I feel awful

[Fo-Mo-Co]

SO about a month or so back I took my daughter with me to the farm store to get some bolts. We came home with the bolts and two baby ducks. We made a pin out back and for the past 6 weeks she has been taking care of these ducks. She has been doing a great job to. Well this morning on my way out for work I saw one on it's back in the wading pool we put in for them. I didn't think anything of it. Today at lunch the wife calls and tells me she found the duck dead in the pool. All I can figure is the duck couldn't flip over and drowned. I have never had ducks before and had no idea. I feel like a damn fool now for not helping that poor duck. You can tell the other duck is lost now without it's partner. I guess we are going to try and find a friend for it this weekend. Just can't shake the feeling that I should have knowen more about the animals I am taking care of and done something about it.

[fastEdsel]

No one likes to lose a pet and especially one for a child. They are making new ducks every day though so what I would suggest is put a walk way up and into the pool and only put in a couple inches of water. That way they can get in and out of the pool and if they fall down all they have to do is stand up and try again. As they get older you can add some more water. Keep the Winchester close by if there is a cat in the area. They also like nice grass to chew on so if you have the pool on a lawn with a little shade they should be just fine.

[Mancar1]

The little duck died, and it wasn't from drowning. They can dunk under and do well in water. It probably had something wrong with it when you got it. The farm store will probably replace it if you tell them about it. When you first saw it floating on its back, it was most likely already dead. Don't beat youself up over it. I know you are feeling bad for you daughter, but unfortunatly these things happen. The hard lessons of life suck.

[fordman]

i agree. it was probably already dead when you seen it. ducks dotn flip over on thier back to go under water. they duck thier head down and stay upright to dig for food under water.

[thorn1968]

Yeah that sucks...when we got our laying hens, we pushed and pushed to find out what the mortality rate was going to be. We were finally told that 1 in 10 wasn't too bad.