Hi All, I found a baby duck (Mallard) drowning in the pond. The mother has 6 other chicks and swam off with them leaving this one behind. I swam out and rescued it only to find it has two deformed feet. 3 days ago it was not able to keep up with the mom and it's siblings. However, I have been feeding and exercising it and now it is much stronger. My question is this: Since it has deformed feet, will the mother just lave it again? Or now that it is stronger and can (maybe) keep up with the family, will it be ok? Before it was unable to jump out of the pond with the rest of the family so it would just swim around and around get tired and almost drown, until I rescued it twice. I can not keep this duck as a pet because we live full time in a motorhome. I gave it back to the mom the day after I found it, and she swam off and left it alone a second time. It definitely wants to go with the mom and siblings and they hang out in my back yard all day hearing this poor little guy chirping.

I wonder how many days I can keep it and have the mom still accept it back. OR because of the feet, will she just abandon it over and over again?

Thanks, Lucky Ducky's surrogate Mom