Mallard duck as pet?

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Feeding wild animals and claiming one as a pet are two different things. We regularly have wild ducks and geese come to our farm pond.

Skunks make great pets. Had one for 15 years was even house broken.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I'm jumping in on this thread to ask a similar question since this is fairly recent. Our puppy stole a mallard egg from a nest along our property. My daughter managed to get it away from her without it cracking or anything. Then she looked around for the nest but couldn't find it. I candled it and nothing had started to grow yet, I assume the duck just started laying and not sitting on the nest yet. Anyway, my daughter begged me to put it in the incubator with the chicken eggs I had in there... So without really thinking too much about it I obliged. Couldn't stand the thought of just tossing it... A few days later I candled it and, sure enough, it's growing. I had the thought that maybe I could pass it off to a mother duck if I see one with ducklings, but will she accept it if it didn't hatch in her nest? Also, I found another egg the next day that was already eaten by our puppy. I'm not sure the mother will actually stick around if her eggs keep getting stolen. So IF the duckling actually hatches, what should I do with it? My daughter is quite convinced she will be having a pet mallard, but I'm pretty sure

I'm jumping in on this thread to ask a similar question since this is fairly recent. Our puppy stole a mallard egg from a nest along our property. My daughter managed to get it away from her without it cracking or anything. Then she looked around for the nest but couldn't find it. I candled it and nothing had started to grow yet, I assume the duck just started laying and not sitting on the nest yet. Anyway, my daughter begged me to put it in the incubator with the chicken eggs I had in there... So without really thinking too much about it I obliged. Couldn't stand the thought of just tossing it... A few days later I candled it and, sure enough, it's growing. I had the thought that maybe I could pass it off to a mother duck if I see one with ducklings, but will she accept it if it didn't hatch in her nest? Also, I found another egg the next day that was already eaten by our puppy. I'm not sure the mother will actually stick around if her eggs keep getting stolen. So IF the duckling actually hatches, what should I do with it? My daughter is quite convinced she will be having a pet mallard, but I'm pretty sure it's not really allowed. (I'm in Canada) Though would it really matter if I let it out on our dugout eventually and it found wild friends and followed them? Sorry lots of questions!!

I had two wild babies that I rescued during the beginning of covid. No one would answer the phone at the wildlife places I called so I raised them by hand. They stayed with me until they were a year old and then went to live on a research center that needed Mallards to study for their food intake. They were sweet ducks but never lilked to be picked up or petted. They could free range daily in my duck pen and could have left anytime that they wanted to. They chose to stay with my California ducklings from Metzer Farms. Daffy the male was a great mater and mated my Rouens and other Mallards. I still have some of his offspring. It was a fun experience and they were as tame as my Mallards from California as they all seemed to be more skittish than my Rouens. I am still trying to hatch out more of his offspring just to see what I will get. The first two that hatched, one looked just like a Rouen and the other one stripe by the eye and just like a mallard. You could always raise it to 6 weeks and if it decides to fly away it flies away. I sold some of his babies and four of them flew away from their owner but they were okay with that as I had forewarned them that might happen. I hope it hatches for you and you let it decide what it wants to do.
it's not really allowed. (I'm in Canada) Though would it really matter if I let it out on our dugout eventually and it found wild friends and followed them? Sorry lots of questions!!