Duck Daddy and His Five Girls - Day 16

A few of those reading the ongoing chronicles of Duck Daddy and his girls have wished out loud to have your own Indian Runner Ducks, because they are so cute. So, here are just a couple of the resources we have used to help us on our journey through Duckville. Now, I am sure that we are doing all kinds of things wrong, so please do not blame the skilled Duckmeisters of these venerable Duck Academies.

If you want to get yourself some Indian Runners please visit Wales. Really, visit Wales. Besides being "fy hoff gwlad yn y byd," it is also the home of the Indian Runner Duck Association. The Indian Runner Duck Association is in Welshpool, north east Powys, Wales. So you do not really have to visit them in person (although any trip to Wales is really equal to about 13 pilgrimages to Rome, or 6 pilgrimages to the the Holy Land), but you can go to the Indian Runner Duck Association website.

The next resource is a book by Dave Holderread, Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. This is such a fabulous book, that not only my wife and I use it as a resource, but even the girls love it. I took it out on the lawn today with me, and as soon as I put it down they swarmed the book for a good Storey-time. ta-dum. Sorry.

After perusing some duck websites last night I was drawn to a particular spot on two of our ducks. Just above the eye, they always look like they are wet, and the down is a little thin. Now I do know that they scratch their necks and faces with those cute little webbed feet like a dog scratches behind his ears, but I had not connected the thinning of the fuzz above the eye to the scratching until today. One little girl has a somewhat pronounced case, a second has this noticeably but not as much, and the others don't have the "scarring." as the website described it.

Here is the scarring above the eye on our little duckie with the more noticeable thin wearing of the baby fuzz, and another pic of their cute little webbed feet with those sharp claws on the ends of their toes. I'm surprised they haven't poked their little eyes out with those serious claws on the end of their cute little paddles. Click on the picture to see the full size version of those little demon feet.