Feedback: Ducklings Sitting Down All The Time

[jade2020]

Good Day,

I need some feedback if you all could help. This is my first time incubating and raising (in general) ducklings. My 6 day old ducklings tend to group up and sit down all day together. Is this normal? I live in the Marianas Islands so its pretty humid here (avg. 75) and temps of avg. 80 F. I also keep them in a box as shown in the picture. Should I place them in a larger area for them to move around? Should I also only use a brooder at night when the temp. is usually cooler?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Sincerely,
Jade

 

[jaykayhuff]

Good Day,

I need some feedback if you all could help. This is my first time incubating and raising (in general) ducklings. My 6 day old ducklings tend to group up and sit down all day together. Is this normal? I live in the Marianas Islands so its pretty humid here (avg. 75) and temps of avg. 80 F. I also keep them in a box as shown in the picture. Should I place them in a larger area for them to move around? Should I also only use a brooder at night when the temp. is usually cooler?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Sincerely,
Jade

When they are that young it is normal to see a lot of sleeping, eating/drinking, and short bursts of craziness that most of us refer to as the “Zoomies”. Probably nothing abnormal but what are they being fed and what breed are they? If they are like that for long periods of time they may be cold. What’s the temperature in the box for them? I usual do 90’s first week then slowly drop temperatures down through 80’s over the course of the next couple weeks.

 

[jade2020]

Probably nothing abnormal but what are they being fed and what breed are they?

I'm feeding them chick starter feed (Nothing on this island provides specialized feed for ducks), and I'm not really sure what breed they are. The person who sold me the eggs never mentioned it.

If they are like that for long periods of time they may be cold. What’s the temperature in the box for them?

The thing is though, when I constantly had the brooder turned on and in the box (24hrs) they would always choose to stay away from it. Even now they are sleeping together, but not under the brooder. In regards to the temp, I'm going to need to find another thermometer to use as the one I was using for the incubating process broke. I'll try to see if I can find a replacement soon.

 

[Ratchnick]

You need to supplement niacin asap, there is a post In the sticky section about niacin deficiency.

 

[jade2020]

You need to supplement niacin asap, there is a post In the sticky section about niacin deficiency.

Hi there Ratchnick,

I took a look at the thread and it is describing the symptoms I'm seeing. I didn't find exactly a Niacin supplement at the largest supermarket on my island, instead i had gotten this B12 vitamins as a substitute (see pic). I bought that as I don't recall seeing Niacin supplements at my local pharmacy (they are not that big), but I'll try to see for sure tomorrow.

With the B12 supplements I got, I took off a pinch of it and crushed it into powder to sprinkle in their 1.5L water feeder. Should I supply more of it inside? I got four ducklings.

Lastly, I remember seeing a post of someone mixing a bag of game bird starter feed with chick feed as the game bird feed has niacin. The local harware store supplies this type of feed so i'm wondering if I should go ahead and buy that and do a mix.

 

[jade2020]

The thing is though, when I constantly had the brooder turned on and in the box (24hrs) they would always choose to stay away from it. Even now they are sleeping together, but not under the brooder. In regards to the temp, I'm going to need to find another thermometer to use as the one I was using for the incubating process broke. I'll try to see if I can find a replacement soon.

So I use a room humidity meter I have that also reports temps. I placed it under the brooder and got 85 F. This is just getting me confused because I would imagine they would seek heat underneath the brooder but they continue to stay outside of it.

 

[Ratchnick]

85 Is plenty hot for 6 day olds. You might only need heat at night. They will tell you what they want. That suppliment does not contain a large amount of niacin (b3) each dose (2 pills) has enough for a 3 week old ducking. If you can find a liquid b3 suppliment at the health food or pharmacy that will be easy to administer. Putting suppliments in the water only works if you way overdose because you don't know how much they drink and how much they spill. If you can mix the crushed pill with a small amount of moist food that would work. Just take their food away for a few hours until they start to peep then give them the medicated food, make sure they eat all the food in that sitting, i would probably use 6 pills at one week old.

 

[jade2020]

Hi. After checking the local pharmacy, they do not have plain Niacin (only the timed or flush versions) nor any liquid B3. Will this suffice? It contains 100mg per capsule. (See pics). Do I go ahead and crush one into a small amount of moist food as suggested? Will the other vitamins in this be harmful for the ducklings?

 

[Isaac 0]

@jade2020

If you provide us with your general location, I'll/We'll be able to find a correct niacin supplement for you.

 

[jade2020]

@jade2020

If you provide us with your general location, I'll/We'll be able to find a correct niacin supplement for you.

Thank you. I'm in one of the U.S. Territories, the Northern Marianas Islands [CNMI].