Did I do the right thing? + Looking for advice/tips

[duckdad29]

Hello everyone!
Long story short, I ended up with some duck eggs that were about to hatch. I have never hatched anything from an egg in my life. They pipped but within 48 hours there had been no progress, however there was peeping and movement within the eggs. I ended up creating holes from the pips to try and help the babies. They still did not make any attempts to zipper for many hours, so we began to help the babies out ourselves. I was very confused because the membrane was dry, so dry that I think it was beginning to shrink wrap the babies yet they still seemed to be attached by their umbilical cord to the yolk. It was almost like they hatched both too early and too late. We did not open any of the eggs until the babies had externally pipped themselves. I am aware that these babies may need more help or not even make it at all. I'm raising them mainly to be pets. Not to keep indoors but just to have about the property. I'm just looking for advice and tips as well as a general view on the situation from those who know more than I. We have 8 ducklings now. All but one are moving around, seem healthy, and are peeping and being cute. One of them seems a bit behind the others, but we are keeping an eye on that one. Parents are believed to be a Muscovy and a Mallard, but we are not certain. I love ducks but am very much still learning. I was wondering if there was anything else I could have done in this situation besides not help them, in which case I believe they probably wouldn't have made it. They are dry and are now in a brooder with a 250W heat lamp, a thermometer, and food and water. Bedding is Aspen shavings. We are going to loosely put different colored zip ties on their legs so we can monitor them better. I want to weigh them periodically to make sure they are doing alright. Is there any certain amount of time I should be weighing them? Like every day or every week, etc. I would appreciate any other tips or things to look out for. Some of them still had umbilical cord irritation or something left after they hatched, but most of them appear to be healing up already very well. Some of them it is not even noticeable at all anymore. I have already been looking up things on the forum before I joined officially, but I wanted to get my story out there and get any and all advice that I can. From my perspective, the ducklings are doing very well all things considered. They seem lively, healthy, alert, and they are all fluffed up after coming out of the eggs. Thank you so much! All I ask is for some kindness, as I have been researching my butt off and doing the best I can in this situation.

 

[AidKD]

@Miss Lydia

 

[ruthhope]

Hi @duckdad29

Welcome to BYC. I am unable to comment on your hatching experience as I have no hatching experience myself. I am glad you now have 8 little fluffies. You have clearly read a lot about hatching ducks and caring for ducklings.

Just to wish you good luck with your brood and to say I weigh rescued ducklings daily. But I haven't had 8 all at once!!!! That's a lot of wriggled to catch and weigh!

 

[duckdad29]

Hi @duckdad29

Welcome to BYC. I am unable to comment on your hatching experience as I have no hatching experience myself. I am glad you now have 8 little fluffies. You have clearly read a lot about hatching ducks and caring for ducklings.

Just to wish you good luck with your brood and to say I weigh rescued ducklings daily. But I haven't had 8 all at once!!!! That's a lot of wriggled to catch and weigh!

Thank you! This was very sudden, but I'm nothing if not an animal lover, so I've been doing everything I can to get the proper information and help these little guys. It was always a dream of mine as a kid to raise ducklings, but where we lived at the time couldn't accommodate that.

But yes! Eight little babies! I'm surprised so many of them made it. There's only one that I'm concerned with but they have made some small improvements, so there is a chance they may still make it.

 

[ruthhope]

Thank you! This was very sudden, but I'm nothing if not an animal lover, so I've been doing everything I can to get the proper information and help these little guys. It was always a dream of mine as a kid to raise ducklings, but where we lived at the time couldn't accommodate that.

But yes! Eight little babies! I'm surprised so many of them made it. There's only one that I'm concerned with but they have made some small improvements, so there is a chance they may still make it.

You might add Rooster Booster Poultry Cell (from tractor supply or amazon) to their water to give them extra vitamins and minerals while they recover.

I didn't know I wanted ducks until my son impulse bought three little yellow fluffies at tractor supply a few years ago. I moved straight into protective nurturing Mama mode to ensure they survived despite initial lack of families. I did the avid reading late at night to play catch up on learning.

We might speculate that in the last couple of days before you received the clutch of eggs , they had not been in an adequately humidified environment. It seems to me you saved their lives, but I dont know if it could have been done differently.

Take care with the colored ties as those little legs grow quickly!

 

[duckdad29]

Do these weights seem okay?

 

[duckdad29]

Here are pictures of all the babies!
Unmarked yellow and unmarked brown are ones we are concerned about. Unmarked yellow the most. Valentine was the first one to "hatch" (all were assisted, but they were the first). Valentine is "none" on the chart above. The rest should be direct matches.

Edit: also we totally have been miscounting. There are 9 babies!

 

[ruthhope]

Do these weights seem okay?

I don't know about the exact numbers, and I'm a bit rusty on grams having lived in the USA for 30 years. My ducklings have been muscovy.

However, the exact weights today don't matter. They are the baseline weights. It's tracking the ducklings growth by seeing a steady increase in weight that is important. They shoud all increase in weight at the same rate [as they are from one clutch] if healthy. So track them for a week -- graphically may be easier to interpret than in a spread sheet -- and watch them grow! Then follow them until weighing becomes too much of a fight -- at about 7-8 weeks in my experience!!! You will then have a data-base against which to judge any future ducklings growth.

I found growth charts on line for male and female muscovy and made the wrong determination that my first rescue was female. But "she" carried on growing past the full weight for female muscovy and it became obvious "she" was a "he". The charts were developed for commercially reared muscovy and I think that commercially reared barnyard muscovy are fed high protein and energy diets to get them to full market weight as quickly as possible. So from my experience, even if you find growth charts for your ducklings, they may not be correct for domestically reared ducklings that are not been fattened up quickly to be eaten. Data that you get for this brood will be more applicable to any future broods than commercial charts

 

[ruthhope]

Here are pictures of all the babies!
Unmarked yellow and unmarked brown are ones we are concerned about. Unmarked yellow the most. Valentine was the first one to "hatch" (all were assisted, but they were the first). Valentine is "none" on the chart above. The rest should be direct matches.

Edit: also we totally have been miscounting. There are 9 babies!
View attachment 3526757View attachment 3526758View attachment 3526759View attachment 3526760View attachment 3526761View attachment 3526762View attachment 3526763View attachment 3526764View attachment 3526765View attachment 3526766View attachment 3526767View attachment 3526768View attachment 3526769View attachment 3526770View attachment 3526771View attachment 3526772View attachment 3526773View attachment 3526774

Cuteness overload. valentine looks alert and bright eyed. Every clutch has a runt. If you make sure that Valentine gets enough food -- isn't pushed out by bigger clutchmates -- and gets extra vitamins and minerals, Valentine should grow up into a big healthy duck/drake

 

[Luv Ducks]

Here are pictures of all the babies!
Unmarked yellow and unmarked brown are ones we are concerned about. Unmarked yellow the most. Valentine was the first one to "hatch" (all were assisted, but they were the first). Valentine is "none" on the chart above. The rest should be direct matches.

Edit: also we totally have been miscounting. There are 9 babies!
View attachment 3526757View attachment 3526758View attachment 3526759View attachment 3526760View attachment 3526761View attachment 3526762View attachment 3526763View attachment 3526764View attachment 3526765View attachment 3526766View attachment 3526767View attachment 3526768View attachment 3526769View attachment 3526770View attachment 3526771View attachment 3526772View attachment 3526773View attachment 3526774

Such absolute precious babies, I just now found this post.