 The show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. I'm your host Dr. Grace O'Neill. Joining me today is Susan Wilkinson of Susie's Duck. Today we're going to talk about how she found Daffy, her sanctuary, and surfing ducks. So can you tell us about how you found Daffy, your first duck? Yeah, so I was living on the one of the canals in Kailua and ducks were always back there and there were a pair of Muscovy, which I've learned since we're probably not supposed to be there because they were probably dumbed, but they would come up and hang out and visit and then they'd have a brood of ducklings and then they'd all be gone. And then they had another brood of duckling a few months later and they'd all be gone. Nature's pretty cruel and I kind of said to myself I can't let this happen again. I need to do something and the next time she came up she came with one and I just couldn't let anything bad happen to that one duckling. So my intention was to raise her with her mom and build a little space for them to be safe and I got really sick so I couldn't and I ended up just having to raise the duckling by myself and that was Daffy. So what happened to Daffy's mom then? Daffy's mom come to visit? She would for quite a while and then she disappeared one day. I think she got sick and passed away, but I didn't know enough about duck behavior to even identify it at the time. And the irony is her dad is actually still with me. Wow, that's cool. So with Daffy and other ducks, I mean like the Muscovy ducks, how long do they usually live? They can live upwards of 20 years. Wow, yeah. That's a pretty cool commitment. Yeah, I mean do different, that's like longer than a duck. So do different duck species have different lifespans? Yeah, they do. Mallards on average are about 10 to 15, just depending on environment whether it's in the wild or not. Obviously in the wild a little bit less than in captivity just because better food, better protection of environment, but yeah. Can you show us some of the pictures, Eric, of the different kinds of ducks first? Well, this is, why would we say this is Daffy? Season's first duck. So the reason the whole duck thing happened and I guess this is kind of the way to kind of explain everything is the way the duck thing happened is Daffy was pretty high profile because she would come with me, I volunteered with AccessSurf. It's a non-profit, helps individuals with any kind of physical or cognitive disabilities get in the water. So I was always there volunteering and Daffy would come with every event. So she became a regular and because of her being out and about and with us everywhere we went, because she was, you know, a single duckling, she had to come with me, people started recommending they had a duck and then it became, oh, you have a duck, here's other ones. And so that's kind of how that whole thing spiraled. But being at AccessSurf all the time, Daffy got two titles. One, she became a surfing duck because we were always with folks who were surfing. And two, she became a therapy duck because of the clientele and the participants we were working with. She just connected on a whole different level and did some pretty incredible things. So how did Daffy end up learning how to surf? So when she was really young, yeah, no, she couldn't, we couldn't let her in the water right away because it was salt water and it's not good for their fluff. So once, but she was always on the land just walking around and standing on surfboards. And that was kind of one of the therapy techniques that started to work with wounded warriors. And she would jump on the surfboards when they were doing the land lesson and automatically their tension levels would drop down. They realized that this wasn't so serious. So they kind of lightened up and then we turned out in the water later and it went from the land lessons to being on a big bodyboard, letting her use to the waves, and then continuing we worked with and actually got her on a surfboard and tried it out with her to see how she would like it. And she actually really loved it. So what happens when the, I guess when the surfer falls off, she just swims? Yeah, she just swims with folks. So, and she'll swim, actually sometimes she'll swim over to someone else's board and jump on there or she'll body surf wave in. So the way we do it with her with the surfing is we would let her, we finish the wave and then wait. And if she wanted to go on again, she would stay on the board. If she was done, she'd just jump off and start swimming to her shore. So if not, we'd turn around and tuck her back in. She either ride on your chest or on your back while you're paddling out. We got back waiting for the wave, she'd walk up and ride nose and be ready to go from there. She's on the nose. Yeah, and we called it web toes on the nose. So with Daphne, does she pretty much just stick around with you everywhere you go? Like in the house, like, I mean, she was