shawnamaverick You should probably get some duck feed as ducks require different nutrition than other birds. Provide some small gravel for digestion. With our farmed ducks we have the heat lamp at about 90 degrees F the first week and decrease it by 5 degrees per week. It may be illegal where you are to keep a wild duck so you should check into that. Duck will need fresh water every and food that meets it's nutritional need. Depends on the type of duck, but if it's a water fowl it will likely roost on the ground so just a safe place for night. You may find that the duck will not accept the chukar. Ducks imprint very strong on what they see when they hatch. In this case it believes it is a duck. If it was hatched out by humans it would believe it was a human. Ducks can be very aggressive so be prepared for that. You may find you have a loudly quacking baby on your hands for a while, they are flock animals.

I've been reading Dave Holderread's book, so I've been following his advice. For the first 3 weeks, I've been using DuMor chick starter that states it may also be used for ducks and geese. I can't find the amount of niacin in the nutrition listing, so I've been hoping that the amount in the feed was sufficient. I'm leaning to moving to Mazuri Waterfowl Maintenance at this point, as it has the lower protein Holderread recommends for this age. Niacin is listed at 65 ppm, but I'm note sure how this translates to the measurements Holderread recommends. I'd add niacin to their water, but I'm afraid to overdose them! So far, their legs seem strong and healthy?

Clark, unless you understand why you had trouble with another kind of graft, I think it is very premature to assume that what worked and didn't work for you is somehow universal- this is the source of so much misinformation on the internet. It is also annoying whenever someone considers there own experience more significant than that of another contributor on a forum, something that I've often been guilty of and slow to learn. With fruit trees in particular, responses will vary, but with healthy wood on vigorous trees, species that graft easily can be grafted in many ways. The method I described I've used on hundreds of trees that have been baring heavy crops from the grafts for a long time. I've found it the easiest approach for me. The splice graft is the quickest, easiest to learn, and a vigorous, one year shoot is likely to heal quickly and grow quickly. I've taught many beginners this graft and they've generally encountered immediate success. The reason I developed the approach I do is that I'm often called on to change varieties of very old apple trees on estates, and this allows a fairly rapid transition without having to look at a butchered tree, and the scalding of trunks from excessive wood removal is prevented. I'm sure rind grafting works very well also, and removing most other growing parts of the tree assures the roots will send everything to a drastically reduced branch system. What you describe is the most common approach used in commercial orchards when changing over varieties, so it obviously has a lot going for it.

'Don't know the parents health issues but perhaps you should inform them of your problems. Put their childs behavior back on them. Perhaps they can talk to her or start paying her rent etc.' 'Let her parents deal with the concept of whether or not she can live with them--this is not your child, not your parents, not your problem.' 'Children never learn to tie their shoes if someone is always doing it for them.' This is true... but someone has to show the child HOW to tie them first. I've realized that she was denied this as a child, I only wished I had seen it sooner. The problem with her parents is not simple, and I suppose more info would have been appropriate in my first post... they are not together to begin with, but on top of that each of them has had their share of substance abuse problems. Her mother lives with her AA sponcer. Her father lives in a one bedroom trailer on disability, also a recovering alcoholic, and I know that his new wife abuses prescription drugs daily. Her (my roommates) mother actually took her out of school when she was a child and she was eventually taken away from her mom, this is why she cannot take care of herself. As a foster child she didn't have a real caring parent to make sure she learned important life leasons. Her overall education level is maybe 6th grade at best, my guess. I would like to thank both of you for your advice, different points of view are important. I know it seems I am being taken advantage of, however I can't just let her go the way she is, my conscience won't let me. So I talked to her last night, explained the strain she is putting on us, she seemed to understand. She gave me copies of her pay stubs, so I know when she will have the money to pay us back. Although she doesn't know it yet, when she finally does pay up we are going to put it into a trust account for her so that she can have a deposit and first months rent on her own apartment, we don't need the money like she does. Hopefully we will help her out of our home this summer, maybe spring. We told her there will be no more help from us (money, late night rescues, food, etc) she is on her own, but can stay for now because she needs a stable home for once in her life. She actaully bought dinner last night (it was mac'n'cheese but we liked the effort). She has been restricted from unlimited internet use, her online curfew is now 10pm and she only gets 1 hour a day, this seems to keep her in check. We can't keep her from going out, but I spoke to some of her bar buddies and explained the situation, that she shouldn't be out everynight, and I think we might get a little help from a few of them. I'm proud to say that after talking with her a lot of what I told her seemed to sink in... she didn't drink at all last night (keep your fingars crossed that it lasts). We still have a long ways to go with her, and I realize how unfair the situation is to me and my boyfriend, but for this family heart comes before finances. Again, thanks for your thoughts... at least now I know that I'm not being unreasonable.