Exotic pet ownership is on the rise. And the exposure we make of our lives on social networks has a lot to do with it: we show ourselves “gorgeous” thanks to the filters, we share still lifes of what we eat, we show spectacular snapshots of where we travel… And we also make our beloved pets the protagonists of them there are even some that have their own networks !
Among millions of accounts of all kinds, in recent times several whose main actor is a duck have gone viral: an American duck who celebrates his birthday by visiting a pet store, an influencer who manages to have one in exchange for 1 million Likes… All this has meant that the requests from people who want to have a duck at home have increased in recent months (and it continues to grow).
But no matter how funny and endearing the images and videos that we see on our mobile may seem to us, we cannot forget that a duck is a LIVING BEING with physical and behavioral needs that we can hardly supply. Therefore, we will be “humping” the life of an animal by an impulsive act and little (or nothing) thought through, ending up in most cases being neglected and/or abandoned .
Because just as requests for ducks as pets increase exponentially, so do their abandonment. Almost all of them will end up suffering physical and emotional problems due to incorrect care or being left on the streets. For all these reasons, it is more than obvious that the general answer to the question “Can I have a duck as a pet?” is a resounding NO.
They need a natural environment
Ducks love to look for their food in the grass or in shallow waters, swim in ponds, walk on land, peck at pebbles, rub their beaks on the grass…
Depriving them of a natural environment, THEIR environment, can not only create behavioral problems (aggressiveness, stereotypes…), it can also cause painful physical pathologies, such as lameness from walking on smooth floors.
They are gregarious birds
Ducks are animals that live in a community. You just have to go to some free aquatic area inhabited by them that we have close to home to verify it reliably.
They prefer to live with more ducks, and if it is in a group, much better! Together they peck, swim and sleep. They need that social interaction, but also the security that living in a group gives them to fight possible predators. Because, although we provide them with the safest place in the world, they innately feel insecure when they feel alone.
And once again, all this will cause emotional suffering to a living being, for not having informed us before acquiring it of its needs, and the development of behavioral problems that will probably end up abandoning the duck.
specific food
Ducks are not chickens, or parakeets, much less cats. If providing them with a generic food for birds or one of another species, can cause serious health problems, you can imagine what it will mean to make us the menu of the day based on leftovers and stale bread.
The deficiency of some nutrients not only cause diseases, problems in their development and even lameness. The duck, in its eagerness to make up for this lack and imitate its natural behavior, can become intoxicated by feeding on plants that we have in our home and that are poisonous to them or by ingesting water in poor condition, such as stagnant irrigation water, or with chemicals, such as dishwater.
Specialized veterinary care
Many people have the false belief that a veterinarian specialized in exotics has a tiger, penguins or crocodiles as patients. But not. Basically, unless our pet is a dog or a cat, the reference health care provider for our pet must be a veterinarian specializing in exotic animals.
It goes without saying that each species has its own anatomy, its own needs, its regulation… Most of the health workers that we find in the veterinary centers of our cities are specialists in the popular dogs and cats, but we find more and more veterinary experts in other species.
Ducks have particular diseases that require prevention, treatment and diagnosis according to them. A veterinarian specializing in exotic animals will not only inform us of the necessary care according to their environment or diet, they will also indicate the mandatory and advisable vaccines or deworming, how to identify them, if it is advisable to sterilize them, they will know how to handle them without causing stress when go to the clinic, learn about the drugs and doses required by your species, how to perform and interpret diagnostic tests such as blood tests or x-rays…
