If all the sugar this time of year isn’t enough to send you into insulin shock, the cutesy characterizations of bunnies, ducklings and chicks just might.

In reality, artists don’t have to work hard to make characterizations of the real thing adorable. Ducklings, chicks and bunnies are about the cutest little puff balls you have ever seen and if the artist’s renditions aren’t enough, some stores stock the real live thing. However, The Humane Society of the United States recently put out this caution about not purchasing living Easter presents:

A common tragedy each year after Easter is the number of animals relinquished to animal shelters or who are left to fend for themselves outdoors when the novelty of a live animal gift has worn off. “People often don’t realize the level of financial commitment and time these animals require,” said Stephanie Shain, director of companion animal outreach for The HSUS. “Animals associated with Easter like ducks and rabbits can be especially challenging.”

“No joke,” I said when I read this. Bunnies, ducklings and chicks grow up to be rabbits, ducks and chickens and raising these little puffballs is not for the uninitiated or faint at heart.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love ducks. They are both eminently comical and sleekly beautiful. Nothing makes me smile like watching my little flock of ducks dabbling in the water or waddling across the barnyard in search of bugs or grain. Raising ducklings, however, is not something you want to venture blithely into.

When ducklings and chicks hatch, they have mama hen or mama duck to keep them warm, but when raised in captivity, it is up to us to provide the accurate warmth. Rigging a homemade warmer in a draft free enclosure is fraught with difficulties, from not getting the right temperature for the hatchlings to practically burning your house down (trust me, this is one of those things I have learned the hard way).

Ducklings and chicks grow at a phenomenal rate, consuming a huge amount of food. And what goes in, must come out. One would swear they defy the laws of physics, the conservation of matter and energy, by creating more mass in poop than you are giving them in feed. They are pecking, peeping poop factories. And not only do they produce poop in copious quantities, but they dump mushy piles everywhere and then obliviously track it around where it will then dry to the consistency of cement. Your cute little Easter scene soon resembles a toxic waste dump, complete with salmonella risk, requiring a Superfund cleanup.

Ducklings love water. They want to dabble their feed in their water, making a mushy little trail of soaked food between the feeder and the water, which they then track all over creation with their paddle feet. Mixed with duckling poop, it is the Mother of all Messes. As one would expect, they will gleefully jump into the water any chance they can get. As one would not expect, they can also drown because they will jump into water containers they cannot get out of.

And what are you going to do with them when they grow up? Some communities allow the keeping of laying hens within city limits (and raising your own eggs is a delight — if you are prepared for this responsibility). But most do not. And unless you specifically buy laying hens, half those cute little chicks will grow up to be roosters. Trust me when I say that your neighbors won’t really appreciate your 4 a.m., natural alarm clock that has no shut-off key.

– Dr. Janice Willard is a veterinary ethologist from Moscow, Idaho