Ducks eating now. Only lost one duck!!

[zook]

I moved two under 1 year old Muscovy girls into the barn two days ago ad they refuse to eat. They drink very little and that was only today. They ate fine out with the other 3 in the outside enclosure. They are in a large enclosed room, no drafts and pine shaving floor. Cozy. So now what, move them back or wait them out. They can see through a window my 3 turkeys in the next enclosure but it is totally separate. The turkey were moved also from another enclosure and they are eating fine.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I moved two under 1 year old Muscovy girls into the barn two days ago ad they refuse to eat. They drink very little and that was only today. They ate fine out with the other 3 in the outside enclosure. They are in a large enclosed room, no drafts and pine shaving floor. Cozy. So now what, move them back or wait them out. They can see through a window my 3 turkeys in the next enclosure but it is totally separate. The turkey were moved also from another enclosure and they are eating fine.

Why only the 2 and not all 6? sounds like they are missing their flock.

 

[zook]

Because these 2 girls ( one of them is the mommy to Turbo) are the calmest and we were hoping to start introducing Turbo before the others joined them. The 3 other adults are a drake and his sis about 16 weeks old and a duck of undertermined age. When we introduced the drake and his sis to the drake at the time, they were 3 weeks old. He bloodied them up pretty good within a day. Did not want Turbo to go through that. If I bring the rest in and I can likely would not be safe for a 3 wk old duckling.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Because these 2 girls ( one of them is the mommy to Turbo) are the calmest and we were hoping to start introducing Turbo before the others joined them. The 3 other adults are a drake and his sis about 16 weeks old and a duck of undertermined age. When we introduced the drake and his sis to the drake at the time, they were 3 weeks old. He bloodied them up pretty good within a day. Did not want Turbo to go through that. If I bring the rest in and I can likely would not be safe for a 3 wk old duckling.

Nope it would not be safe, but how about a temp fence to divide the mom and duckling from the rest but all are still together. What ever you do you have no guarantee they are going to accept Turbo since he will be considered an outsider no matter who he belongs too so might be even better to have a small space for Turbo amongst them and let all the older ducks be together. that way they all get use to each other then in about a week see if you can take down fence and give everyone some treats sometimes when they have their minds on filling their tummys they aren't as apt to notice a newbie among them. Put the fence back up to keep Turbo safe[ I usually wait till 3 weeks before letting mine out among the flock with a mama duck], before then they have a temp fence between them and the flock If that goes good then keep doing that for a week till they aren't paying him much mind at all. There's going to be feather grabbing it's all part of acceptance but hopefully there won't be anything more serious than that. At 3 weeks Turbo is still pretty young to be alone with older ducks for very long. I doubt mama would recognize him as hers. It can be a pain when introducing a new duckling to a group already bonded but it can be done just takes time, and I am very over protecting of my ducklings knowing what drakes and even ducks are capable of.

 

[zook]

We have a dog pen to put Turbo in so he can see the others but they can't get to him unless he sticks his head out. Our intention was for him to be in the pen in the room with the adults more and more each day. But what about the 2 ducks not eating. Should I bring in the drake and other 2 ducks. The actual mom that sat on the eggs was last to go into the outside pen and still gets picked on by all the others 3 weeks later. When we put her and the other duck (who by the way was part of a trio with our last nasty drake) in the barn they stick like glue to each other like the transition bonded them as comfort to the other. I thought maybe add a duck a day to the barn and the drake last. That may spur them to eat. I'm worried how long they can go without food. They drink a bit. They have a covered bucket with a 4" hole to put their heads in to drink and there is wet shavings below it so I know they are using it.

He (the drake) may not feel like a big shot if he joins the established group last. He is a puppy to us humans but picks on Turbo's mom bad.