everywhere with me. So yeah, it was kind of fun. We may or may not have snuck her into some places. We probably weren't supposed to, but she did great. Muscovy don't quack. So she never gave herself away. The females make like a trilling chirping sound and the males kind of like a huffing wheezing sound. So that made it easier too. So is Daphne potty trained? No, ducks can't be. The only thing they can train themselves to do is not poop in their nest. They're very clean with their nest area. But other than that, it's just like, Hey, what's up? But there are diapers for them. So when we would do outreach events that were indoors, I would let her wear her diapers so that it just, you know, we don't want to make messes everywhere we went. But if she was outdoors, it was just a free for all, especially if the beach just sanded over. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but how about in your home? Do you let her in your home on the same area as the house and puppy pads? Protected areas. Yeah. And then what kind of things do ducks eat? Not bread. It's one of those things that we've all done. We're all guilty of it in our lifetime and still a lot of people still do it today. Bread is the worst thing for them. One, there's no nutritional value in it. It just fills up their stomach so they don't eat anything else. I have a bunch of ducks that were only bread fed as ducklings. And so they have disabilities because of it. They can't walk. They can't fly. But also the bread, even for other animals in our climate, especially it's terrible with the heat and the stagnant water, it causes botulism. Botulism will actually paralyze them from the inside out and stop their ability to breathe. Is that for all animals? It affects ducks, other water animals, a water, waterfowl, and fish. Oh my gosh. It's no idea because we're always feeding bread to fish, do you? Yeah. So they might not be feeding it to the ducks, but it can cause the same effect in the water and cause that and it'll actually kill off the fish as well and kill off the ducks. So it's a pretty good informational campaign we've been trying to share with folks is to let them know because we're all guilty of it. It's nothing to be, you know, but if you can learn and move on, then it's great. But what they do love to eat, vegetables, not our rotten ones. They like fresh veg, beef, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, bok choy, like lots of like dark green leafy veg. Just spinach and avocado are the no-nos. Why is that? There's something about it like the oxalates and the spinach, but I'm not sure the avocado is a poison. So the other thing is not bird seed because they're not birds. They don't have the beak to crack open the seeds. They actually need the pellets or the bigger specific duck food for them. Do they eat things that chickens do? Like centipedes? No, they're not really. Yes and no. They don't do centipedes, but they do eat cockroaches, worms, most of the bugs out there, slugs, snails. They're great for gardening. But if you have a garden and it likes vegetables, wouldn't you be afraid that the duck would eat your vegetables? Some of them, yes. So you just kind of adjust your garden accordingly, make like an area for them to eat out of. The picture with the solid white goose in it and there's a little mallard hiding in there. Those are all duck-friendly plants that we can't but that's their food. But yeah, if you don't want them to eat all of your stuff, then yeah, plant some of theirs, but they're really good at gardening and they are amazing because of the fertilizer. Yes, yes. I heard duck fertilizer is one of the best, but I've been very, I mean because I was thinking about getting ducks because someone told me the muskevee ducks are good, but then I was afraid because I like to plant cucumbers. You just kind of make theirs and yours. Yeah. I guess, I mean if you put a fence around it, they can probably fly over. They can, but if they've got enough of their own stimulation, they're not going to go hunting for more. Yeah. Do they eat grass or no? They won't eat grass. So much. They'll nibble on it a little bit. Geese are prolific grass eaters. We've ended up with a couple of disabled geese here at the sanctuary, so I've had to adjust what we started to grow for them. So they love their grasses. But ducks are like they'll nibble on it and they'll just play with it, but they're looking, they're mostly digging in the mud, in the water, looking for the snails and the slugs and the bugs and getting those out of there. Can you show us the other pictures of different kinds of ducks, Eric, now? Sorry, I kind of got interrupted from that. So tell us about the mallard ducks. I know you said they have a shorter lifespan. Yeah. So mallards are most common everywhere in the world. They're just the real generic beautiful browns, different shades of browns. Some of them are actually white mallards. There is a native Hawaiian