napinkerton
In the Brooder
Ok, for the issue at hand, skip to the next paragraph!!
If you’re bored and want to read the whole saga
, here’s the background on our problem: Our sixth and final duckling (Trooper) made her debut almost a week after her siblings. Mama was getting a bit impatient and was obviously torn between finishing her setting duties and following the first 5 around on their excursions around their “nursery” (sectioned off area of the main run, about 6’ x 6’). I was a bit worried that the remaining two eggs (there were 7 all together) were not viable and Mama was wasting her time when she could be off the nest with the other little ones. I very carefully candled the remaining two (I know, it’s not ideal during the last few days) and found my instinct to be accurate for one (which I removed to avoid exploding), but not the other! I was relieved to see that Trooper had internally pipped, so I set her back under Mama and waited. 24 hours later there wasn’t any external pipping, but I could hear her and see her trying to pip. After some frantic research, and another day of zero progress, I made the difficult decision to help her by making a tiny pip into the air sac. I did so with the point of a small, sterilized screw and placed her back under Mama. The next day, there was still zero progress and I could hear her loud and clear and feel her striking the shell but falling short of making any breaks, so I broke a tiny bit more off the original hole, making sure to peel just little bits of shell off and keep as much outer membrane intact as I could, to avoid drying her out. Then, again, placed her back under Mama. At this point, her siblings were starting to become very active and Mama was not sitting on her nearly as diligently as she had the others (which is totally understandable). After about a half day of watching Mama intermittently sit on her, and with very little progress (she made a few good cracks near the pip, but seemed to be struggling to reach any more of the shell), I decided I would place a heat lamp in the run so she at least had some more constant heat than what she was getting from Mama, who, at this point, showed her interest by somewhat roughly picking at the pipped area and acting very impatient, but not spending much time incubating her. By the end of that day, which was unusually “cold” for this time of year, Mama showed almost zero interest in her and I decided to bring her inside. I understand that Mama was likely doing what was best for the group by keeping the already hatched ducklings her main priority. Anyway, I set up a sort of emergency incubator situation by placing a heat lamp over a box with bedding in the bathroom, and kept the door closed while I ran the hot shower to increase humidity. I also kept a damp washcloth near, but not on, the egg, and kept the exposed inner membranes moist with a bit of water and then (after more frantic research) some coconut oil. After helping her with a few more pieces, I could see that she was malpositioned with her foot over her head, and unable to zip or even reach much of the shell outside the air sac from this position. This whole time, she was totally feisty, loud, and fighting to get out! Another 12 hours passed with very little progress, and I continued to take tiny bits of shell away (just at the air sac) as she tried to reposition herself and wiggle free. At this point, the veining on the membranes were definitely starting to shrink and blood was receding, but Trooper still wasn’t able to untangle herself. She was breathing fine, and I was keeping things moist and warm, so I just sat tight. I didn’t want to rush things and not allow her to absorb the yolk fully or have any serious bleeding. About 10 hours after that, she finally broke free! She was a little firecracker from the get go, and totally healthy looking/physically capable. She started standing & walking within a reasonable time, and she was drinking and eating moistened waterfowl starter by the next day.
The issue at hand:
I knew it was important to “sneak” her back into the flock as soon as possible, so I pretty much tried to do so that first morning after she came out and was nice and fluffy and dry. Upon taking her out to the nursery, Mama seemed a bit indifferent, a little nervous, and reasonably curious; the other ducklings were curious but well-behaved and even a bit excited. I was hoping that Mama would show some signs of nurturing once she was reintroduced, but I wasn’t seeing it. However, at one point, while everyone was napping, I slipped Trooper underneath her as best I could, and Mama tucked her underneath her just like that! I was thrilled, until everyone woke up awhile later and Mama acted like it had all been a dream and almost stepped on her in her surprise.
