Dwarf Muscovy Duckling?

[Tessaturtle]

Need some others opinions and/or expertise! One of our ducklings that were hatched from a batch of 10 is significantly smaller than the rest of the batch. I don't know whats wrong with it, or if its a dwarf or what. They are 4 weeks old, but this one looks like its only about 2 weeks old. It seems to drink fine, but it definitely does not eat even half the amount the others do. When they are out foraging, it may grab a blade of grass or two, but mostly jsut stands amongst the batch all hunched up. It will follow them wherever they go and starts peeping loudly when left behind. It can't keep up but tries like hell. We have watched it with the duck feed (pellets) and it eats a few, but seems to eat only one at a time. I gave it a dish of the starter/grower crumbles back to see and it did eat more, but still would take very small mouthfuls and shook its head sometimes after taking some in. The mama duck takes good care of it and does not like to be separated from it. Any ideas?!

 

[Going Quackers]

Didn't want to read and not reply but i have no idea, it seems normal otherwise? how many eggs were in this clutch? My females are always smaller than the males by about 3-4wks the two start to separate with growth but that is quite extreme for that to be the reasoning. I have had not had this happen, i did have two premature scovies hatch this summer but they are now very good sized 3mth old boys, after a bit of a slower start.

 

[Tessaturtle]

There was a total of about 16-17 eggs, with 10 successfully hatching. Not sure in what order this little one hatched as the mother kept them pretty well underwraps! This one definitely was one of the smallest from the get go. There are a couple of other smaller ones that I believe are females, but even then, this one is noticeably smaller than those ones as well. It seems normal except with the minimal eating/shaking its head when it eats, falls asleep standing up a lot, and not growing. Just didn't know if we should give it any supplements or not. We thought about separating it, but it does not like to be away from its mother and vice versa.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You maybe seeing some genetic going on, I had a hatch about 5 years ago where one of the ducklings wasn't growing and seemed to get left behind, she would just stay close to the house while everyone was going out having fun, I'm pretty sure she had something going on with her heart, but of course just a guess. She lived to be about 12 weeks old, I hope this isn't the case with yours and that you'll begin to see it eating more and growing, but usually when you see one described like you have there is just something wrong. Giving some poultry vitamins might help, Separating would probably just cause unnecessary stress on the lil one, unless you see it being completely left behind then you have to worry about preds. Please keep us update.

 

[Tessaturtle]

Unfortunately, the little guy or girl passed away this morning. It was walking a bit slow this morning when DH let all the ducks out of their houses. A couple of hours later, I saw the mother duck pacing back and forth and looking back into the house. I went out there and it was dead. I laid it down on the ground over by the mother so she could see it/touch it and she came over and nuzzled it, then walked away and was fine again. Must have been something internal, heart or something. I wonder if its something genetic with the father because we lost one from an earlier hatch from a different mother, but same father - only that one was normal size and made it a week or so longer than this one before it suddenly died.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Unfortunately, the little guy or girl passed away this morning. It was walking a bit slow this morning when DH let all the ducks out of their houses. A couple of hours later, I saw the mother duck pacing back and forth and looking back into the house. I went out there and it was dead. I laid it down on the ground over by the mother so she could see it/touch it and she came over and nuzzled it, then walked away and was fine again. Must have been something internal, heart or something. I wonder if its something genetic with the father because we lost one from an earlier hatch from a different mother, but same father - only that one was normal size and made it a week or so longer than this one before it suddenly died.

Could be genetic or with that many eggs could have been something going on during incubation, not enough warmth or humidity just never know for sure without a necropsy. But very sorry for your loss.

 

[veronicasmom]

Aww I am sorry. I just saw this and was hoping for a better outcome.
Rest in peace little duckie........................

 

[Angus12]

We hatched a clutch of 3 muscovys and two are about 5 weeks and one is about 4 but the 4 week old one is about quarter of the size of the other 2

 

[Miss Lydia]

We hatched a clutch of 3 muscovys and two are about 5 weeks and one is about 4 but the 4 week old one is about quarter of the size of the other 2

It happens, if the small one is eating, drinking and other wise acting normal hopefully isn't nothing genetic going on just small. Pics would be nice.

Welcome to BYC

 

[jofanx]

Was wondering if anything came of the second person who posted about a muscovy not growing because I was going to post as well but found this thread.

Middle one came from a clutch of 3 (the other two were even smaller when I adopted them out, so I thought this one was a male) supposedly the same age as the gray one at 3.5 months old.

About half the size of my adult females, while the juvenile gray female is approaching the adult sized female.

I had thought the previous owner was lying about the age, but why lie about something they were giving away for free? When I commented on the size, he was just as puzzled as I was and said he's not sure why they're like that. When I got them, they were supposedly 4 weeks old but the size of 1 week olds.

Driving me nuts, wondering if I should separate and feed him/her to its heart's content to get it to catch up.