mallard, Kaloa. The challenge with that is, is that they are so similar visually that from what I understand, there is one person in Hawaii who can actually identify them visually. Other than that, you have to do DNA testing off island. Oh, wow. So they're trying to figure out if there are any of the Kaloas on which islands and how much, how many of them are interbred with the domestic mallards. So right now, it's just kind of a gray area. So we're just really cautious and very careful. We take care of any of the mallards that we can. And if they're injured, they get released back to where they came from. We're just trying to keep the balance the way it is and not disrupt that until told otherwise. That's kind of how we help them out with that. And can you show us the other ducks now, Eric? The other ones, Welsh, Harlequin and Swedish Blue? Yeah. So those are two other ones that we have here on I have at the sanctuary. Blondie is the whiter one and she actually has her booties on because she's so cute issues. So she has feet issues. So she gets what's called bumble fits like a staff infection. So she gets to wear her booties. Those are both flightless breeds of bird. They were originally bred for meat. And they are stunning. They are beautiful. They're super friendly. They do have a good quack on them. But I've ended up with two of them to help with different things. So those are kinds that you don't see as often, but the mallards and the Muscovy are the two that you'll find most predominantly on the island. The Muscovies are a tropical breed from South America. Oh, nice. Yeah, they thrive here. They're not supposed they're very domesticated now. So they're really not supposed to be out in the wild. So a lot of people will purchase one at a local feed store. And then when they're bored with it, they dump it in the canal and then the canal residents get mad and it's this vicious cycle. They can they can make babies pretty quick. They're pretty good at it. So we try really hard. We don't breed any ducks here and any breeds here at the sanctuary. We just help rescue anything we can. Any Muscovy that come in, they do get rehomed. We're actually in the process of trying to send two of them to a forever home on Maui right now. Nice. Yeah. So I mean, I am wondering how you got started with the sanctuary now. You have a duck. Can you take care of the duckling we found? Oh, you have a duck. Well, these five, their mother got ran over and their siblings and they're the only ones. Can you take care of these five? Oh, and then this one's injured and I'm part of a bird rescue group now and they're like, oh, we found this duck and can you help this and we found this goose. And yes, it is a goose. Actually, I ended up with a was it a snow goose, which is an Arctic bird that had landed here in Hawaii. And we no one knew what it was at first and we found out what it was and it had kind of broken clavicle and stuck on islands. So I just kind of kept attracting them. I had to move. We were renting the fort. I didn't want to be disrespectful to the landlords. So we were looking to buy anyway. And so we ended up moving up to Wahua, where we could get a property that has enough land to be able to do this. So this is phase one, just about complete. Yeah, we've got the pond we just put in. I figured out how to do a filter yesterday because that's like a big mess. So we've got our first of like about five ponds that's installed. The pens that you see there are meant to look like a German village. We're just finishing the painting to make it with the timber look that there's residents in there for everybody. It's a safe environment for them. And then we're building some other ones for different. We're putting a mallard city in for somebody mallards that have been coming in injured and rehabbing and a lot of boy miscovies, they don't necessarily get along. So we're trying to make different areas for them. And so it's just kind of grown very organically into its own sanctuary. So how many ducks do you have at the moment? We don't talk about Bruno. There are about 30 right now. But there are more because we have two mother mallards that were rescued within days of each other with 11 and eight babies, each one with a broken femur and one with the babies that were getting run over because of where the mother picked a really bad nesting area. So we're getting them, they should be released in the next week back to where they were found. And hopefully that'll keep them safe for the mother's leg was healed. We have a really good vet who helped us with that shed a fractured leg. So a lot of very concerned citizens reached out. I have about six or seven different people reach out about this one duck. So we've taken them in. So once those guys are back into their natural habitat, it'll be back in a respectable number again. And where is a natural habitat for these ducks in Hawaii? Like fresh water though, right? Yeah, they'll play at the