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Muscovy Duckling acting wierd

post #1 of 4
7/29/11 at 8:45am
Thread Starter 

I have 4 Muscovy ducks and one of them is not eatting alot and drinking very little. she/he walks like a bat with there legs spread apart  and mostly does want to move around. Does anyone know what could be wrong?

Thanks

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post #2 of 4
7/29/11 at 8:56am

It sounds like either splay leg, which is caused by walking on slippery surfaces, or a vitamin deficiency. Make sure their bedding is something they can get traction on (wood shavings, corn cob, a towel, etc) and not something slick like linoleum or flat paper towels.

Also try giving them some poultry vitamins, which you can get at the feed store. Lastly, ducks are really susceptible to vitamin B deficiencies, especially Niacin. You might want to get some extra Niacin in their diet. There are a lot of ways to do this, but the easiest is to go to a pharmacy and pick up some Niacin from the vitamin section. Don't get anything that says "flush free" or "no flush" because that's the wrong kind for ducklings.

Chicken feed isn't really made with ducklings in mind, so they don't really get all the nutrients they need if that's the only food they have.

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post #3 of 4
7/29/11 at 9:05am
Thread Starter 

Thanks, Ill try this and see what happens, he/she is in a box with grass and is know standing up on her/ him own now but now walking alot yet

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post #4 of 4
7/29/11 at 10:09am

I forgot to mention something... if the duck is only a few days old, it just might not have the hang of walking yet. They can be really wobbly at first. If it's older, I would say it's probably a vitamin problem.

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