HELP! Found duckling dead:(

[GreeneAcresFarm]

I found one dead that appeared just fine an hour ago. Also have one not standing/walking that I noticed last night. (see other thread)
Brooder, 86 degrees under the light, around 80 in other parts of brooder, 22% gamebird starter/grower, they are a week old.
Other two appear fine for the moment??? They did play in water for about 5 minutes this morning. It was luke warm water, i dried them and lowered the heat lamp when I
put them back.

Need advise with first ducklings!

Glad my littles ones are at school they will be upset when the get home to hold the little ducklings!

thanks

 

[peepsandquacks]

aw man, that sucks. Im sorry :-(. I cant tell ya why though. I give mine warm (about 90 degrees) baths every other day or so, and havnt had a problem. I hope your other guys will be OK.

 

[mandelyn]

If you have a bedding type they can eat, swap it for towels. Are these newly hatched day-olds? You'll need additional heat if so. You can cover the brooder with towels to let heat build up, leaving a gap in the corner for air flow, though in a corner opposite the light.

I don't know what else it could be. Were they shipped or did you hatch them?

 

[GreeneAcresFarm]

The bedding is pine shavings. We got them last Friday for the local farm store. So they are a little over a week old. They have been eating about a quart every day and 1/2.
Water gets changed a couple times a day and is in one of the gallon waterers with the red pan below about an inch wide access all the way around? I constantly monitor the temp and it is consistently 86 or so under the lamp and 80 away from the lamp.

 

[peepsandquacks]

If you got them last friday, they are prolly more like 1.5weeks. They get them shipped, and that takes 2-3 days.

I said this in another post....there have been ALOT of baby birdie deaths past few days, and the bedding is ALWAYS some type of wood shaving. My duckies (1.5 weeks) will eat anything and everything...and I am really thinking these deaths are from birdies eating wood pieces.

I use old towels for our bedding. You have to wash them, and you can see the poop more, but so far we have had healthy birds.

 

[mhwc56]

MY ducklings (3 weeks) are on pine shavings! what can i use for them if not shavings? i have hay but that doesn't absorb the mess they make .........

 

[DurhamDuck]

Oh no, I just switched to pine shavings because they kept the ducks cleaner than the papertowels I was using. I have straw but that was mess too. What's the best brooder liner for young ducklings?

 

[Hattiegun]

I used regular old bath or beach towels and puppy pads .. just shake the towel out and wash....

 

[mhwc56]

someone knowledgeable PLEASE help all of us panic stricken people who are using pine shavings!

 

[peepsandquacks]

Towels, puppy pads....I even used paper towel in the start, but it gets too wet and dirty too fast. So far my favorite is an old towel. I have 4, and when I use the last one, I wash the other 3.

When they go outside, I will be using hay in the coop.

I clean the duck pen out 2x a day with a fresh towel. Keeps the mess down fine.