BEI duckling pipped can see its brains

[rainplace]

Oh, that must have been awful. I had a hard time reading it much less having to be there and see it.

To RooptyDoo: I was just reading about this yesterday.

From "Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks," page 59, I read that if a duck carries the crest gene they can have skeletal deformities and balance problems, but that usually they don't. Googling "crested ducks deformities" It appears that the crest itself is a skull deformity.

 

[RooptyDoo]

I added some pics of George. None of mine seem to have any other skeletal deformities. I do wonder about the crests on them. A lot of that hatch had some sort of a crest and not always on top. Some of them had a poof on the side of their heads. I don't know if they had a visitor to the pond that was crested or if it is just in the gene pool somewhere in the ducks that belong there and are not crested

As George's poof developed, he had two regular looking feathers that grew from his crest, one on the side and one on the back, You can just see a hint of it in the photo of him laying in the floor. They had grown quite big before we lost him and my mom was always after me to trim them off as they sort of looked silly and didn't fit in with the rounded look of the rest of his hairdo. I do believe he was the strangest looking baby duck I had ever seen and I did think that he was deformed when he first hatched. I wish I had taken a pic of him when he was still wet from hatching. He just had a large knob on his head, a long thin face and most definantly looked a little seahorsey! Sure do miss my George!

 

[aBRG2far]

I'm sorry to hear of your poor duckling but I do have a question for the members. What is the humane way of letting a defective offspring die? I mean if its going to go do you just let it starve or do you help it along?

 

[gypsy2621]

Quote:
The fatal gene does not have to express itself to be there.
as long as you breed to only ducks with out the crested gene, the fatalities will be minimal.
there is a huge BUT to add here, the gene will always be there. it can and will stay for hundreds of generations, and sooner or later will match up with the second gene to produce the fatal gene again, causing theexpposed brain cavity.
with Dwarf and mini rabbits we do not breed the parents that produce the Double Dwarfing gene together. this gene is forever present and must carry 2 copies, 1 in the doe 1 in the male to express, what you end up with are whats called penuts or max factor babies.
Pnuts are the smallest , they are normally born with Hydrosephilis( sp) or whats known as fluid on the brain. the head is domed and the eye sockets and ears are in the wrong position. babies rarely live past 72 hours.
Max factor babies are born with seal like apendages and the Hydro fluid.
It appears the crested gene works very much like the fatal dwarfing gene. its heartbreaking.

Eggs from now known crested carriers shouldnt be hatched, unless there is a non crested breed to breed to.
The hardest thing about getting ducks from a pond situation is you cant see what every duck looks like.
If you know the crested gene might be an issue you can better prepare for the bad hatchlings. but not knowing its there it can be a huge shock.

 

[RooptyDoo]

Sounds like I won't be hatching any eggs out of those ducks. Just out of curiosity, I had some crested call duicks at one point in time. Is this the same gene in them that is showing up? I didn't breed them so I don't know their background. I know when we sold them the crested were the first to go.

 

[gypsy2621]

There is a good chance if in the past 2 months there was a crested mating. but both parents would have to carry the crested gene.

IF I am wrong( and there is a good chance I am) please some one correct me, If you breed 2 generations of NON crested to the crested you can then breed the crested back to another crested with out the gene being fatal?

I know with rabbits if you introduce a NON dwarfing gene the next generation will carry both the dwarfing gene and the non dwarfing gene, then can be bred back to a known dwarfing gene with few fatals.( there is always the chance of them doubling up producing the fatal gene.

 

[vkp23]

AWE MAN!! That's really sad. I'm sorry for you and the poor duckie. I'm worried now though. I have 12 crested pekins in the bator right now.