A silly question about mule ducks

[Henschickspups]

I had mine on a paper towel and left under the light to finish absorbing and drying out. It worked well and the rest of the yolk was absorbed in a few hours. Good luck with yours. He sure is a cutie.

Thank you. Whatever it was that the bump was has dried up, and did so pretty quickly after applying the kwikstop. It is now very shrunken and unnoticeable unless looking for it under his down

 

[Luv Ducks]

Now I'm breathing easy. Baby DOES have opinions, and those opinions are that he would like to be snugged up to me AND the heating pad, if he isn't allowed into my armpit. And if he is in my armpit, he does not appreciate me laughing and squirming and removing him. Once heard he heard me back in the living room, he started telling me. Soooo quiet though.

He is also starting to explore the towel a little bit. So far all the areas around where he is laying have been thoroughly investigated, and found unsatisfactory. He is starting to try to walk a bit now, so other areas will be investigated soon, I'm sure.

So now I'm 100% convinced he is progressing normally, is as healthy as possible, and not excessively exhausted from his hatching ordeal.

I've been referring to him as crunchy butt, because holy cow did he hatch already dried and so crunchy it looked like he swam in hair gel. So we'll see if that sticks

Mine came out all full of goo and I had to wash him gently under just warm water and then put him in the brooder under the light to dry and she was just fine. I don't know why it was so gooey other than maybe too high of humidity or too low, not sure which.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Thank you. Whatever it was that the bump was has dried up, and did so pretty quickly after applying the kwikstop. It is now very shrunken and unnoticeable unless looking for it under his down

You are most welcome and I am soooooo happy he is doing soooooo well!!!

 

[Henschickspups]

Mine came out all full of goo and I had to wash him gently under just warm water and then put him in the brooder under the light to dry and she was just fine. I don't know why it was so gooey other than maybe too high of humidity or too low, not sure which.

I had the issue with my chicks, every single hatch but the first one. In my experience it seems to be worse with a higher humidity during hatch, especially since when my batch of 13 hatched, it got progressively worse towards the end of hatch.

The batch of 4 after them, the very last chick to hatch looked like ducky, like he had gone swimming in hair gel and it dried. He hatched something like 26 or so hours after the first chick, and didn't even pip until after the 3rd was fully hatched, but he was the 1st internal pip. He was very exhausted from his hatch, and would only move when a hatchmat used him as a parkour prop, so when I took them out, he didn't move, just slept. He'd pick his head up every now and then, but that was it. That experience led me to think the less active after hatch, the worse it is too. It seems like as they move around, it breaks the hard gel and let's them fluff up. If your familiar with curly girl method, scrunching out the crunch basically. It also took him a full extra day to realize if youre thirsty, drink, if your hot, don't sit directly under the heat lamp. He would be panting hard in the brooder, and if I moved him and dipped his beak, he'd take a drink, then crawl right back under the heat, to again be used as a parkour prop.

What I'm pretty sure happened here, is with him having been open for so long and the fan, and maybe the cup trapping and directing the air flow a bit more, his down completely dried while he was in shell. So it hardened, but since he wasn't moving, it never started to break apart. A very soft toothbrush is working pretty well for now, he's mostly fluffed up. With all the stress I've already put him under, I'm not keen on the idea of washing him off just yet and then drying him. If there's no better choice, I will, but so far "pretend" brushing him is working

 

[Luv Ducks]

Yes they say never wash them off but I was desperate and did not know what else to do with mine so I did and all was fine. I would not want to advise you to do that and it not turn out fine. Do you have any other ducklings you can put him with eventually. If not I would get a stuffed animal and mirror in the brooder with him so he knows he is a duck. Otherwise he will imprint on you and it is cute now but can be a real pain unless you are able to spend a ton of time all the time with him so he doesn't cry out for you constantly. Good luck with him, he sure is cute!!! My single duckling I hatched out one time did great with the mirror and stuffed animal. When I moved him outside he was quite familiar with the other ducks and in no time was able to join them because he knew it was his kind.

 

[Henschickspups]

I've been having the worst time trying to find ducklings in the past few days. But my neighbor actually just texted me, and the gentleman who owns the parent flock had a bunch hatch this week! They even look identical! I'm going to talk to hubs so we can nail down a price range, then see if he would be willing to sell one or two to us. In the meantime, I'm grabbing a mirror when I go to the store, and when the kids get home I'm going to asking if they have a stuffy to donate to the cause.

My first every chick was a singleton, and I'm so thankfully the next hatch was only 4 days after. He would be frantic to get to me, and he was frantically trying to reach the chicky in the mirror. The stuffed animal he had was treated like Satan himself. What helped was putting my tablet behind the mirror and playing the longest chick noises videos I could find, other than tucking him into my hoodie collar.

For now, this guy is pretty unbothered, with some exceptions that are quickly resolved. And Lucky was the same, until about 36 hours old. Then I realized I'll take a newborn with colic over a single chick any and every time.

 

[Henschickspups]

@Luv Ducks , the washing with warm water method is actually the most recommended one. I think I found a single comment on this site during my obsessive research stage after the first one that suggested the toothbrush. It's the only time I've seen a reference to it. In fact, I just pulled out my hatching and brooding your own chicks book, (Gail Damerow), and confirmed. The book doesn't address *why* sticky (crunchy) chicks are potentially an issue, but does say the following reasons are the cause: eggs stored too long, larger than normal for breed, temp too low during incubation, humidity too low during incubation or hatch, or inadequate ventilation during hatch. It also includes a side bar on panting hatchling, in reference to the importance of adequate ventilation, and not just a too hot issue.

Edit: from what I've gathered, and experienced, crunchy chicks obviously reduce the cute factor that comes with proper fluff, but also makes it significantly harder for the chick to stay warm (see crunchy chick from batch of 4) and can in some cases hinder or even prevent some mobility, like the wings.

Also, somewhere on here is a super handy thread with differences between shrinkwrapping, sticky chick and what I'm referring to as crunchy chick

Edit number 2: here's the link I mentioned. And I remembered to bookmark it this time!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/shrink-wrap-vs-sticky-chick.491421/

 

[My15Ducks]

So glad it hatched!! If you have nutri drench, a sip of that might help perk your duckling up

 

[Henschickspups]

So glad it hatched!! If you have nutri drench, a sip of that might help perk your duckling up

I am planning to add some to his water, once he's curious enough to sip some

 

[Henschickspups]

Epic snooze fest!