I am assuming Miss Lydia you have been following our adventures since the egg pipping of Turbo. We have tried to follow the majority advice.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We have a dog pen to put Turbo in so he can see the others but they can't get to him unless he sticks his head out. Our intention was for him to be in the pen in the room with the adults more and more each day. But what about the 2 ducks not eating. Should I bring in the drake and other 2 ducks. The actual mom that sat on the eggs was last to go into the outside pen and still gets picked on by all the others 3 weeks later. When we put her and the other duck (who by the way was part of a trio with our last nasty drake) in the barn they stick like glue to each other like the transition bonded them as comfort to the other. I thought maybe add a duck a day to the barn and the drake last. That may spur them to eat. I'm worried how long they can go without food. They drink a bit. They have a covered bucket with a 4" hole to put their heads in to drink and there is wet shavings below it so I know they are using it.

He (the drake) may not feel like a big shot if he joins the established group last. He is a puppy to us humans but picks on Turbo's mom bad.

I am assuming Miss Lydia you have been following our adventures since the egg pipping of Turbo. We have tried to follow the majority advice.

All you can do is try adding another one in and see if it makes a difference. I don't know what to tell you on why they aren't eating unless they are missing the rest of their flock you may have to do a bit of separating once you bring them all in to keep the one being picked on from being picked on worse being all closed up together. My dominant drake will pick on the ducks that don't belong to him but doesn't pick on his 3 girls at all. How is the drake with this mama duck if the others aren't around? wondering if he hasn't accepted her into the flock yet? Duck dynamics are hard to understand at times. good idea on putting Turbo into a dog pen.

 

[Going Quackers]

Ducks don't like change, period. I would try something more enticing romaine here will get you tackled. ML has sound advice too. I run a pretty good sized flock of scovies they have a pecking order and you can definitely see who is not on top.

 

[zook]

I moved the youngest girl in the barn tonight and she ran straight to the first two. Now a trio of girls together. I was hoping to remove food and water at night but decided I better leave it in. I have not found a treat they really go for yet but hopefully will.I am carefully measuring their feed so I can check later on in the day to see how much is consumed. Hopefully that will tell me if they are eating. Tomorrow morning I'll move the last girl in there and the drake in the afternoon. I think they will be ticked off in the morning as I emptied their pool. With sunrise at 7:19am and sunset at 4:55pm its short days.Seems only the turkeys are unfazed by the whole thing.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I moved the youngest girl in the barn tonight and she ran straight to the first two. Now a trio of girls together. I was hoping to remove food and water at night but decided I better leave it in. I have not found a treat they really go for yet but hopefully will.I am carefully measuring their feed so I can check later on in the day to see how much is consumed. Hopefully that will tell me if they are eating. Tomorrow morning I'll move the last girl in there and the drake in the afternoon. I think they will be ticked off in the morning as I emptied their pool. With sunrise at 7:19am and sunset at 4:55pm its short days.Seems only the turkeys are unfazed by the whole thing.

Well with a pea size brain what do you expect? lol
Once you get them all together and see their eating again take the food and water out at night they don't need it honestly, Mine have never had it in their houses. Only time I have food and water is when I have ducklings and that gets taken away by 3 weeks. We have had frozen spring water for the last 4 days so bathing has been out of the question, I'm hoping today to be able to fill their small pool so they can at least splash a bit. Let us know how it goes.. Like GQ said they don't like change kinda like us humans eh?

 

[Going Quackers]

It's not unusual to see a breakdown to mini flocks within larger groups, i have them here, quite a few actually but this flock is a of 20 birds. Food/water at night some of mine do some don't, with all the other changes best to wait on that, you can remove later...

The darkness does bring forth complications, my birds return by dusk to the pen i leave them in there for at least another 2hrs+ if it's a chilly night and they have all flopped to the ground waiting to go in i'll put them in otherwise, i wait a bit they went in at 8Pm last night they were happily foraging etc. I have a 50GAL heated but it was +temps yesterday so all water was open regardless.

Again, major changes never go well(frankly, neither do small) when i acquired a new duck last month she didn't eat for the first few days either... ducks aren't stupid just simple and thrive on routine and simplicity.