How to care for ducklings?? I'm unprepared and they are due tomorrow!

[jessiduck]

No problem hun ! I know you will take good care of them!

 

[LaynaDon95]

Okay, so the PO called my friend at 6:15 this morning. She lives pretty far out of town so we went to get them. They are ADORABLE! We got 8 silkies One has a curled foot, but I taped him up and he's walking fine. Another looks like this.


How often does this happen?

We got 6 blue cochins and they are beautiful. 2 barnvelders and 2 RIRs who look great.

The ducklings are adorable! They feel so funny in your hands compared to chicks!
I noticed, though, that they sometimes have mucus hanging out of their bills after drinking. Is that normal??

 

[Tahai]

All mine had that for the first couple of days, then it disappeared. No clue what it was. I likened it to baby spit-up.

 

[LaynaDon95]

All mine had that for the first couple of days, then it disappeared. No clue what it was. I likened it to baby spit-up.

Okay... I just don't want anything to happen to them under my care. :\ That would be devastating.

 

[Nsampsel]

The mucous is exactly that...mucous. It's from stress from shipping & adjusting to the new environment. They will be fine. It's normal for the first few days in shipped babies.

 

[Mum]

The mucous is exactly that...mucous. It's from stress from shipping & adjusting to the new environment. They will be fine. It's normal for the first few days in shipped babies.

Not just shipped babies. My own hatched KC had a mucus moment about one week after hatching (its 2 weeks old now). No stresses were apparent because everything was as usual. Its just something which happens.

 

[Nsampsel]

True...it can happen if they get very excited too. Maybe your baby just had a bit of a run or enjoyed a treat a bit more than usual...lol

 

[Nsampsel]

Layna: from what I have seen & read about the extra toes it can happen frequently in some breeds. It just means it's not show quality. Won't hurt it a bit. Just avoid using that 1 as a breeder if you are trying for show quality birds.

 

[duckluck]

I think the mason jar drinker should be plenty deep for their bills, and I usually add a vitamin/electolyte supplement to my water and some brewers yeast to my starter for my ducklings. I don't raise chickens so a chicken person would have to weigh in on that, but the supplement is labeled for all poultry so I am guessing it would be fine. The ducklings do need the B vitamins.

 

[duckluck]

I start weaning off the starter and onto the grower with my Calls at about 10 days; like to have them on grower, even if I have to grind it up some, by about day 14-16.