Getting Ready for Your Ducklings and Goslings: Water and Waterer

Welcome back to our series of posts to help you get ready BEFORE your ducklings and goslings arrive!

WATER

Regardless of when your ducklings arrive, make sure to get your baby birds drinking water ASAP. As soon as you bring them home from the post office, dip each bird's beak in water and show them how and where they can access water. Our below video demonstrates this. Dip their beaks in the water then leave them by the water. Make sure they tilt their head back so you know they drank. They will figure it out. Ensure they have access to the water at all times.



WATERER

The best way to provide water is to use a chick waterer. An upside down tank sits on the top and slowly lets water into a small trough that circles the bottom. The trough is just big enough for the ducklings to get their tiny bills into it without getting wet. They will need something bigger as they grow, but this is a good starting point.

Some people try to use a shallow dish for water but this can lead to the ducklings getting in the dish and thus getting the pen very wet. You will also find you are constantly refilling the water with this option because the water gets very dirty and depleted. If you must use a dish, elevate it with blocks of wood or a brick so the ducklings cannot easily get into the water.

Shown above is a shallow dish on a 2 inch high octagonal piece of wood. The screws are there to keep the dish in place so that the ducklings do not knock it off.

To read our post on the brooder and bedding, go to Getting Ready for Your Ducklings and Goslings: Brooder and Bedding.

To read our post on feed and feeders, go to Getting Ready for Your Ducklings and Goslings: Feed and Feeder.

To read our post on heating, go to Getting Ready for Your Ducklings and Goslings: Heating

To read about other items to consider, go to Getting Ready for Your Ducklings and Goslings: Other Items to Consider