hi everyone. today around 3pm the duckling hatched! all by itself, it came out of the egg. its been almost 5 hours and the duckling still hasn't fluffed up. I'm not sure how long it should take... the duckling is dry but not fluffy, is this normal?
also, the duckling has a sticky blackish blob hanging from the tail. I don't know what it is but I'm pretty sure it's not normal. does anyone have an idea of what it is and what I should do?
It could just be the fact that it got a bit dried out and the moisture from the shell has dried on its fluff, making it less fluffy. The goop is likely the waste that usually stays in the shell. It should dry out and drop off but you could sterilise some scissors and snip it off as far from the duckling as possible so you are just snipping off the blob. The stump may bleed slightly so just pinch it until that stops. The rest should dry up and fall off. If you leave the blob on there there's just the risk that it will get caught on something and pull the duckling's guts out.