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| Question about Pets:How to properly feed wood duck with broken beak? |
First of all, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. You can find one here: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact....
These people have the specialized training to care for sick, injured and orphaned wild animals. They also have the state and federal licenses that allow them to keep wild animals until they are healthy enough to be released back into the wild. If you are lucky enough to live near one of the larger rehab facilities, they may even be able to come and capture the duck. If not, you may have to attempt it yourself, or get someone from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help you.
Please ignore suggestions to take it to a vet - vets are for pets and most do not have the expertise to care for wild animals, nor do they want to in most cases.
Also ignore any suggestions to attempt caring for this duck yourself. It needs medical attention that you are not qualifed to give. And the suggestion on hand-feeding the duck is incorrect - you could cause the duck to choke to death if you tried to force food into the back of its mouth. Also, you do not have the proper licenses to keep the duck, so it would be illegal.
Second, please do not feed bread to the ducks at the park.
"...although Ducks seem to love bread, it is not nutritious. White bread in particular is made from refined flour and is not proper for avian nutrition. Many Ducks suffer from degenerative liver disease because they eat too much. Also, leftover bread and Duck droppings pollute the water. The uneaten bread turns into a deadly mold called Aspergillus, which is fatal to Ducks, fish and other animals. Rotting bread can also breed other deadly diseases and parasites, particularly a Duck virus Enteritis, which with a single outbreak will kill all the Ducks of that area.
Duck droppings can also breed diseases such as Avian Botulism and a parasite that causes swimmers itch.
Feeding Ducks bread is like feeding Dogs chocolate. They may seem to like it but in the end it does more harm than good."
http://www.kingphilip.org/kphigh/metacom...
If you must feed them at all, please feed them corn and grains. But in many area, feeding of waterfowl is illegal. This is because an artifically created abundant source of food can cause the ducks and geese to congregate in greater numbers than the ecology of the area can support. Also, they can become aggressive when conditioned to expect a handout. Some experts even believe that they will stay in an area with this type of unnatural food source rather than migrate, putting them at risk if people stop feeding them over the winter, when a trip to the park is not as pleasant as in the milder months.
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