We got ducks!

It is 9:47pm and I just sat down for the day. Today unlike other days has been very busy for me, but I wanted to share some news with you.

Soo… we got ducks!

And for us, that’s a big deal—because we love waterfowl, and my husband is actually a hunter who's crazy about ducks. Now, before you ask—no, we’re not raising them for food. We got them simply because we wanted to. It’s something we talked about for a couple of years, always joking about how fun it would be. Now here we are—with ducks in the house and lots to learn.

Life feels full now. We already had a few animals, but this made it feel even sweeter, and more like a piece of a puzzle was found.

When I was chatting with my best friend in Ukraine, she laughed and said, “You have animals that shouldn't even get along.”

She’s not wrong. We have a dog, a cat, a parrot… and now ducks. But somehow, it works.

The funny part?

Our dog is scared of the parrots.

Our cat avoids the bird altogether.

The parrot doesn’t care for the ducks, but tolerates them.

And our old dog and cat? They’ve reached that “we’re too old to care” stage—they nap on the same couch and sometimes even eat from the same bowl.

There’s a little life lesson here: even in strange circumstances, we can all get along.

The day Justin brought the ducks home, we were both nervous and excited. I’ll never forget when he opened the box. Their tiny feet made me melt.

Before we even took them out, Justin had set up their first little home—just a large tote with pine shavings, a heating lamp, and food and water. Simple, but perfect.

Ducks are messy, so we cleaned often—fresh water, fresh bedding, clean food. That first night, I woke up and Justin wasn’t in bed. I found him asleep on the floor next to the ducklings. I don’t know how long he stayed there, but it warmed my heart seeing him like this.

A couple of days in, I discovered an app called Barkio. It lets you turn an old phone or tablet into a pet monitor. With both of us working full-time, it was a game-changer. We could check in on them anytime and make sure they were doing okay.

When it came time to clean, Justin figured out a smart trick: a little dog pool! We’d move the ducklings there with food, water, and bedding while we cleaned their tote. Super easy and safe, plus the ducklings had more space for their zoomies. But here’s the thing—baby ducks don’t stay babies for long. Tomorrow (April 15th) will be a full month since we got them. Honestly, it feels like I watched a time-lapse. They got big fast and we realized that the tote was getting too small for them. So, Justin (my genius husband) got a kid’s pack n play, and it’s been amazing. They have way more room, and they can move closer or farther from the lamp if they get too hot. We also used one of our tripods to help elevate the lamp a bit so it wasn't so close to the play crib.

We introduced them to water at around two weeks— we kept it warm, short, and sweet, to avoid getting them too wet and cold. And for now, they’re staying in our spare bedroom until it’s warm enough outside for them to be out. Justin and my father-in-law will be building them a little house in our backyard soon—more on that in a future post!

Oh, and before I forget—we named them: Omelet, Pickles, Pepper, and Daisy.

So far, we only know one is a girl… so names might change. I’ll keep you posted.

Until next time,

As always—thank you for reading.

Ana

Update : Our ducks are now 1 month old and they grew extremely fast. I'm so happy all of them made it. They almost all have their adult feathers and they are soooo beautiful. They ADORE water and now it looks like our bathtub is too small for the 4 of them. I'm hoping we'll start building their home soon, so we can keep them outside, because they actually do smell a little, and no matter how many times we change their bedding, they still smell, so yeah.... I'm excited for that.