Expert: Julia Booth - 7/7/2009

Question
Hello!
We raised a baby mallard to adolescent successfully. Before the duck left on her own...she quit eating.
I thought it might be just the wild in her coming out. She was gone for about 1 1/2 weeks and now came back home.
The problem is "She" has been beaten up, looks thin and now has sores on "her" neck and...."she" is turning into a male.
My questions:  Is it normal for "him" not to eat during the adulthood change??  Is there anything else we can do to help this duck? We are worried.

Answer
So you raised the duckling from the point it hatched, until it was ready to fledge. So 8 weeks? And then you released it into the wild? but now it's back? I'm confused.

Without seeing what the duck looks like I couldn't tell you for sure if the injuries are the result of trauma or if there's some kind of mineral deficiency. The dietary needs of the mallard are actually rather specific. Typically a loss of appetite is a sign of illness in most members of the animal kingdom. Mallards are wild technically, but are basically the same biologically, as all domestic ducks.

Here are some good linkd for duck care:

http://www.duckrescuenetwork.org/duck_care.html

http://www.liveducks.com/links.html

http://www.newagrarian.com/category/ducks/

Here is the wildlife rehab directory for the US:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/