Help, Tiny Muscovy Isn't Growing!

[Pixeydust]

I have three muscovy ducklings that are almost 4 weeks old today. One of the little ducklings is about 1/3 of the size of the other two, maybe even smaller! At 4 weeks old, it still looks like a little baby not much bigger than one hatched a few days ago. It has had a couple strange issues since it hatched. When I first put it in the brooder, I noticed a fairly loud grinding sound like it was chewing on rocks. A couple days later it went away. Then about a week later, the duckling seemed to sound almost congested in it's beak, not it's lungs, so I separated it. It eats regularly, but not a whole lot, about the same as a duckling his size, but not his age, wet and dry food and fresh water available at all times. The congestion stays away, but it cleans its beak out more than its siblings do. It likes this one certain small bowl, and if I use anything else the congestion sound seems to return. It has to be just barely tall enough to clean its beak, but any taller and then it will only drink and not flush out its nostrils. The duckling is active and wants attention and loves its siblings even though I don't let them stay together, because it is so small and I was worried it might be sick. It doesn't act sick. It acts fairly normal other than it rinses its beak out twice as much as everyone else does. I have been adding extra niacin and baby vitamins to the wet food, and put a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar in the water about half the time. I have been feeding him some ground up high quality dry meal worms for a little boost a couple

times a week, and he still has a brooder heater to climb under. I am sort of at a loss for what might be wrong or what to do. The biggest issue is it just isn't growing. It definitely is not declining. It is exactly as active and runs around the same as it has from day one. If anyone has any ideas please let me know! You can tell he looks small in the picture, but he looks even smaller in person. I don't know if this is important or not, but they all hatched one day apart from each other. The little guy was breech and the last to hatch on day 37, and all of them needed a little help. Humidity may have been too high during incubation, and I had a little incubator miss-hap where the eggs got way too cold one night at about 2 weeks into incubation. I lost a couple egg babies from that incubator, but the majority of them, and all of the ones in the second incubator hatched perfect! I will attach a picture of some of the other pretties who hatched about 2 weeks before my muscovy. They are almost fully feathered and so pretty I think! If anyone know what might be wrong with my little muscovy please let me know what I should do. There are absolutely no vets even close to our area who will see birds. We have a vet about an hour away who will do post mortem exams, but no one to help with live babies! This is my first thread ever, even though I have been following for a while now. I didn't really see a Muscvoy specific thread that matched with my question. Please someone let me know if I did anything incorrectly or something that I am not supposed to! Thanks!

 

[Pixeydust]

Unfortunately, my little baby only made it a couple more weeks and then passed away suddenly. It is so heartbreaking when these things happen. I don't want to leave anyone sad, so I am posting a picture of the little one's siblings who are growing up big, beautiful and strong! Sorry, the pictures are a little old. They are fully feathered now and gorgeous! I will also attach a picture of the new Muscovy babies that just hatched a couple weeks ago. I lost one just a few days after they hatched, but the other six are doing amazing! They are growing fast and full of energy! The little baby in the center was hatched from an egg that was rescued from the mouth of a rat snake. Life is amazing! The snake was fed a smaller duck egg and sent off in the woods, a few miles away from the house, the next morning. I will post those amazing pictures too. You can see on the egg shell where the snakes teeth were gripping it. It is unbelievable that the egg baby made it! If it turns out to be a boy, he will be named Snake. The funny thing is the dad happens to be named Lizard. (His favorite foraged food I am not sure what to name it if it ends up a girl. (Which I suspect it is) Medusa maybe? Lol

 

[Crazy Maizie]

With my last hatch, I had 3. 2 are Male and one female. The female is small and has been since the start. She is smaller than even the other adult muscovy hens. She's definitely a runt. However, she doesn't make any strange noises.
I would weigh your duckling periodically to see of it is making progress. It might be a failure to thrive situation. Also, if it isn't sick, I wouldn't keep it separated as long as it is eating and drinking.
For my little one, I always made sure there was food and water accessible to her so that she got her fair share.

 

[Pixeydust]

Pixeydust since your eggs got cold on that one batch can you please let me know what sex your ducklings turned out to be. I had three mishaps with my small hatchings and each time the eggs got cold and they all turned out to be drakes. I read that if the eggs get cold this will happen. I am just interested to see if all of yours were drakes. One time Momma duck left the eggs when it was bitter cold out, I rescued two eggs that hatched that were ice cold and they were both boys, next time my light burned out in my homemade incubator in the middle of the night, eggs were cold, drakes again. The last time the power went out in the middle of the night, eggs cold and the last one turned out to be a drake as well. I appreciate you letting me know if yours are boys. It's so hard to believe that this can change the sex of a bird but it surely happened to me or it was quite a coincidence. Thanks much.

I had not even thought about that, but since you mentioned it, they were almost all boys! Snake turned out to be male, and out of about 11 muscovy babies total, only 3 were females, which I did think seemed odd. Maybe there is something to the temperature thing. I hatched another 8 Muscovy babies recently. The incubator ran perfectly except for overheating a couple times in the hot weather. I ended up with 6 females and 2 males this time. Maybe the temperature does make a difference or maybe just coincidence?

 

[Cassandra Lana]

It could be a runt. Or a genetic disorder . Sense it is acting normal I would not worry. Also have you tryed introduceing it to swimming ‘deep’ water (a bathtub)?

