The Ultimate Pet Duck Guidebook: All the things you need to know before bringing home your feathered friend. Paperback – September 1, 2014

It is very clear Kimberly Link LOVES ducks, and her enthusiasm is contagious. Written by the president of a waterfowl rescue who writes extremely detailed descriptions of housing options, predator-proofing, and medical care--to make sure your pet duck has the best chance of living a very long, healthy, and happy life with you. She goes into more detail about ideal pet flock sizes (small!) than some other books, as well as habitat enrichment ideas, and she discusses indoor ducks.This book has THE BEST MEDICAL SECTION, with drug options and dosages, that I have seen (short of maybe a veterinary textbook). It alone makes this book worthwhile. This book has WAY BETTER INFORMATION THAN YOU WILL FIND ON THE INTERNET, INCLUDING VERY POPULAR FORUMS. Save yourself lots of time wading through bad advice online and buy Kimberly Link's book. It walked me step-by-step through wet feather, bumble foot, broken blood feathers, and angel wing diagnosis and treatment (which I needed within the first several months of owning ducks!). Bring it with you when consulting with your vet, in case they don't see ducks every day.The drawback to Kimberly Links method of duck care is that, of course, it comes at greater financial cost than you might expect for a small farm animal. Building a large predator-proof enclosure is EXPENSIVE and time-consuming. At the sign of any problem, she, rightly, suggests a veterinary appointment.I *might* have had trouble with angel wing after following her suggestion of feeding the highest quality Mazuri pellets free choice to my ducklings . . . maybe I misunderstood, or maybe it was something else entirely. Either way, for my second batch of ducklings I leaned towards Holderread's suggestions of blending in more oats and limiting feed a little earlier. My second batch of ducklings grew slower and had fewer little health problems. Is it possible that since she deals mostly in rescued waterfowl that have been starved, she has a little blind spot that allows them to become slightly overfed?If you want a book about breeding, culling, showing, and cooking livestock ducks--look elsewhere.

This book is very informative!!! If you have ducks as pets it's a must have.

There are many "ultimate" books out there about every topic you can think of, and they're nowhere near "ultimate." This one lives up to its title. If you're an owner of companion ducks, or are thinking of being one, and buy only one book, buy this one.I own just about every duck book worth owning, and some that aren't. I breed Call ducks, so I like to have a variety of good references. This book and Dave Holderread's Storey's Guide are the ones I go to most often. While I consider the Storey's Guide indispensable, it contains a lot of information a casual owner probably doesn't need, e.g., genetics, butchering, and duck recipes. (I've never read the butchering and recipe chapters.)Kim's guide is more narrative and is easy for anyone to understand. There is information on nutrition, environment, interaction, accommodations, predation, anatomy, illness, and so much more. I actually read books like this cover-to-cover, and it wasn't at all hard to do it with this one even though it's a very large book. It really is that interesting and that easily readable.I'd very much like to see this book in an electronic version so I can have it with me wherever I am. I like to keep all my "must haves" on my phone and tablets, and this one is a definite must have for me!

The book lives up to its name, it really is the ultimate pet duck guidebook! It has many pages to cover health problems, talks about different feed brands and how to adjust feeds, how to make proper housing etc. There's even information on how to make your own "duck first aid kit" with all sorts of medical supplies. I haven't had time to read the whole book yet, but it certainly is worth the money!Now, I have also read other books such as Dave Holdread's guide to raising ducks and Duck! There's a Goose in the House! by Nancy Townsend. Both are decent, especially the later which has info on house ducks. But this book is by far the most detailed and comprehensive book I've found yet.The only downsides I can think of is it lacks information on house ducks. It does have some information but not much. Then again, the author seems to feel that ducks belong in an outdoor setting and not as house pets. Nonetheless she does have some information on duck diaper resources.The first book I ordered had pages falling out shortly after I started reading it. However, I asked Amazon to replace it and I haven't had any issues since. I most likely received a bad copy which does happen from time to time.

Well written book with a lot of good info, but would have liked more practical info for a beginner including duck houses, winter strategies, ideas for water in the winter, optimal layer boxes or in duck houses, if let out to graze will ducks go back in their pen easily? For instance, I have 300 Golden Layers, it's winter and they're not laying, is there anything I can do to promote laying? I discovered that the drake is monogamous. So only one in four eggs will be fertilized. This is the kind of info that would have been very helpful at the start. A large portion of the book is dedicated to pathologies.

I am a new duck owner and I got several books and a magazine to learn about them. I’ve learned from all of them but this one has been the most detailed and helpful to me. Written in a humorous and easy to understand way, the author even made it easy enough for people with no medical background to understand and have available a guidebook generally covering a ducks health and anatomy. One thing though was that the back of the book boasts full color photos and that would have made a big difference but they are black and white. Awesome book though 😁