beach and hang out. But there's usually brackish water pretty close or a stream that goes up into the other water. They wander off to go nest. So that's why you see them in random places a lot. Sure. I haven't really seen a lot of wild ducks. Maybe it's just where I live in Kentucky. A little bit drier up that way. A lot in Hawaii Kai because of the estuaries and the canals that run off. There's Duck Island out that way. Quite a few come from there and quite a few that get hit by cars come from Hawaii Kai. That's too bad. We do the best we can and help them. Are they pretty, I mean with the wild ones, are they pretty friendly when you see them? I mean, or you just kind of stay away. That's how you know they're really hurt is when they don't want to kill you. You're like, oh, you're really bad. And so you nurture and just give them as much space and as little handling as possible to help them just let them have time medicine and whatever the treatment is to heal so that they can still go back. Their wild streak is pretty wild. There have been a few over the years that have been very disabled and unable to return to the wild, whether they can't walk or cannot fly. And if that's the case, they can't go back because they're just subject to predators and it's not fair to them. They've taken their time to warm up to me a little bit. What kind of predators do they have on the islands? Dogs and cars are their worst enemies. Mostly it's the dogs that will chase them down. Whether it's a wild dog or someone thinks it's fun to let theirs go off leash and chase the dogs. But there aren't a lot of big predators like there were on the mainland. There's no raccoons, there's no, there are actually owls and hawk on island. So but they haven't, they've got enough other food sources. They're not really bothering them. But for the ducklings, the mongoose are terrible. The rats are terrible. The, you wouldn't believe it, but the herons really duckling. Yeah, it's frightening. I thought they just ate those centipedes. Oh no, those are the cattle egret, the white ones, but the gray ones with the longer bill. Beautiful, beautiful birds. They're water birds as well. They will scoop down and yeah, it's but as they start getting bigger and then they can fly away and get away, they're safer. But you know, people aren't generally nice. People can pick them up and do not nice things. If you do find an injured duck, what, how would you take care of it? How do you carry it? There's a little box in the area. Is it bad to touch them? Not bad to touch them. They're actually one of the cleanest animals. A lot of people think they have like mice and they're all phony. They're actually not at all because of the water. Because they need to stay waterproof, they care what their feathers and pristine conditions. So they're very tightly packed so that they keep all those bugs and they're always pruning, always cleaning, always pruning. So that's when you see them just biting on themselves. They're actually just, they just to go back off and putting the oil back on. So touching them is not a big problem. Catching them if they are injured, a towel is a good thing. A net if you need to, since they are flighted normally, that's it's a challenge. But having some kind of a box of holes or if you have like a pet carrier, it works really well. We have pet carriers and a net in the car at all times. And then once you get them, would you need like a little baby pool or something for them to dip themselves in and then? As far as like a pet or for rehabbing? For rehabbing. Oh, for rehabbing I do a lot of indoors to start just because I don't know what's going on. But we have an indoor shower with a really neat little tub in it so that I can fill it, let them sit in there, get them cleaned off and figure out. But the very first thing I do is I don't put them in water. I have to make sure what the, you know, the extent of the injuries are. Do an assessment. I have a couple of really good connections within the rescue industry that can help with things. And if it's beyond our knowledge, we will reach out to a vet, which we try not to only because it's all out of pocket. We do all the rescuers, we do it out of pocket. So yeah. I mean it's difficult. I mean does a humane society help at all with stuff like that? No, unfortunately they don't. And they don't take in any wild. I don't think they take any wild birds at all anymore. They definitely don't take ducks anymore. I've had a lot of people lately tell me. Feather and Fur is a wonderful vet in Kailua. They used to be a great place to good Samaritan drop off, but they're just so overwhelmed. They do all the endangered seabirds. So they are unable to take in. But if you do call them about a duck, they're very kind and will give my contact information out so I can help further. Yeah. It's kind of difficult because I'm sure a lot of people want to help, but they don't know how to. So if you weren't going to