 

[Pixeydust]

Hi @Pixeydust! how did your baby do? I have a duckling that seems to be in the same situation as yours...

Unfortunately, my little baby did not make it. It ended up having severe respiratory distress that came on suddenly and it passed a few minutes after that started. I recently hatched 7 more muscovy babies, and again I had one that was not growing. This one had no weird respiratory issues though. It's little vent kept getting blocked and I kept having to soak it clean. After it passed I noticed it was blocked up inside the opening. Make sure your little one is pooping like it should be. Maybe I could have saved the second one if I had noticed this. I was scared of hurting the little thing, so I didn't check it out as good as I maybe should have. If your baby is not eating good, maybe try some scrambled eggs. I made them with water mixed in so they were super soft. My second baby started eating better and got excited about the eggs. It definitely wasn't eating the feed like it's siblings were. I think if I had noticed the vent was blocked more than I thought, I think it might have been able to recover. I hope your little one makes it! Don't give up hope. They can recover from some amazing things sometimes. Please keep me updated on how your little one is doing!

With my last hatch, I had 3. 2 are Male and one female. The female is small and has been since the start. She is smaller than even the other adult muscovy hens. She's definitely a runt. However, she doesn't make any strange noises.
I would weigh your duckling periodically to see of it is making progress. It might be a failure to thrive situation. Also, if it isn't sick, I wouldn't keep it separated as long as it is eating and drinking.
For my little one, I always made sure there was food and water accessible to her so that she got her fair share.

It could be a runt. Or a genetic disorder . Sense it is acting normal I would not worry. Also have you tryed introduceing it to swimming ‘deep’ water (a bathtub)?

Thank you so much! I am pretty sure it was some sort of a genetic deformity since it made a very strange grinding rocks sound starting right after it hatched. It had to be something wrong with it's respiratory system. Unfortunately the little baby didn't make it, but it's siblings are big and healthy and doing great!

I had this same problem, but as the Muscovys get older, it is CRUCIAL to make sure the little guy has extra room wherever they all go at night. The little one seems like a runt but we never know and too little space could always end up with the cutie squished. I don’t know if anything your doing that could help more than you’ve already done good luck

Thank you so much for the advice! I had seperated the poor little thing, because I was worried it could have been sick. It also makes it easier to give it special attention that way. Unfortunately it only lived a couple more weeks and then it passed away suddenly. On a happy note though, it's siblings are healthy, happy, huge and doing great!

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Pixeydust

 

[Ella_r_ab]

I have three muscovy ducklings that are almost 4 weeks old today. One of the little ducklings is about 1/3 of the size of the other two, maybe even smaller! At 4 weeks old, it still looks like a little baby not much bigger than one hatched a few days ago. It has had a couple strange issues since it hatched. When I first put it in the brooder, I noticed a fairly loud grinding sound like it was chewing on rocks. A couple days later it went away. Then about a week later, the duckling seemed to sound almost congested in it's beak, not it's lungs, so I separated it. It eats regularly, but not a whole lot, about the same as a duckling his size, but not his age, wet and dry food and fresh water available at all times. The congestion stays away, but it cleans its beak out more than its siblings do. It likes this one certain small bowl, and if I use anything else the congestion sound seems to return. It has to be just barely tall enough to clean its beak, but any taller and then it will only drink and not flush out its nostrils. The duckling is active and wants attention and loves its siblings even though I don't let them stay together, because it is so small and I was worried it might be sick. It doesn't act sick. It acts fairly normal other than it rinses its beak out twice as much as everyone else does. I have been adding extra niacin and baby vitamins to the wet food, and put a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar in the water about half the time. I have been feeding him some ground up high quality dry meal worms for a little boost a couple View attachment 2576411times a week, and he still has a brooder heater to climb under. I am sort of at a loss for what might be wrong or what to do. The biggest issue is it just isn't growing. It definitely is not declining. It is exactly as active and runs around the same as it has from day one. If anyone has any ideas please let me know! You can tell he looks small in the picture, but he looks even smaller in person. I don't know if this is important or not, but they all hatched one day apart from each other. The little guy was breech and the last to hatch on day 37, and all of them needed a little help. Humidity may have been too high during incubation, and I had a little incubator miss-hap where the eggs got way too cold one night at about 2 weeks into incubation. I lost a couple egg babies from that incubator, but the majority of them, and all of the ones in the second incubator hatched perfect! I will attach a picture of some of the other pretties who hatched about 2 weeks before my muscovy. They are almost fully feathered and so pretty I think! If anyone know what might be wrong with my little muscovy please let me know what I should do. There are absolutely no vets even close to our area who will see birds. We have a vet about an hour away who will do post mortem exams, but no one to help with live babies! This is my first thread ever, even though I have been following for a while now. I didn't really see a Muscvoy specific thread that matched with my question. Please someone let me know if I did anything incorrectly or something that I am not supposed to! Thanks!View attachment 2576454View attachment 2576457

I had this same problem, but as the Muscovys get older, it is CRUCIAL to make sure the little guy has extra room wherever they all go at night. The little one seems like a runt but we never know and too little space could always end up with the cutie squished. I don’t know if anything your doing that could help more than you’ve already done good luck

 

[stripedgirls707]

Hi @Pixeydust! how did your baby do? I have a duckling that seems to be in the same situation as yours...

 

[stripedgirls707]

they are gorgeous! And that’s a really good alternate name if it’s a girl