Ask the Swan Specialist

In Response To: Re: baby swans (The Regal Swan)

Hi Jo:

You can feed them poultry mash (same as pellets only more ground) or feed them the poultry pellets and cracked corn. Once the pellets hit the water, they soften anyway.

You should keep the cygnets with their parents. They have a lot to learn regarding how to be a swan and you do not want them imprinting on you.

Do not put them indoors. They are learning how to be a swan and there have been cases of young birds going blind from not having sunlight. So, you do not want to do this.

Build a pen (1/2 in water, 1/2 on land) with a feeder inside. Place hay on the ground on the land so they can go with the parents for sleeping. Take care that there are no ants, etc. on the area that you provide for the land shelter. You must also ensure that the banks are not too steep. You need to have an area that the cygnets can access the water and then get back on the bank.

The pen should have poultry fencing on the bottom of the pen in the water so that turtles cannot dig under the fencing. The same poultry fencing should also be lining the outside and underneath the pen on the land so that predators such as foxes, coyotes, raccoons, etc. cannot access the pen. Finally, you must place some type of wire fencing on the top of the pen so that the hawks and other predators cannot get into the pen and kill all of the swans.

There are previous posts on this site on how to build a pen or you can get our book, Swan Keepers Handbook: A Guide to the Care of Captive Swans, Kreiger Publishing, 2003. This will help guide you. Let us know how the swans are doing. The Regal Swan
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