have one as a pet though, I mean just go back to that other topic, then you do want to get them a little baby wade pool I guess if you didn't have like a backyard or something. Yeah. So muscovies are not like mallards. Mallards love to live in the water. They love the water. They could swim in it 24 seven if they could. They love hunting in the water. They love doing. So having mallards as pets is challenging because they do like to fly anyway. They most likely will go around. But muscovies are pretty cool because they're like, Hey, best friend ever. Yeah. So a big, a good size catie pool is fine. They like to jump in, splash around their big kids and then they hop back out and it'll spend like the next hour cleaning feathers and re-oiling themselves. And so yeah, it's pretty cool. They need shelter. They're very trainable. They're very, very set in their ways. So dinners at this time, breakfast at this time, let us out at this time. We're ready for food now and they'll let you know and they'll be waiting for it. So having that meal for them and then putting them into an enclosure in the evenings for their safety is your best bet. And the enclosure, how big do you recommend an enclosure to be for like one muscovy duck? For evenings, just for like a sleeping mind for them are like a three foot by three foot. It could definitely be bigger, but just because of what we're working with for the singles, I do a three by three. It's pretty good. They, yeah, they do good. They go in, they have their nap, they're ready in the morning, come back out and enjoy that great outdoors. It fakes and feel comfortable and safe as well. Yeah. Do they do any, I mean, I know you said their waste is good for the garden, but how about themselves? Do they eat food scraps? Like I know you said they don't eat rotten food, but how about like scraps? Like suppose there's parts of the celery like the very bottom that you didn't want to eat or like, you know, the kale, like the middle part of the kale, like, are they interested in those things? Yeah. Yeah, there's, they like a different, a lot of different things, except the nibbling on my hand. So I was thinking, but you're right in front of my face. There you go. I'm blurring. So this is a, one of our little owners from Durban, but she's been hanging out so I was getting bitten, nibbled on. They, they're very individual with what they do with their food. So kind of fun. Some like, some will eat tomatoes, some love cucumbers, most of them all love cucumbers. Yeah. That's cool. So it's not easy. Do they eat flowers? Yeah, the edible flowers they will. We put pansies in to make it look pretty for a photo shoot and they were gone before the photographer got there. So they look really pretty for a minute. Marigolds are good. They're really healthy for them too. And some edible flowers and I mean, how fast is the rate of eating though? I mean, do you buy them, do they just eat vegetables or do you also buy them some kind of duck feed? Oh yeah. No, I have a specific pellet that I get for them. Yeah. Yeah. I use a brand called Missouri. M-A-Z-U-R-I. It's a real good, I just because I have so many, they're high maintenance that I really needed the best out there. I couldn't just afford to do just a generic duck pellet for them and it's worked really well to keep them very healthy. And they get pellets in the morning, they get them in the evening. I work really hard to have them forage and be as natural as possible because ducks have a crop. So food will just go in, but then it goes into their gizzard and it gets ground up by the rocks. So they need that dirt and rock that they're eating that'll sit on their end of their food and process it. So as much access to the great outdoors as possible, they do nibble a lot. They're pretty good at it. Not as bad as a goose, though I've realized. Goose can eat a head of lettuce in about three minutes. Don't go any lettuce in your garden or whatever. Yeah, just keep replacing it, just get a lot. And like you rotate areas. So that's what we're working on is getting the garden situation set up so that they can have different areas and it can be growing. Like seed, grow and be edible and rotate as they go. Yeah, right. I mean, that's difficult. I mean, what would you like people to know about ducks? Like people who might, you know, like, you know, the people who, because there's a lot of things, you know, people are eating duck and they don't know about ducks. People think that, you know, they don't have feelings or whatever. Like, what would you like people to know about ducks that maybe you didn't know before you had your own duck? Each one is different. They have as much personality as a cat or a dog, probably more than a cat. They're very, they're very friendly. They're very social. They have an incredible memory. They're just so sweet. They're fun and fluffy. And I get circle of life and people are going to eat what they need to eat and do their