I can feel ducks ribcage 😢

[Maze]

Hii ppls! I have a Muscovy duck and I can feel her ribcage? She doesn't seem to be really hungry and if she is she has a constant supply to duck mash. (We don't have floating feed available)
She is also broody
Kind regards

 

[Miss Lydia]

Is she sitting on eggs? she is starving herself it can happen and if she isn't on eggs you need to break her of her broodiness asap.
Muscovy are so dedicated to brooding even if they don't have eggs.
Breaking them isn't easy but I take mine out of the coop they have chosen to brood in and lock them out during the day. It doesn't always work but you need to do something or you may lose her. I don't feed floating feed can't get it here. Just good quality feed kept where she can get to it easily if she is sitting on eggs and you want her to hatch them. And of course fresh water.

 

[Maze]

Is she sitting on eggs? she is starving herself it can happen and if she isn't on eggs you need to break her of her broodiness asap.
Muscovy are so dedicated to brooding even if they don't have eggs.
Breaking them isn't easy but I take mine out of the coop they have chosen to brood in and lock them out during the day. It doesn't always work but you need to do something or you may lose her. I don't feed floating feed can't get it here. Just good quality feed kept where she can get to it easily if she is sitting on eggs and you want her to hatch them. And of course fresh water.

She isn't on eggs at all.
I have taken her out of the coop mostly every day and locked the door. We are getting her some ducklings soon cuz I'm tired of her broodyness

 

[ruthhope]

I am not so sure about the significance of feeling the rib cage in musovy. The key to measuring thinness or not is how prominent is the keel.

Miss Lydia has far more experience than I do and if your girl is broody and starving herself, please follow Miss Lydia's guidance for breaking her of that.

Daffy, my great fat lump of muscovy drake duckiness, has ribs. I can feel them when I pick him up. I pick him up quite often and stand him on my lap. But his keel is well cover, not prominent and not sharp.

Try comparing your ducks' keel with the chart and let us know what you discover!

 

[Miss Lydia]

She isn't on eggs at all.
I have taken her out of the coop mostly every day and locked the door. We are getting her some ducklings soon cuz I'm tired of her broodyness

I hope she'll accept them. When one of my Muscovy was broody and would not give up I tried giving her ducklings that had just arrived from Metzers she totally ignored them so in the house they came to be brooded by me. This duck was so insistent on sitting I ended up putting a large bale of shavings in her nest area and she just climbed right on top of it. It was still in the plastic.