ABOUT US

Dusty and Otter are non-biological duck sisters who were adopted by us in the Spring of 2015. We had never taken care of ducks before but were asked by a friend if we might want to adopt two ducklings. We decided to go meet them and "see how we felt". They came home with us that night and our lives have been different ever since. We've learned how to care for them along the way, reading what we could and talking to other duck parents online. But it was difficult to find information geared towards keeping ducks exclusively as pets, not for food, not for eggs, not for down. Eventually we did find an online community of duck lovers who care for their birds like family and we learned a lot from them about duck housing, care, and health. We are not experts by any means, but hope to share our experience as duck lovers and duck parents so that you may understand what it's really like to share a life with these beautiful, sensitive and caring creatures.

The deeper back story behind our love for them is that we are a vegan family (have been for over 10 years, we even run a vegan cooking business) but we weren't always that way. My husband and I both grew up eating the standard American diet, but in 2006, after watching the documentary "Winged Migration" we both went vegetarian on the spot. There is a scene where hunters are shooting migrating birds from the sky, I looked at my husband and said, "That's it, I can't eat meat anymore". The violence and disregard for an animal's right to live shook me. We went vegan two years later and haven't looked back since. Little did we know that 7 years later two ducks would waddle into our lives and we would come full circle.

We hope this site inspires you to approach all creatures with kindness in your heart, perhaps give the vegan lifestyle a try if you haven't already, and see what living with as much compassion as possible feels like. You can read more about the girls and duck care in general in the FAQ section of this site. For a daily duck fix, you can follow the girls on Instagram where they have done everything from inspire marriage engagements to help folks recover from surgery and chronic anxiety. If you are interested in adopting ducks as pets we highly encourage you to contact your local animal shelter or farm animal sanctuary, you may be surprised to see how many ducks need homes in your area. Welcome to life with ducks!