At three weeks old, the ducklings don’t look much like ducklings anymore. From all the reading I did beforehand, I did expect them to grow fast. In fact, I warned all my friends who have kids to be sure they visited during the first week so that the kids would be capable of holding them. But still, I am surprised at how fast they grow. The day they arrived we could hold them in one hand. Now, at three weeks, it is sometimes a struggle for an adult to catch hold of them with two hands.

The ducks are growing in their regular feathers now. Every morning when we go in to see them, it seems that there are new feathers sprouting out, and the ones from yesterday are a half-inch longer. I’m especially excited about the new feathers on the khaki campbells. I find the down on the campbells kind of boring – it’s a dull brown color all over. I was, frankly, kind of bored by their looks. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that I have the runners to compare them to. But now that the feathers are coming in on the campbells, I’m very impressed. Their real feathers, the few that I can see so far, are very vibrant and beautiful. I can’t wait to see what they look like when they are all in.

In terms of personality, the ducks are a pleasure to watch. I’ve been kind of worried that they would grow fearful of us since we have to give them vitamins by mouth for another week or two since the illness. They do seem a little more cautious when we walk into the room, but Arp and I are making sure that we pick them up at times other than when we give them vitamins so that they don’t make a bad association with being picked up. We also make sure to give them their greens right after the vitamins so that they have something to look forward to. Macaroni especially doesn’t mind being picked up. She continues to be the most tame, least fearful, and most inquisitive duck we have.

Here’s a pic of Macaroni with one of the campbells.  You can see some of the feathers on the campbell growing in near the wing.