After a bit, I could see her becoming protective of the 5 and would chase little Trooper away from the group. I knew it might take some time, and wasn’t intending to just leave her out there overnight yet anyway, as I knew she needed more warmth than Mama was giving the babies at that point (she was uninterested in sleeping in the igloo where the nest was, and wasn’t even snuggling up to the babies at night, but they kept each other warm enough it seemed), but I was devastated that she didn’t seem to recognize her as one of the bunch. The next day, I didn’t take her out until later in the day since I had to go into work, and that was even more of a mess. Mama was totally over this new addition, and was starting to chase after her and bite at her head.
The other ducklings seemed not to mind her much, but definitely showed some signs of bullying once Mama took a stand against her. That was obviously worrisome, given she’s probably less than half the size of her siblings. Then I had an idea: Mama had been asking to be let out occasionally throughout the day since the little ones were only about 4-5 days old. Whenever I could, I would let her out to run around, forage, stretch her wings, and take a swim in the pond. I decided to let her out and see how just the ducklings acted all together. It was as if Trooper had always been there! They played, ate, splashed in their water, and napped, without a problem. Sometimes (not as often as I expected), the ducklings would call for Mama and she’d call back, and occasionally mosey back to them to see what was wrong, and as soon as she was near, even just outside the run divider, they’d be fine. The next day, I tried a version of this for almost the whole day - letting Mama out, putting Trooper in with her siblings, and whenever I let Mama back in, I just stayed in there or nearby to keep an eye on things, until Mama wanted another break. This went so well, I was gaining some solid hope back!
Mama was still a bit wary of her, but seemed to realize she was blending in with the rest of the group, and even snuggled up to her during a nap at one point. But pretty much whenever Trooper was somewhat singled out of the group (either last in line to stampede somewhere, or last at the water/food dish) Mama would kind of re-identify her as a threat it seemed, but usually the other ducklings running around and playing with Trooper would get her over that mood. Trooper, in turn, learned to just keep up with the group, and by the end of the day, I was hopeful enough to leave them unattended for a bit. They did great for about three hours (I was checking them every 20 min or so), then I heard a crazy commotion, ran outside, and found Mama quaking hysterically, going after something behind a bag of bedding like her life depended on it. Of course, it was little Trooper. Thankfully, she was unharmed, but obviously super scared and happy to have me scoop her up and bring her back inside. I was devastated, and felt absolutely horrible that I pushed my good luck too far by leaving her out there without constant supervision.
They all seemed so great during the day, it almost was like the near-nighttime hour flipped a switch in her. Anyway, I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out what to do at this point. Here are my options (and conflicts) as I see it:
1. Hand-rear Trooper. I know this would mean bringing another one or two of the ducklings in with her, and I think that might be asking for even more trouble. I tried to bring one inside for that first night, so she’d have a companion, and the other duckling was so upset and immediately bullied Trooper, while Mama was raising hell outside (understandably!). I also don’t have a ton of inside space to work with, and I think we’d run into the same issues (and possibly more) in several weeks when I try to re-introduce these three back into the flock.
2. Keep up the supervised visits and hope that as she puts on more weight, she’ll start to blend in with the rest of the group more seamlessly. I’m not super optimistic about this option, and don’t want to put her in any more danger than I already have, but if someone can give me a shred of hope on this front, I’d definitely love to hear it!
3. Separate Mama from the ducklings and allow Trooper to stay with her siblings in the nursery. On the face of it, this feels like this goes against everything I’ve read, but I’m starting to think Mama is somewhat lacking in the mothering department already (please correct me if I’m wrong). Obviously she’s protective, given how she’s reacting to Trooper, but the ducklings already seem fine with her being away from them for hours on end, and/or having her on the other side of the run divider totally suffices as having her near (for babies and Mama both). Again, they don’t cuddle up to her much at night, and if she doesn’t get at least 5 trips out of the nursery a day, she definitely gets irritable and impatient with the little ones (again, understandably!). The one time I’ve let them all outside the run for some adventuring in the grass, Mama stayed nearby, but seemed more interested in her own foraging than what the babies were up to. This is her first time (she’s only about a year old), so I don’t expect her to be a pro, but I definitely expected her to be a bit more concerned with herding them around, etc. Obviously, I don’t want to break the mother/duckling bond, but since they already seem a bit on the independent side, I thought this might be a good option for the relationships as a whole. Of course, I’ll have to introduce the ducklings to the rest of the flock eventually, but I’d have to do so with or without Mama. (For this option, I don’t think I’d really do this in an overnight sense for a couple weeks more. I have a heat lamp out there, and I don’t see Mama snuggling them at night, but I could just be missing it, and I don’t want them to be too cold).
