First-Timer

[Miss Lydia]

Eating and drinking okay, maybe they got too cool but it seems the 2 youngest would be showing it more. I don't know maybe a video of them all? What is the temp in their brooder?

 

[WVduckchick]

My young groups are lazy! They scurry around like mad, then all of a sudden its nap time. Even when Mom and Dad are in the pool, the little ones are laying beside it, all in a pile. I think it's natural. If they seem otherwise happy and healthy, I don't worry too much. (Maybe sometimes not enough)

 

[happy duck]

Hi!!!! So happy to hear you are hatching ducks! Can you tell me how the imprinting went I would love to hear about it!

 

[littlecollier]

The only other thing I noticed was it seemed like the older ones were maybe breathing heavier? They’ve been making strange raspy noises, but I kind of thought their voices might be changing?

They have water deep enough to dunk their head (though they don’t on a regular basis, mostly just splash their bills around) and plenty of nutritional yeast for niacin. I’ve been giving them electrolyte water and have Nutri-Drench arriving in the mail today.

I’ll look through to see if I have a video showing any of this, I had to run to work so I’m worrying from afar.

 

[littlecollier]

Hi @happy duck! We tried to incubate and failed ... I don’t think our auto turner was as auto as it advertised.

We ended up getting 2 hours-old hatchlings almost three weeks ago and 2 more this Monday.

The first batch definitely imprinted on me (and a little on my partner). Especially when they were little-little they would zoom around to follow my hands. We hand fed them in mornings and evenings and let them free feed during the day so they’re not afraid of us sticking our hands in the brooder. Come to think of it, they may have just imprinted on our hands!



The new littles are friendly but I think putting them together with the bigs may have caused them to imprint on the ducks. They don’t run to my hands the way the bigs did. My partner tried to reassure me that this is okay and might even be better since this way the bigs follow me and the littles follow the bigs, so it’s kind of a natural pecking order.

If I could do it again, I might have waited a few more days to introduce the two, but the darn cuddle puddles totally make up for all of it!

 

[littlecollier]

Here’s the raspy sound, this was last night before bedtime.

@WVduckchick @Miss Lydia Does this seem normal or should I be worried?

Here’s a video from before the new brooder and babies ... Breathing issue or teenage almost-quack?

 

[Toogoodoo]

The cuddle puddles are making me meltttt I need the cayugas a friend is hatching for us to hurry up - I miss teensy ducklings! The Pekins we had hatch have already quadrupled in size in the blink of an eye!

 

[littlecollier]

Like big, like little ... Babies mimicking when they first met yesterday.

Sorry (not sorry?) for the flood of photos!



Also, added videos and user tags to a post above, but I’m not sure if notifications are sent when a post is edited.

 

[Lil Drake40]

Is the breathing a clicking sound?

 

[littlecollier]

Is the breathing a clicking sound?

Sort of? I’m having a hard time capturing it and describing. I linked to two videos a few posts before this, if you don’t mind watching I would be interested in your opinion.

Thank you for your help!