town, in a very narrow stream. It's surrounded by roads and people and filled with seagulls, loose dogs, rats, etc etc. Aside from the odd mallard drake, this place is not typically inhabited by ducks. Terrible place to raise babies.
6 days ago there were 12 seemingly day old ducklings with her, I said there and then that I couldn't see more than 1 or 2 surviving with the amount of dangers... and two days ago there were only 4 left.

I've kept an eye on them and mama seems to be a first timer, she's not great at keeping them close, they don't follow her very well even when danger is nearby, and they have very little natural food to eat, few bugs, and very small amounts of land which mostly consists of pavement.

I'm sure she's managing to feed them something, but this could mostly be bread by the public. So I just really want to go give them some better feed and at least rule out one risk for them.

Is my duck feed going to be safe, perhaps with a little nutritional yeast, or should I get something else?

(Just to note, this is fine despite them being wild, it's legal here to feed the wild ducks, and usually other waterfowl too, except sometimes geese. The council just urges people against feeding sugary foods or bread, but of course this isnt heeded)

 

[Miss Lydia]

(Just to note, this is fine despite them being wild, it's legal here to feed the wild ducks, and usually other waterfowl too, except sometimes geese. The council just urges people against feeding sugary foods or bread, but of course this isnt heeded)

Of course feed them,you can always put the feed into a plastic baggie and pound with the hammer some to make it smaller if you think the pellets are too large for the ducklings. Is there any way to relocate mama and ducklings to a safer place or to a rehabber till babies are big enough to be released? That is sad so many are already gone.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Of course feed them,you can always put the feed into a plastic baggie and pound with the hammer some to make it smaller if you think the pellets are too large for the ducklings. Is there any way to relocate mama and ducklings to a safer place or to a rehabber till babies are big enough to be released? That is sad so many are already gone.

Now that you mention it, I could see if there's a wildlife rescue/rehabber local and notify them of it, perhaps they'd be able to move her to one of the local duck ponds. We have a really nice one nearby where the majority of ducklings almost always survive, it's so sheltered.

Trouble is, moving them myself would definitely be against the law, and most rescues won't do anything about waterfowl. Can't hurt to try though

The seagulls are so ruthless, it's so easy for them to grab the babies
So many threats.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Alright, rescue found and notified with details, they help waterfowl and are local so no reason to assume they wont/can't help.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hope they will help these. Let us know if you know.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Shes down to two
Utterly heart wrenching. I was able to give them all a good meal though, I added some nutritional yeast and wet the food, put it on one of the little steps and carefully herded mama towards it

They soon found it, mama, and both babies enjoyed it very much and were still snacking on what's left when I headed home.
They're so precious, bless their little hearts

I'll contact some more rescues tonight and I'll take more food down tomorrow and ward off the predators for a while.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Bless you for caring

 

[BelovedBirds]

Bless you for caring

I only wish I'd thought of it sooner, for some reason it hadn't crossed my mind to try informing a rescue! Relocations can happen in this situation.

We've found, called and talked to a local rescue team who are able to handle waterfowl, including swans. They are going to see what they can do. They're concerned that she may fly off if they catch the babies- but I don't think that's likely. And even if they weren't able to get her, or lead her up stream to a safer location, I think taking the babies instead of letting them die is the lesser evil here. Even if it means her losing all of them. They've been set up to fail in an unnatural environment
Anyway, there isn't a lot I can do, but hopefully they figure it out.

Poor mama looks so exhausted and sad. There's very little food for her there, let alone for the babies. Hopefully the nutritious meal will help her to stay focused.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hope they can get there soon, you have done a great service to make sure they have something to eat and finding help for them. I agree hopefully they can get mama and ducklings but if she was to fly off at least the 2 ducklings have a much better chance at life with the rehabbers.