Tawny frogmouth

I am a ARROW (Australian rescue and rehabilitation of wildlife) carer, this morning I got a call from a lady down the road, a Tawny frogmouth flew into her car last night. I went and picked him up and drove 40minutes to meet an experinced carer to get advice. He seemed alright, but he wasn't gripping with his feet, indicating nerve damage. So I was going to get our vet to have a look and was not going to get attached to him, in case, if in 4 weeks it had not repair he would have been euthanased. But by the time I got home he was fine!
I have just fed him some mince with insectivore mix and a moth, and will feed him during night. He is sitting on the bath in our ensuite, so kids and cat cant get him. I think it will take 3-4 months to get him ready for release!

Aylesbury ducklings

these are my new baby Aylesbury ducklings, hatched under these three hens and 6 hatched in the incubator. the three mums share the ducklings and are doing a good job. Aylesbury are the biggest duck breed, growing to 4-5 kg!! they are 2 days old!

Hatching Eggs for Sale

Call Duck eggs for hatching, white and brown females with white males, should hatch pet or breeding quality ducklings. I have been getting 95% fertility and 100% hatch under ducks and cluckly chooks and 70-80% hatch in incubator.

Will post Mondays or Tuesday, get in quick before the weather gets too hot. posting normally cost $20. Eggs $20 a dozen.

Great little pets for the smallest backyard!!

Call Ducklings for Sale

Unrelated pairs (unsexed), or more, ducklings from 1 week to 6 weeks old. All have pinioned wings, so they will not fly away when grown. White, splash and brown available. $10 each or cheaper by the dozen. will send australia wide if you arrange. Pickup Fernvale\Ipswich area, less than 1 hour from Brisbane and Toowoomba. Phone Suzie on (07)54670088 between 8pm and 10pm. Or Email

My experiences incubating Duck eggs

(Story still under construction)

Hatching under cluckly Hens
Last year I tried 4 or 5 cluckly hens but I had them at my mum's place and could not keep a close eye on them. They were all in December; it was really hot and pretty unsuccessful. I didn’t spray the eggs, and I think because of the heat and dry, some hens didn’t hatch eggs at all. The pekin that hatched ducklings, I sprayed the eggs the day before the hatch and on the day. Out of eight eggs, 4 hatched, and the other 4 eggs I 'helped' hatch, probably a mistake, the ducklings died within 2 hours.
This year I put the eggs under the hen when she is sitting really well. The duck pond site (http://www.users.on.net/~greggles/duckpond/ go to "about ducks", on the 2nd or 3rd page) says to spray the eggs only after the seventh day and stop on the 25th day. So keeping good records is a must. I have had one hen sit this year, a silky. I left her sit for the first couple of days and then after that, at the same time each afternoon, I would lift her off the nest and give her grain, other wise some hens will not leave the nest, and duck eggs take 28 days to hatch and some hens get very poor. After she has been off for 10-15 mins I spray the eggs with water; soon after she got back on the eggs. She hatched 5 out of 5 eggs!
I had one hen, a gold laced Wyandotte; go cluckly so I put some eggs under. Half the time the eggs were uncovered, and she was very cranky and would not get off the nest to eat and when she did get off, would not sit back on the eggs. So I put the eggs in the incubator and put her back in a pen. I have a white Wyandotte sitting at moment; I put eggs from an incubator under her so she only has to sit for a week! Due on Friday, so I will let you know.
I tried very hard not to peek a look on the hatching day, leave the hen until the day after when they start sticking their heads out, I had to move her and ducklings into another pen, as the one she was in, the ducklings would have fallen out, so the night they hatched, I moved them all. otherwise I would leave her be, the ducks with babies don’t get off the nest for at least 24 hours after the ducklings have all hatched, so don’t worry about food or water yet.