thing. And I'm not going to ever preach against people making their own choices. But they're really neat. They're very special and they do a lot of good for other people as well. So if there's an opportunity to ever find a new pet or have a garden and want to, you know, encourage that in there, it's definitely a neat adventure to go on. They're very, very kind and loving. So I have a lot of people you found good people to give your ducks to that, you know, adopt your ducks that have just used them as therapy animals. Yeah, we've had some pretty neat things happen with the therapy animals. With access surf, there were the competitions and we had one of the competitors, she would have seizures because she would get herself so worked up before it was her heat. And so come in, cuddle with her, and then she would just be so relaxed and ready to go. And then as soon as her heat was on, she went right into it without any stress and struggles. And so encouraging that kind of a cool behavior with people has been really interesting. And I do have a lot of ducks that are disabled. So folks who would like something to help care for a little bit more, I've got some of those guys that would make really neat forever pets too, to help you have someone to nurture and really provide that care for that need you. So I want to just show, because I don't think we've showed yet the video of Daphne surfing, if you can show it. This is actually KK, a good friend, Kristin. She is the one who taught Daphne how to surf because I can stand on a board and I can yell, get out of the way, I can't steer very, very well. But Kristin is a very, very talented surfer and it's her taking really good care of Daphne on that board. One of our first sessions of teaching her how and she just rides the front in the chills. Very special. And unfortunately, Daphne did pass away a few months ago. She was really, really sick and we weren't able to five weeks of trying to help people going and she did not go through. It was a very severe like four-part infection. We're not really sure if we think there may be something in her path. Infection of what? There was multiple infections. She was on four or five different antibiotics but this whole sanctuary is her legacy. This is because of her and so this is all in her honor and so I get to do this for her. I mean, what do ducks usually die of? Like you said, car accidents. Usually in the wild, they age out but it's rough out there for them. Injuries and just situations and ducks aren't necessarily nice to each other sometimes. They'll battle for their girlfriends and boyfriends. But cars and dogs are pretty much the biggest natural challenges they have. And you were going to say something about ducks in Hawaii too before we conclude, you know, just in general or something? Well, I was talking about the colloas earlier about the native ducks. So we're just working to help whatever we can to keep that its own thing. Yeah, they're definitely here. They're definitely, some people find them innocent, some find them lovable. They do a lot of good but I understand that they're just sometimes not wanted. So the best thing I tell people if you've got one in your area that you're trying to not have there is pretend like you want to catch it and love it forever. They'll feel like they're getting too much attention and that will usually help them leave or reach out to me and we'll try to help. But just shushing them doesn't work for some reason they're like, whatever. But if your neighbor is feeding and watering them, then they will definitely come back because they are very food motivated. That's awesome. Thank you so much. It's been so informative. Thank you. They're welcome to reach out. Yeah, no, no, no. I mean, just, you know, we're out of time but we have to, so just let us know what, how people can reach you if they have an injured duck or if they're interested in adopting a duck right now. The easiest is Susie's duck. S-U-S-I-E-S-D-U-C-K and you can do that on Facebook, Instagram or .com. It's the easiest. I kept it all across the board the same. Okay, great. So we're going to wrap it up now. I'm Dr. Grace O'Neill. This is Healthy Planet on a ThinkTech Livestreaming Network series. We've been talking with Susan Wilkinson of Susie's duck. Thanks to Eric, our broadcast engineer and the rest of the crew at ThinkTech for hosting our show. And thanks to you, our listeners for listening. I'll see you on September 2nd for more of Healthy Planet on ThinkTech, the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet. If you have ideas for the show or questions for my future guests, please contact me at healthyplanetthinktech at gmail.com. Check out my website at graceandhawaii.com or Instagram at gracefulliving365 for more information on my projects including future show guests. I'm Dr. Grace O'Neill. Aloha everyone. Thank you so much for watching ThinkTech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.