4. A combination of #1 & #3. Leave Mama out and Trooper in the nursery during the day, then bring her in to sleep at night, and just hope that that amount of interaction at least keeps the ducklings’ bond strong, if Mama’s never going to come around. That’s basically what I’m doing today. I put a mirror in her sleeping area last night and that seemed to really calm her down, and now she’s out with her siblings and Mama’s outside with her buddies (but comes and sits calmly near the nursery very frequently; not agitated or upset that she’s not inside at all).
5. And just to get it out of the way: “Let nature run its course”. Nope. Sorry if this seems absurd to some, but that little duckling has nothing “wrong” with her, besides being a week behind in growth. There’s no reason she can’t live a happy healthy life, and I believe I am responsible for providing that, to the best of my ability. I am responsible for bringing her into this world (by allowing Mama to set her eggs), and since nature is encouraging Mama to reject her, I’m next in line for that duty. In the wild, Mama may have left her to suffocate in the shell, or attacked her after hatching, and I understand the evolutionary reasoning behind that 100%, but from my stance, that doesn’t translate to allowing something like that occur in an (already “unnatural”) domesticated scenario if I can help it.
So, what do you all think I should do? Am I missing a possible option? Is it completely horrible to separate Mama out (even if temporarily), or could that possibly be less traumatic than completely taking one or two of her babies away to raise with Trooper?
Ack! My apologies for the novel… once I get writing, I just keep going and going…. ! Thanks for reading! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
NP
If you’re bored and want to read the whole saga
, here’s the background on our problem: Our sixth and final duckling (Trooper) made her debut almost a week after her siblings. Mama was getting a bit impatient and was obviously torn between finishing her setting duties and following the first 5 around on their excursions around their “nursery” (sectioned off area of the main run, about 6’ x 6’). I was a bit worried that the remaining two eggs (there were 7 all together) were not viable and Mama was wasting her time when she could be off the nest with the other little ones. I very carefully candled the remaining two (I know, it’s not ideal during the last few days) and found my instinct to be accurate for one (which I removed to avoid exploding), but not the other! I was relieved to see that Trooper had internally pipped, so I set her back under Mama and waited. 24 hours later there wasn’t any external pipping, but I could hear her and see her trying to pip. After some frantic research, and another day of zero progress, I made the difficult decision to help her by making a tiny pip into the air sac. I did so with the point of a small, sterilized screw and placed her back under Mama. The next day, there was still zero progress and I could hear her loud and clear and feel her striking the shell but falling short of making any breaks, so I broke a tiny bit more off the original hole, making sure to peel just little bits of shell off and keep as much outer membrane intact as I could, to avoid drying her out. Then, again, placed her back under Mama. At this point, her siblings were starting to become very active and Mama was not sitting on her nearly as diligently as she had the others (which is totally understandable). After about a half day of watching Mama intermittently sit on her, and with very little progress (she made a few good cracks near the pip, but seemed to be struggling to reach any more of the shell), I decided I would place a heat lamp in the run so she at least had some more constant heat than what she was getting from Mama, who, at this point, showed her interest by somewhat roughly picking at the pipped area and acting very impatient, but not spending much time incubating her. By the end of that day, which was unusually “cold” for this time of year, Mama showed almost zero interest in her and I decided to bring her inside. I understand that Mama was likely doing what was best for the group by keeping the already hatched ducklings her main priority. Anyway, I set up a sort of emergency incubator situation by placing a heat lamp over a box with bedding in the bathroom, and kept the door closed while I ran the hot shower to increase humidity. I also kept a damp washcloth near, but not on, the egg, and kept the exposed inner membranes moist with a bit of water and then (after more frantic research) some coconut oil. After helping her with a few more pieces, I could see that she was malpositioned with her foot over her head, and unable to zip or even reach much of the shell outside the air sac from this position. This whole time, she was totally feisty, loud, and fighting to get out! Another 12 hours passed with very little progress, and I continued to take tiny bits of shell away (just at the air sac) as she tried to reposition herself and wiggle free. At this point, the veining on the membranes were definitely starting to shrink and blood was receding, but Trooper still wasn’t able to untangle herself. She was breathing fine, and I was keeping things moist and warm, so I just sat tight. I didn’t want to rush things and not allow her to absorb the yolk fully or have any serious bleeding. About 10 hours after that, she finally broke free! She was a little firecracker from the get go, and totally healthy looking/physically capable. She started standing & walking within a reasonable time, and she was drinking and eating moistened waterfowl starter by the next day. The issue at hand:
I knew it was important to “sneak” her back into the flock as soon as possible, so I pretty much tried to do so that first morning after she came out and was nice and fluffy and dry. Upon taking her out to the nursery, Mama seemed a bit indifferent, a little nervous, and reasonably curious; the other ducklings were curious but well-behaved and even a bit excited. I was hoping that Mama would show some signs of nurturing once she was reintroduced, but I wasn’t seeing it. However, at one point, while everyone was napping, I slipped Trooper underneath her as best I could, and Mama tucked her underneath her just like that! I was thrilled, until everyone woke up awhile later and Mama acted like it had all been a dream and almost stepped on her in her surprise.
After a bit, I could see her becoming protective of the 5 and would chase little Trooper away from the group. I knew it might take some time, and wasn’t intending to just leave her out there overnight yet anyway, as I knew she needed more warmth than Mama was giving the babies at that point (she was uninterested in sleeping in the igloo where the nest was, and wasn’t even snuggling up to the babies at night, but they kept each other warm enough it seemed), but I was devastated that she didn’t seem to recognize her as one of the bunch. The next day, I didn’t take her out until later in the day since I had to go into work, and that was even more of a mess. Mama was totally over this new addition, and was starting to chase after her and bite at her head. The other ducklings seemed not to mind her much, but definitely showed some signs of bullying once Mama took a stand against her. That was obviously worrisome, given she’s probably less than half the size of her siblings. Then I had an idea: Mama had been asking to be let out occasionally throughout the day since the little ones were only about 4-5 days old. Whenever I could, I would let her out to run around, forage, stretch her wings, and take a swim in the pond. I decided to let her out and see how just the ducklings acted all together. It was as if Trooper had always been there! They played, ate, splashed in their water, and napped, without a problem. Sometimes (not as often as I expected), the ducklings would call for Mama and she’d call back, and occasionally mosey back to them to see what was wrong, and as soon as she was near, even just outside the run divider, they’d be fine. The next day, I tried a version of this for almost the whole day - letting Mama out, putting Trooper in with her siblings, and whenever I let Mama back in, I just stayed in there or nearby to keep an eye on things, until Mama wanted another break. This went so well, I was gaining some solid hope back! Mama was still a bit wary of her, but seemed to realize she was blending in with the rest of the group, and even snuggled up to her during a nap at one point. But pretty much whenever Trooper was somewhat singled out of the group (either last in line to stampede somewhere, or last at the water/food dish) Mama would kind of re-identify her as a threat it seemed, but usually the other ducklings running around and playing with Trooper would get her over that mood. Trooper, in turn, learned to just keep up with the group, and by the end of the day, I was hopeful enough to leave them unattended for a bit. They did great for about three hours (I was checking them every 20 min or so), then I heard a crazy commotion, ran outside, and found Mama quaking hysterically, going after something behind a bag of bedding like her life depended on it. Of course, it was little Trooper. Thankfully, she was unharmed, but obviously super scared and happy to have me scoop her up and bring her back inside. I was devastated, and felt absolutely horrible that I pushed my good luck too far by leaving her out there without constant supervision. They all seemed so great during the day, it almost was like the near-nighttime hour flipped a switch in her. Anyway, I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out what to do at this point. Here are my options (and conflicts) as I see it: 1. Hand-rear Trooper. I know this would mean bringing another one or two of the ducklings in with her, and I think that might be asking for even more trouble. I tried to bring one inside for that first night, so she’d have a companion, and the other duckling was so upset and immediately bullied Trooper, while Mama was raising hell outside (understandably!). I also don’t have a ton of inside space to work with, and I think we’d run into the same issues (and possibly more) in several weeks when I try to re-introduce these three back into the flock.