Feeding Ducklings
I have only used chicken feed with the antibodies in it as that is what I have, have look for something else but couldn’t find much. This year I had some turkey feed from last year, so the medication should have deteriorated by now, so I thought it was ok? Some people have said they use turkey feed instead of chicken feed, as it doesn’t have medication in it, but most turkey feed has more, not less, medication in it.
Last year I lost 2 ducklings, about a week and a half old. I wasn’t sure why, and duck mum was pretty crazy and would walk on the babies all the time. And it was 3 days after my daughter was born, so didn’t see them much. This week I lost a 9 day old duckling, with its mum also. I have lost none under lights or with hens, so I don’t think this was related to feed.
I like this fact sheet on feeding from http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/reader/poultry/duck-raising-part-e.htm NSW Department of Primary Industries. I don’t worry too much about vitamin percentages, mainly look at reducing protein at 2 weeks of age, you can do this by add bran/pollard or bread to the chicken feed, to reduce the protein. And feeding shell grit.
I have found large shallow pot plant trays to be great for ducklings; sometimes they still need a little step up for a few days. When hatching under hens, I put the ducklings in the water a few times a day, just to make sure they learn to wash them selves. I have found with my ducks, the mums spend all morning on the first day off the nest drinking from the dish and pretending to wash herself, then over to the feed and eating, then back to the water, and standing then quaking at the ducklings to get in. and only until after, say 12 noon, the ducklings get in the water for the first time, does she stop and take a break.

What are Call Ducks?

Many people have said to me my ducks look like the wild duck or like Mallards, so i thought i would put a describtion a some picture up so everyone knows the difference.

As far as i understand...
Call ducks, as a breed, are still being developed, they will sometime breed ducklings that can not be sold as Call ducks. Only those that are somewhere near the standard, for Call duck, should be called so. Other ducks that are too big, and have long necks, bodies and look more like a Mallard, should be sold as Pets or Australian Bantam Ducks.

Brown Australian Call duck (this brown colour is sometimes called mallard, so it is less confusing if you call it brown)Buff Australian Call Duck

A Brown and A White Mallard (NOT Call ducks)

(photos from the Australian Bantam Waterfowl Associatation http://au.geocities.com/aussie_ducks/index.htm)
Austalian CAll Ducks are not related to English Call Ducks, there was some English Calls in Australia, people have told me there was some in australia, but no one knows where they got to. Since ducks can not be imported, the breed is being developed, slowing, instead.

(PHotos from http://www.thebritishcallduckclub.co.uk/) Blue Fawn Male English Call Duck

White English Call Duck

My trip to South Africa in 2004

Some Elephants in Krugger National Park
I went to South Africa in july 2004 as part of my uni degree, i was there for 2 weeks, it was so great. Aidan was only 18 months old, so i was sad sometimes because i was missing him so much, i am hopeing one day to take him to see the herds of elephants, girraffe and hear the lions roar all night long!

We were very luckly to see a lion kill in Kruger, the lions have learnt to chase Giraffe on to the road, the giraffe slip on the road and the lions have lunch. the best thing a bout this is, tourist can park on the road and watch all day! The black bit at the bottom of the photo is a car ! it was hard to get good photos because there was 20 cars parks in a half circle right next to the kill, the those tourist werent moving for no one! we watch for 30 minutes. the Kill was 3 hours old, so all the lions had eaten and were then resting. while we were there a female got up and started eatting again, then a young male lion, who didn t seem to belong to the group walked in, so then there was some growling, but they were all to full to get up and fight, so the male started eating!

Call ducks for sale 5/9/06

This trio is sold, please email me if you are interested in ducks or ducklings,

I can put you on a waiting list suzie.peter@bigpond.com

These two females and a male are for sale $90 all bred december 2005, unrelated, laying now, one is sitting on eggs, but will be ready to go in a week. they are not quite good enough to show, ok for breeding or if you would like ducks but only have a small backyard and not much water.
please email suzie.peter@bigpond.com

Call Duck and babies hatched 1st Sept 2006

This is a Call Duck, her babies hatched on the 1st sept

below is a black silky hen, i gave her 6 Call duck eggs to sit on and she hatched 5 baby Call Ducks, the largest duckling is one i hatched in the incubator. Silkies are great mums and she looks after them all.