Baby hatched but still yolk inside the egg...

[Poliwag]

I stupidly helped my baby... duck... hatch out of its egg. (I know this is kinda off-topic since its a chook site but I don't know where else to ask!) I think I cut off the cord to its yolk. There's still quite a bit of yolk still in its egg. What do I do? Should I start feeding it earlier then normal?

 

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

OMG he's so cute i want to eat him!

i'd definitely say get some food and water available to him asap.

how does his navel look? healed up ok or not? until it closes up you need to try and minimise the risk of infection but i have no experience of dealing with this...still, keep his box as clean as you can, do a search since this is a problem which people do run into here and there, or wait for someone more experienced to let you know what to do.

if it already looks closed up i guess it's possible he didn't absorb all of it properly before his navel closed up...

i'd keep an eye on his right foot too...is is still curled over? you can make little shoes out of bits of old credit cards and plasters to straighten out foot problems...do a search, there are threads about it with pics. iirc you need to sort these out in the first couple of days or it gets much harder to fix later.

 

[Poliwag]

I am not sure what a navel is but there doesn't seem to be any kind of "wound" or anything that I can see. His foot is fine, it was just the way he was sitting in the incubator. He can run around and follow me around, so it isn't a problem.

I have him in a brooding box at the moment with a light and water but he keeps cheeping. He also keeps jumping up to get out of the box but there is a top on the box, so I don't know why he keeps jumping.

Btw, this duck is actually a wild duck. Found the egg in the middle of an oval. The duck layed it and took off. There were no nests nearby so I thought it would be best if I took care of it

 

[andrea98]

Quote:
im sure you ment to say "your" duck layed it out of her nest & refused to set on it so you had no other option other than to put it in the bator.....

 

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

Quote:
his belly button (or where he would have one). they absorb the yolk into their bodies after they pip the shell then the hole closes up. sometimes it's still not completely closed after they hatch.

 

[danaljamat]

Put a little cuddly toy in there with it. It will give him something to snuggle up to and he will feel as though he is not alone.

 

[Poliwag]

She/he finally made it through the night. I already had a teddy in there but it didn't make him/her stop jumping around. I decided to put a bigger teddy in there to make it harder for him/her to jump. And though she/he did jump for a bit afterwards, he/she gave up eventually and hid under the teddy.

I have the duckling drinking water but still won't eat the food I give it. I tapped the food with my finger but it wouldn't touch it. I put it up to his/her face and she/he would eat some but then wouldn't eat anymore. I tried with it mixed with water and without water but he/she wouldn't eat it either way

 

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

if he's eaten some then he knows what it is and where it is. he'd have absorbed some of the yolk so he may just not need to eat yet.