2. Keep up the supervised visits and hope that as she puts on more weight, she’ll start to blend in with the rest of the group more seamlessly. I’m not super optimistic about this option, and don’t want to put her in any more danger than I already have, but if someone can give me a shred of hope on this front, I’d definitely love to hear it!
3. Separate Mama from the ducklings and allow Trooper to stay with her siblings in the nursery. On the face of it, this feels like this goes against everything I’ve read, but I’m starting to think Mama is somewhat lacking in the mothering department already (please correct me if I’m wrong). Obviously she’s protective, given how she’s reacting to Trooper, but the ducklings already seem fine with her being away from them for hours on end, and/or having her on the other side of the run divider totally suffices as having her near (for babies and Mama both). Again, they don’t cuddle up to her much at night, and if she doesn’t get at least 5 trips out of the nursery a day, she definitely gets irritable and impatient with the little ones (again, understandably!). The one time I’ve let them all outside the run for some adventuring in the grass, Mama stayed nearby, but seemed more interested in her own foraging than what the babies were up to. This is her first time (she’s only about a year old), so I don’t expect her to be a pro, but I definitely expected her to be a bit more concerned with herding them around, etc. Obviously, I don’t want to break the mother/duckling bond, but since they already seem a bit on the independent side, I thought this might be a good option for the relationships as a whole. Of course, I’ll have to introduce the ducklings to the rest of the flock eventually, but I’d have to do so with or without Mama. (For this option, I don’t think I’d really do this in an overnight sense for a couple weeks more. I have a heat lamp out there, and I don’t see Mama snuggling them at night, but I could just be missing it, and I don’t want them to be too cold).
4. A combination of #1 & #3. Leave Mama out and Trooper in the nursery during the day, then bring her in to sleep at night, and just hope that that amount of interaction at least keeps the ducklings’ bond strong, if Mama’s never going to come around. That’s basically what I’m doing today. I put a mirror in her sleeping area last night and that seemed to really calm her down, and now she’s out with her siblings and Mama’s outside with her buddies (but comes and sits calmly near the nursery very frequently; not agitated or upset that she’s not inside at all).
5. And just to get it out of the way: “Let nature run its course”. Nope. Sorry if this seems absurd to some, but that little duckling has nothing “wrong” with her, besides being a week behind in growth. There’s no reason she can’t live a happy healthy life, and I believe I am responsible for providing that, to the best of my ability. I am responsible for bringing her into this world (by allowing Mama to set her eggs), and since nature is encouraging Mama to reject her, I’m next in line for that duty. In the wild, Mama may have left her to suffocate in the shell, or attacked her after hatching, and I understand the evolutionary reasoning behind that 100%, but from my stance, that doesn’t translate to allowing something like that occur in an (already “unnatural”) domesticated scenario if I can help it.
So, what do you all think I should do? Am I missing a possible option? Is it completely horrible to separate Mama out (even if temporarily), or could that possibly be less traumatic than completely taking one or two of her babies away to raise with Trooper?
Ack! My apologies for the novel… once I get writing, I just keep going and going…. ! Thanks for reading! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! NP
