Week Seven Update

So, Cheyenne is seven weeks old today. I'm SO EXCITED that her intermediate diaper harness officially fits with no problem. Finally, she doesn't take it off and seeing that it was her first day with it on, she was very tolerant of it. We were able to take a nap together with no worries on my end ;D Today was the best day I've had with her.
You can barely see the black harness on her:


Also, about her Angel Wing. A couple days ago, after having wrapped her, I decided it was just too much to put her through. I felt terrible for making her endure the whole process and decided, since it's cosmetic, and not to risk injury of blood feathers, etc in her struggle, I would let it be.

Yesterday her angel wing looked horrible. Worst it ever had and thoughts of wrapping it started crossing my mind again, but still I let it be.

This morning I wake up and, unless I'm hallucinating, it looks as though it's correcting itself!! All within the night hours! It's crazy. I sure hope this isn't presenting false hope, but I'm excited about it.

Here's her wing today:


And a couple extra pictures...

Cheyenne's Weekly Growth Comparison-- Seven Weeks Old

Click here for more growth comparison photos.

Truck Duck

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More Week Six Pics

Weekly Growth Comparison-- Six Weeks Old

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Frustrated

Week 6 and Cheyenne, no doubt, is forming angel wing. My husband and I tried to wrap it this morning with vet wrap and failed. Couldn't give it a second shot because he had to go to work. I'm so frustrated. This isn't easy. She slipped it right off. Tomorrow I'm going to try and wrap the wing itself and then continue the vet wrap around her body. Looking for an easier way in the mean time. :(

growth photos to come...

Update: Week Five

Cheyenne is doing good. I have concerns that she may be showing signs of Angel Wing, though. :( I surely hope not. Her left quills that are coming in are splaying out a bit. On the right side, the quills are neatly tucked under her wing. We shall see! I posted these pictures in the yahoo group petducksRus in hopes of getting tips and advice. In the mean time, I'm weaning her off starter feed today and adding xtra oats to deplete the amount of protein she's consuming.
You can see here that she's forming green feathers on her face now (yay!) And when she's out, she is now using her Ducky Diner from The Goose's Mother. Really cuts down on the mess. Her feathers are coming in more and more. (Note that Cheyenne is a LOT darker than all the pictures I post of her. She's so dark that I have to brighten the pictures up enormously so that you can even see her). I'm going to put her intermediate harness on again today, and hopefully she has grown enough and won't be able to take it off. I'll update later.

With that, here are a few five week photos of her. The first one is my favorite picture of her.  I love it when she flaps those little wings!

Cheyenne's Weekly Growth Comparison-- Five Weeks Old

Click here for more weekly comparison photos.

Diaper Delivery

Cheyenne's intermediate diaper from IndoorDucks.com arrived today.  HIGHLY impressed with the quality.
It was so much easier to put on compared to the baby safety pin harnesses.  (I would suggest skipping those all together). 

Unfortunately, she was able to get it off in under a minute.  I think when she grows a tiny bit more and it's more snug, it will stay on (especially seeing as how she doesn't have any feathers to help keep it in place).   But, again, beautifully made.

I ordered her adult harness from the same company yesterday.  I also ordered her a waterproof pillow.  I thought they were silly before I got Cheyenne, but now after having her, and now that's she's grown a lot, it's clear that it's a necessity in her cage..... really.

She ate her first snail yesterday! 

The swallows who are nesting on my porch have finally accepted her and see her as no threat so no more dive-bombing.

Her feathers are slowly coming in.  And, today on her wings there are long, sharp, white quills coming from her wings.

She's shedding her baby fluff rapidly, too.

Cheyenne is one month old today :)

Be Quick to Order

If you plan on diapering your house duck, be quick to order your harnesses.  The baby harnesses should be ordered before the baby even arrives.  Intermediate harnesses (If using IndoorDucks.com) should probably be ordered at the duckling's arrival.  It takes some time for her to make the harnesses and create a batch to be shipped.  I just BARELY squeaked my order into the next batch simply because she was kind enough to bend her batch for me.  Had she not done that, even though there are still several weeks left until I will need an intermediate harness, Cheyenne would have already grown out of it upon it's arrival if I had to wait for the proceeding batch.  So, get that order in.  IndoorDucks.com has a chart for ducks that allows you order an adult harness without specific measurements, of you wish, according to breed.  I will probably order in advance.  You can also wait until your bird is full grown.

Diapered Ducks

I just submitted my order for Cheyenne's intermediate diaper harness from Indoor Ducks !
She won't fit into it for a few weeks, but I want to make sure I have it when she does.  She should be fitting into her first of four baby harnesses from The Goose's Mother by the end of this week.  She will be two weeks old.

We had so much fun together yesterday.  She's getting stronger every day.  She is becoming a little more accustomed to cooler temps (slowly but surely) and that means longer play time out of her 'nest'.  She's gaining more confidence and is starting to wander further and further from my side with each day.  It's nice to see her relax more and have fun without being so concerned about where I am.  She's starting to understand that even though she doesn't physically see me, I'm still with her.  She starts off every play session with a swim, preens and checks things out around the house, swims again, and if she's not too cold, settles on my lap for a nice, long nap.  She's 10 days old today.