**Help please**... 2 week old Pekin breathing with beak opened??

[kwack]

So I was going to bed and checked the ducklings. The Pekin is breathing with it's beak opened.
Is this normal?

And s/he's breathing really fast...

At two weeks, s/he is gargantuan. Twice as big as the others - no other Pekins.

When do we stop free choice feeds and get them on a feeding schedule?

They are still inside in a brooder and get outside daily unless cold or rainy.

 

[shelleyd2008]

2 week old pekin...

1: It is in the house, correct?

2: does it have a heat light?

If so, it is probably too hot. I had to cut my ducklings' light off by 2 weeks when they were inside, it just got way too hot for them.

 

[kwack]

I thought about that and killed one of the lights - the thermometer says 80.

 

[shelleyd2008]

If it is in the house, I would kill all the lights. My cayuga and rouen babies were still burning up even without a heat light at 2 weeks old inside. Maybe give it a bath to help cool it off? Not a cold bath of course, but lukewarm water. Baby ducks start out at 85 degrees, and drop quickly from there. 80 is way too hot.

 

[kwack]

Thanks for the input. I was going with 95 week one, then drop 5 deg each week. Nobody is trying to escape the heat lamp but I will try it off.

Thanks again.

 

[shelleyd2008]

By 4 weeks old they can be outside with no heat, so 80 at 2 weeks is too much. How many do you have, and how big is the brooder? The less heat they have the better at this point, it will help them to feather out better if they are more on the cool side