Pierce...

So all went well at the ducky doctor yesterday. Dr. Nemetz is very cool, obviously very knowledgeable and very thorough. He gave Pierce a once over and said he looks very healthy and is a good weight for his age...he is around 3.5 pounds. The whole wing thing he thinks could be attributed to too much protein so the boys have now been put on the adult duck food which has the lowest crude protein level to basically slow their growth rate so his "wrist" can build strength to hold up the heavy blood feathers. So it is Harvey's turn on Thursday to get checked out and I am sure that Dr. Nemetz will love Harvey as he is the calm one :)

Pics as promised...

I snapped a few shots of the kids last night as promised. First up is Mr. Harvey, so handsome and such a sweetheart! Look at those colors and patterns. He can't make up his mind what color his head wants to be...it should be dark but who knows right now! And here we have Mr. Pierce, the wild one, but also just as handsome. His head is slowly becoming solid black and he will obviously have black splotches on his white chest. It is funny how both boys ended up with black middle toes though :)

Here is a pic of Pierce's right wing which I suspect is angel wing but will know more after today's vet visit. Those blue stick looking things are his wing feathers that are coming in and they are heavy with blood which could also be why they stick out too. They could be too heavy for him to keep against his body, but enough of me speculating, I will let the expert tell me :)

And here is a pic of Terra thrown in because I can :D Such a good girl!

First trip to the vet...

Well we are off to the vet tomorrow to get Pierce's wing looked at. His right wing seems to be either developing angel wing or the blood in the new feathers are just making it too heavy for him. Either way, better to be safe than sorry. We have an awesome facility right down the street from the house called The BIRD Clinic and the vet there ONLY sees birds, which is awesome...only about 8 such places in the United States! Gonna try to get Harvey an appointment next week as well to just get checked out and make sure everything is good with him too. Good to get a relationship started with your vet before things go wrong. Have not posted pics in a while and I promise to do so in the next couple days :) The boys are turning out to be just gorgeous, and I am NOT biased...ok, well maybe just a little bit!

It seems like they were just born yesterday

...but no, it has been 32 days since they were born and today they are spending their very first day outside in the Ducky Duplex. No more ducks in the dining room...well until night time :) The boys will now be outside during the day (unless it is very cold and stormy) and then come inside at night. I hope they did ok today, can't wait to go home and check on them.

hmmm...remember these little guys at 8 days old, getting their first bath?
...we put them back in that same pink bowl last night at 28 days old. They don't seem to fit quite as nice now...no room for water! :)

On another note, check out this little guy...he (or she) is a California Slender Salamander and I found 5 of them under a pot in the backyard!

A nice little surprise...

So Pa Fuller came over last night to work on some electrical stuff in the house but he thought we were also working on the fence and I did not object. I am so glad that I took the time on Wednesday to do the waterproofing and then the panels got to dry in the sun all day on Thursday because when I got up this morning and took this pic it was drizzling! :) So we have the 2 small panels to install on the ends and then to build the gate and we are all set.

Back to work...

So I took the day off today so I could finish waterproofing the fence panels and after some power sprayer problems I finally had success and here are all the panels (6 panels, 13 pickets each panel) drying in the sun. Good thing it was a nice day :) I also discovered that the rains last week brought me the groundcover I wanted on the side of the house...too bad I forgot to relocate the kayaks :( Oh well, I will move them and hope for another shower or 2!

(notice that there is a little pathway that Terra has created)

3 weeks old...

I think a picture (or collage) says a thousand words...

For your viewing enjoyment...

The boys at 20 days old, swimming in the "big" pool...

17 days and counting...

Had to post a pic of Terra and her new collar that Nic got her...it has duckies :D So the boys are now 17 days old and they are almost as big as hippo now!

Harvey is starting to get a darker color in his under feathers and some markings on his head...can't wait to see what color pattern he will turn out with!

The boys are 2 weeks old!

Ok so here is another comparison on Pierce...I think you get the idea...DUCKS GROW FAST!

We let them swim in their big pool this weekend and they really liked it...

...more to come later. It was a busy weekend...I am very tired :)

To quack or not to quack...

...that is a question that has been coming up a lot lately and a pretty easy one to answer. Females (hens) have the loud quack that everyone associates with a duck, males (drakes) have a softer, more raspy voice.
Click on the links below to hear the difference:
Female: http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/girlquack.wav
Male: http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/boyquack.wav
(after listening, hit the back button to return to this page)