This has been a big week. They’ve been learning to swim (yes, they kind of have to learn), they’ve spent time running around the house (for enrichment – once the weather is nice, they’ll go outside in their penned area to explore), and their time with the Danes is much more playful and they hold their own.
Evenings are becoming a special time here. Duckling swimming lessons, dry ’em off, let them wander the house a bit, then snuggle time, where they fall sound asleep on me, snuggled close to my heart. Which is getting more difficult to do as they grow larger by the day.
As their third week progresses they’ll begin to get their pin feathers and move into their awkward phase. When Penelope came to live with us, she was just moving out of that phase – she was about 4-5 weeks old. As weather permits, these two will spend more and more supervised time outside. There are several neighborhood kids who cannot wait.
They have learned if they need something, all they need to do is make a horrible racket and I’ll come running. In my defense, the first two days, they would somehow flip themselves over, like little down-covered turtles, and couldn’t turn themselves back over – oftentimes in their water dish – and would squawk until I arrived to flip them over. Since they could have drowned (!!) or injured themselves, they would raise a ruckus and I would rush over.
Well now, whenever they need me, they make a joyful (um, sure) noise. Food dish empty? Squawk up a storm! Water dish dirty? Call for the maid! My favorite one was at 2 am the other morning. I had turned their heating pad down – supposedly they were old enough to lower it a few degrees. That did not go over well. And when they got cold? You guessed it. Top of their lungs until I sleepily wandered out into the living room to see what was killing them. Heating pad up…ducklings happy….
Here’s a compilation video of their second week. Big milestones were learning to swim, wandering the house to build up leg strength, and plenty of Dane time.
When they were running around the living room the other night, Bixby brought them his tug rope and they went after the fringe. I intervened before it took a turn. He continues to bring them toys to play with when they are out of their crate.
Bless that big Beast for being such a love.
x-posted at What’s 4 Dinner Solutions
Annie DeMoranville 