Help! 4 day old duckling still hasn’t eaten, has yolk attached, and stomach is growling. Weighs 24 grams

Solemn Opossum

In the Brooder
Aug 6, 2020
5
4
29
I found my duckling Little Foot back on the 15th. I went to the run to return a baby I had hatched (its shell had been badly broken and I repaired and incubated it {foreshadowing}) and saw a little duckling not moving. I picked her up and saw her yolk was still attached. My girl Eyebrows is a notorious egg cracker (I’ve repaired three so far), so I think she broke this one’s egg too soon. The first day I kept her in a tupper with damp paper towels, a heating pad, and heat lamp. She could only barely open one eye and couldn’t really move at all. she went from that, to slowly learning to sit up with support, to finally being able to use both eyes, to learning to stand by herself yesterday, and she learned to walk today. She spent two days in the incubator and now is in a box with paper towels and a heat lamp. Despite cleaning her naval with iodine and applying neosporin, I thought her yolk became infected yesterday because it had gone from being all black and a little shriveled looking one night to looking full with yellow on the inside the next morning, but she isn’t acting sick. Maybe I misremember? Today she’s being vocal and active, even chewing on her new roommate she got yesterday. I weighed said roommate five or so hours after hatching (weighed her again after fluffing and it was the same). Little Foot weighs less than half her weight; 24 grams vs 56 grams. She has weighed that same weight since the day I found her. I can get her to drink water (with an electrolyte vitamin mix), but she refuses to eat. She keeps her beak shut when I dip it in the soupy food and just shakes it away. Could she still be absorbing her yolk? She’s made it SO far and conquered every obstacle, losing her would destroy me. I’ve had ducklings way better off than her just fade and die on me, but she’s never stopped fighting. I think her eating is the last big hurdle. Her stomach is constantly making this loud grumbling sound, just like a human stomach growling, every ten seconds and has been doing so since the day after bringing her inside. Do ducklings’ stomachs growl when they’re hungry? I’ve never noticed another duckling have that happening. And does her naval look infected? I know that’s a death sentence that leads to them not eating, but I mean she didn’t eat before it looked like that either. Or is it just an uninfected yolk sac that she’s still taking nutrients from?
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Day 1 ⬆️

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Yesterday ⬆️

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