CAN YOU BATHE A DUCKLING????

[brood mother]

My 3 week old ducklings are STINKY! Lol! Is it possible to bathe a duckling with soap? Like infant soap? Just curious??

 

[Speceider]

NO soap....just allow them to take their own bath in clean water.

Clint

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

X2

Water only!

 

[brood mother]

Ok well that's what I thought, but my husband was saying if you can bathe a chicken you should be able to bathe a duck. Thanks for confirming do me! Just so I know, why shouldn't you us soap?

 

[Speceider]

Removes the oils from the feathers so they can not be preened correctly to be water repellant.

Clint

 

[dheltzel]

Ok well that's what I thought, but my husband was saying if you can bathe a chicken you should be able to bathe a duck. Thanks for confirming do me! Just so I know, why shouldn't you us soap?

Soap is a surfactant and will remove all the oils from their feathers. They will get waterlogged if they go in the water, and if you keep them out it's still un-natural for them.

Put a few inches of water in a plastic storage box and put them in. Watch them in case they need rescuing for some reason. Actually, they are so fun to watch, that part won't be hard.

 

[Amiga]

Stinky can come from the brooder. Do you have the water management okay?

Also, is it that their feces are really rank? That could indicate a health issue.

 

[brood mother]

I let them go for a swim everyday. In my big bathtub,lol. I clean broader EVERYDAY! I have done anything an everything I know to do for the water. As o now I have a milk jug with an oval opening cut out so they can stick head in to water. I have it an th food container sitting down in an old 9x13 cake pan at on end of broader. But it still gets nasty everyday. Their stool Ian to bathe there is just a lot of it.

 

[Amiga]

Hmmmm, what do they eat? This has my curiosity sparked.

 

[brood mother]

Maybe I just have an extra messy bunch lol! They eat a non-medicated mutineers chick starter, an I also put niacin in their water.