How I spend my Saturday nights!

Yep, bathing and blow-drying a duck! 

(Blow-drying because it's below freezing at night and I don't want to put wet ducks out in the cold.) I think the Ontario SPCA sweatshirt is very appropriate attire.

The ducklings (I hesitate to call them ducklings now as they are almost full-grown) are still frustrating me with their pinfeather-cannibalism. I seem to be bathing a few ducklings every weekend. I get them cleaned up and reasonably healed, reintegrate them, enjoy a few days of blissful bloodlessness, then go down to find two or three bleeders yet again! And the process is repeated. I seem to have three ducks who are being repeatedly snacked-upon, so now I have them in a separate run, which is working out better. When they've healed up properly, I will take another stab a reintegration.

It's not really deliberate nastiness going on. Apparently pinfeathers are a protein-filled snack, and some of the ducklings have been indulging themselves at their siblings' expense. They just grab the ends of their wings and nibble or bite, which results in a lot of bleeding, not to mention an unattractive look.

I'm heading down today to treat their wounds with Blu Kote yet again. I have read that boredom can result in feather-picking, but the ducks have a huge run, treats, good food, things to explore, plus I let them out to free range as well! So unless I can teach them to play Scrabble with me, I think their little ducky brains are sufficiently stimulated. I suspect they are really just vampire ducklings.

Surprisingly, they all seem to like it.

And please excuse our bathroom walls. I have stripped the wallpaper (you don't want to know when I started that project, but let's just say it was snowing at the time, and we haven't had a snowfall this season.) We are waiting for the plaster guy to show up and repair our old walls so we can finally paint. Eventually I want to do a whole bathroom reno but that'll have to wait until Gordon is a rich lawyer, ha ha.  Or until I sell a million copies of the book I am going to write about blow-drying ducks!

Here's a video Gordon took with his iPhone. I thought he was taking photos which is why I was smiling at the camera. Then I indulge in my typical "I'm talking to an animal so it is imperative I sound like an idiot" babble. As you can see, Naomi wanted to help. The ducks are too big for the cats to mess with!

Yep, Saturday night at the farm. I have no life!