- May 15, 2010
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I hatched 6 ducks, 3 of which went to some friends of mine, and I kept three. I had 9 eggs, 5 of which were hand turned and 4 were in an auto turner to test the results. All 5 hand turned eggs hatched, but only one of the auto turned eggs hatched. The other three eggs had complete looking ducklings but they were small and still had a yolk sac. The one who hatched from the auto turner, his/her name is Tethys, was helped out. She pipped and started zipping almost immediately, but then stopped and wasnt doing anything over the next 24 hours. She did not pip or respond to my calls to her and seemed to have given up completely. After another 6 hours I decided to help her out. I could hear popping in her breathing (which is now gone
) and I basically birthed her. I got the entire shell off and the white part underneath so that essentially she was in a lil "placenta" and then i squeezed her out. There were no veins attached to the inner wall or anything, I think she just was too tired and weak to make it out and she probably would have died if I did not help her out. I can't believe she made it through the night, but she did. She was then, and still is smaller than the other two I have, and her feather/fur is a bit ratty and she does not fluff out like the other two. Will she catch up? Will she ever fluff up? In addition, Tethys is not attached to the other two as much. The other two will protest madly if separated, but I can bring Tethys into another room and play with her alone and she does not put up a huge fuss (though the other two seem a little upset). They are all about two weeks now. Any ideas?