#1- Ducks feathers gone weird??? *PICS*

[duckking]

My Rouen is 27 weeks and 2 of my mallards are 25-26 weeks. My Rouen is looking kind of wet and scraggly. She's swimming fine and seems normal otherwise. She's laying a nice sized egg (85g) everyday now. I think she might be the favourite of my Rouen drake, but not sure. I've seen him mounting 2 of the 3 mallards as well. She just looks messy.

My one Mallard is also sort of looking wet and messy, not as much as my Rouen, but she keeps sort of lifting her wings a bit away from their body and the wing feathers are all kind of messed up. She stretches them out and flaps them, but it's like they don't go back together properly, and her wing tips are as long as her tail! I am noticing this a bit on her sister as well, but not the older Mallard. Could this be mites? Getting ready to molt? I'm not sure what to think. I checked all their bedding in their house and I don't see any creepy things in it. Any ideas?

My drake is just fine...looks handsome as ever. (Had to throw that in)

 

[KansasKid]

1) has it been raining there lately? (rained here for the past couple days and the rain has soaked everything to the bone, they look better after they preen in the afternoon)
1.5) Just out of curiosity, at what age did you first start providing swimming water?
2) does she ever tuck them right?
3) what did you feed as ducklings?
4) what are you feeding now?

I won't be able to help much, just trying to get some more information so other my be able to piece together something. good luck.

 

[duckking]

It has been raining here constantly....yuck. Everything is soaked.

They started swimming in the bathtub at about 2weeks.

Yes, they will tuck right sometimes after she flaps them, but then she'll flap again and they won't tuck right.

They were fed non-medicated wild game bird fowl food for the first while and then switched to non-medicated Start and Grow. I also added extra niacin as my Rouen hen was having leg problems as a duckling. Cleared her right up.

They are now on Layer feed with free choice calcium and lot's of greens, dried meal worms, and whatever they forage.

***EDITED*** to add niacin info

 

[KansasKid]

Sorry i am of no help, I really don't have a clue whats up with your hen. Hopefully the pro's will chime in.

Good Luck.

 

[duckking]

Thanks Kansas - appreciate the comments. My son has now said that he has seen that happen before. I'm wondering if it's their pool. It can gunk up pretty quickly if it's really raining. I just changed all the water again. Maybe they didn't want to 'duck' into it!

 

[duckking]

I'm bumping this up to see if anyone else might have some idea what is causing this weird wing thing.

Any suggestions would be appreciated as it's so expensive to take them in to my vet.

Thanks!

 

[jack & mommy's duckies]

I have a scovie hen that looks like this after she has been in water.....she gets right soaked to the bone and I have no idea why. On closer inspection I found her oil gland was a little clogged with dirt or something I picked it clean and all is well since then. Try checking her gland and see if it is producing oil. and make sure she can reach it..... I know (even though I have not experienced) sometimes they get to big/fat and can't reach it easily to spread over their body.

Just a shot, it worked for me.

 

[rainplace]

Could be wet feather...

http://www.callducks.net/duckswetf.htm

 

[duckking]

Thank you both so much! What an excellent article. I am going to check their glands today and add vitamins to their feed. It has been a really wet winter here, constant rain and then we got 2 feet of snow which is just now melting. If that doesn't work, I will have them checked for parasites. I don't think protein is the problem. because they haven't been able to forage much, I have been giving them mealworms. They are laying big, beautiful eggs.

Still looking at another week of rain