Duck egg hatching problem?- please read! PICS

[teresa-78]

Fingers crossed for you.. hope all goes well... sounds to me like your doing a fantastic job to help the little one,

 

[FenDruadin]

How is the little guy this morning?

 

[Kedreeva]

If you've never hatched in a bator before you should be aware that there's a difference between the yolk (bright to dark yellow with red veins over the surface) and the... well, 'afterbirth' crap (which will LOOK like the yolk and fooled me the first time. It will be goopy, possibly still attached to him, brown, yellow, white, and possibly even a little green). If the yolk is still there, try to keep him contained in a small area and keep him from struggling too much- and yes he will keep struggling to get out of the egg if he's partially out already. If it's just the leftovers, those can (and should) be snipped off (gently) and tossed without a problem. If you leave him to struggle in the leftovers, he can get them coated on his feathers and won't dry out till he's had a few warm baths.

Hope he's still going well this morning!

 

[jellybean]

I got up almost every hour last night to check on him, and dampened his cloth once. I had him positioned so he couldn't get out of the egg, because he was trying all night- fighting and squirming. It was definitely the yolk, his belly seemed fully open last night. Just unwrapped him (12 hours after hatching), and it's absorbed!!!!!

I'm so happy. He seems pretty big and strong, he can pick his head up and is now making his way out of the shell. There is a dried up umbilical cord attached and some goo in the egg. But the yolk looks like it's completely gone.

He is a little messy, but has been chirping and kicking and squirming ALL night. To be the last egg the goose didn't kill, only to have his egg cracked over half of it, and live through me not knowing exactly what to do with him.... What tough baby. I HOPE it's a girl! I need another girl- I have 4 males already. Now I'm glad I did what I did to keep him from drowning, couple times he got so raspy and it sounded like water was getting in his lungs. I'm just glad SHE'S strong and fighting. THANKYOU for all of your help, it's so much easier to let the mother's do this!

When I was a kid I was so fascinated by all of this, I had one very gentle duck that was mostly ok with me sitting in front of her nest watching. I probably bothered her more than I should have, but I always wanted to see them hatch. Freaked me out when she'd start pecking and grabbing at half hatched babies, but she never hurt them. Just helped out the ones that needed it. Crazy how they know what to do......

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[FenDruadin]

I'm so happy for you! You saved her life! Yippee!!

 

[FenDruadin]

Edited: I moved the content of this message to the thread it was intended for and deleted it from this thread. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[jellybean]

There is some afterbirth stuff, yellow jellow-y goo hanging from her. A small chunk of it. Should I just let this dry up?

 

[FenDruadin]

You can snip it off with sharp, clean scissors, or just let it fall off. I only snip it if it seems to be interfering with movement (getting caught in legs and such).

 

[jellybean]

Half of it fell off, the rest seems to be drying up. She's just sleeping, can't walk yet. Still awkward and clumsy and falling down.