I think you did the right thing Holly sounds like your adult duck just wasn't caring for them properly, give them a bit of time to get use to the brooder, put a stuffed animal in there large enough they can cuddle with it will help ease the openess of the space. and keep on with the food and water, moisten a little feed with warm water that may intice them to eat better.Also if you can cover a portion of the brooder with a towel that may make them feel a little less conspicious and get them to moving around to find food and water. Hoping for the best for these lil ones.Forgot to add how cute the ducklings are that the OL have been raising.Well. I'm signing in today to just update. Good news to follow!
On adoption #2, last night it occurred to me that I wasn't really seeing the poopy messes everywhere like I think I should be. Now mom was being very aggressive, not wanting me near the babies or really even allowing them to come over toward me (where the food and water were). In fact, I watched her walk in reverse last night, sort of in what I considered an attempt to contain them. So that worried me quite a lot. As of 10am I have removed them from her care. She is out with my ranging adults and while she is complaining, she does not seem to have any desire to get back with the babies. When I finally got to really check out the babies, I notice the very tiny beginnings of tail feathers on the largest of the 3. The middle one is very tiny. I continue to offer vitamins in the water and crumbled, hard boiled egg yolks with feed, but even removed from the mom I am still not seeing them eat.Is it because I'm there, they are afraid, or is it health related? This is a very sad situation and I think that I may have confused mom's aggression with protectiveness. Maybe she's just aggressive and tried to attack me, but that doesn't mean that she was taking good care of the babies. Late last night, when the food thought struck me, I decided to toss the crumbled yolks around inside the area, so that they could get to them to eat, even if the mom wouldn't lead them to the food dish as my OLs have done.
Here they are in the brooder box. I've never had the Runner breed as ducklings before, I bought these Friday, so that would make them 4 days old, altho when I bought them I did think that they could've already been a few days old. If you have pics of Runner Ducklings at this age, please post so that I can compare.
Here are my Pekins. Another chillyish day here in MI, but the good moms take these guys out for at least a little while! 15 Days old with the Old Ladies in the background. Now these ducklings are eating and drinking nonstop when I'm near them inside!
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