4 Week Old Pigeon Toed Pekin Loosing Weight - Help Please

[Amiga]

I will keep

for your little one. Yes, it's strange because I've been raising ducks for a few years now and none of them have had this problem! It's a bit frustrating because you want to give them the best start. >< It's definately a learning experience and now it's becoming a hobby very quickly. haha. Do they have duck starter food somewhere? I read that eggs are packed full of niacin. could you possibly mash up some eggs to give them some extra niacin, and I wonder how much niacin is TOO much niacin.

Cooked mashed eggs are fine to feed ducks and ducklings, and it makes sense that the niacin in them would be good for what eats them (including us). I understand that it is a water soluble vitamin so unless you really force-fed way too much, it should be no problem.

@ Iamgrateful:


I started switching from turkey/waterfowl starter crumbles to waterfowl grower pellets at about two weeks, slowly increasing the proportion of grower to crumbles till the crumbles were used up. Do the ducklings get some sort of grit with which to "chew" their veggies? Nice to hear about the improvement!

There is a journal article out there somewhere online (apologies I cannot cite the source right now) that reports a study concluding niacin is not such a big deal for most ducklings. But I have seen enough turn-arounds on this forum when niacin was added to the chick starter diet to feel that there are so many ducklings that are sensitive to it, to just incorporate it into their diet. Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks recommends three times the niacin for ducklings as for chicks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thank You! I'm cautiously optomistic. He's gaining weight and seems to be getting stronger, I hope that is a sign that he's going to beat this. Time will tell.

So happy to come back after a couple days away and seeing this post. Hoping your lil one makes a full recovery.. Great news

 

[Rachelssmiles]

Cooked mashed eggs are fine to feed ducks and ducklings, and it makes sense that the niacin in them would be good for what eats them (including us). I understand that it is a water soluble vitamin so unless you really force-fed way too much, it should be no problem.

Thanks for the information Amiga! It is much appreciated!

 

[blondiebee181]

This has been a learning experience for me. I had chickens and ducks growing up, all the way until college; however that was so long ago I've forgotten a LOT and there was no such thing as online... well online anything! So, I'm relearning a lot that I had forgotten and a lot that I never knew.

A lot of feed stores will tell you that the Chicken Starter/Grower feed is sufficient for Ducks... They're wrong! Even the feed stores that sell checkens and ducks usually sell them before you would start to see any negative impact due to any deficiencies in the food. It's probably fair to say that most ducks would get by fine on Chicken Starter/Grower, however I've had my local feed store order Water Fowl Starter/Grower and will never start any water fowl on Chicken food again. Chicken Starter/Grower is simply not designed to meet a ducks nutritional needs.

Troy, hope your ducky is doing well! Yeah chick feed is not reccomended for water fowl, especially since a lot of it is medicated against coccidiosis (which only chicks are suseptible to) Always want to do Flock Raiser, which chickens can eat fine as well, that's what I started all my chicks/ducks on since they start living together pretty early on. Cereal also is fortified with Niacin a lot of the times. Before I bought Niacin tablets to grind up for my Runners, I let them dabble for Multigrain Cheerios in the pool. My little f+w Runner, Ivy is a little pigeon-toed so even though they are eating Flock Raiser, I have been giving she and her sister, Willow a little extra Niacin so hopefully it will strengthen her and dissolve this problem.

 

[blondiebee181]

Cooked mashed eggs are fine to feed ducks and ducklings, and it makes sense that the niacin in them would be good for what eats them (including us). I understand that it is a water soluble vitamin so unless you really force-fed way too much, it should be no problem.

@ Iamgrateful:


I started switching from turkey/waterfowl starter crumbles to waterfowl grower pellets at about two weeks, slowly increasing the proportion of grower to crumbles till the crumbles were used up. Do the ducklings get some sort of grit with which to "chew" their veggies? Nice to hear about the improvement!

There is a journal article out there somewhere online (apologies I cannot cite the source right now) that reports a study concluding niacin is not such a big deal for most ducklings. But I have seen enough turn-arounds on this forum when niacin was added to the chick starter diet to feel that there are so many ducklings that are sensitive to it, to just incorporate it into their diet. Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks recommends three times the niacin for ducklings as for chicks.

I agree with Amiga. Aaand, most feed stores will sell chick grit, but I use a little leftover traction sand (coarse sand) which I also use to bed my run with, and sprinkle it in the feed. My older chickens know to eat it out of the feeder I have seperately in the run so hopefully they will teach the ducks when I turn them out with the hens in another week or so.

 

[TroyBlackburn]

It's been several months since I've posted an update regarding the Pekin Duck... First off... It turned out it's a she, not a he. Well, she's still with us. She has some issues with her legs and a crick in her neck, so it's not straight, all do to not getting sufficient nourishment when she got sick and lost weight. However at this time, she is able to get around my entire backyard, about 2/3 acre, she doesn't get around as fast as the other ducks, but she gets around and is otherwise healthy and seems happy. I spent well over $1000 in vet visits and spent a lot of time caring for the duck to get it to this point and although I had hoped she would not have the bone deforming issues she has, overall she does fine.

 

[Amiga]

Thanks very much for bringing us up to date. Bravo for caring for this duck.

While not everyone can manage vet care, it is a blessing when we can. And in any case, all we can do is . . . what we can do. If she is acting happy, getting around, you have done well.

 

[Diamond88]

I'm glad she's doing well! You did a great job taking care of her. How about some photos?