I need advice on separating my duckling siblings

[Bekahj1209]

I have 7 mallard ducklings and one has a niacin deficiency. I'm giving her vitamin B drops a couple times a day and she's doing okay but still can't walk on her feet (she walks on her elbows/knees) and is much smaller than her siblings. I can't keep the ducks so I'm passing them to a farmer friend. But right now he's planning to put them right outside (we live in SE Wisconsin) and giving them a heat lamp at night. They are 2 1/2 weeks old.
Would healthy 2 1/2 week old ducklings be okay outside all day? The temp for the next week in our area will be a high of 72-90 depending on the day, and lows of below 60. (Though they will have a heat lamp till about 7:30 am every day and again around 6pm).

I'm very nervous about giving him my weak one - I'm sure my friend won't do the vitamin B drops consistently because he's really busy (full time work in addition to his farm, and he doesn't live at the farm). So I want to keep her with me along with a sibling for another few days up to a couple weeks to see if she improves. Does anyone have suggestions about this?

The big thing I'm concerned about is if I separate them and keep the weak one and a sibling, would they have trouble re-intergrating with their siblings when it's time? I might need to keep them up to a couple weeks, but I'm hoping it would be more like a week. Will they remember each other or will they need to re-integrate as if they were strangers?

One more question is, if she doesn't show improvement, what should I do? I can't keep her long term as we're in a city that doesn't allow chickens and ducks on private property. Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[quackingdom]

The general rule of thumb is that you can decrease brooder by about 5 degrees every week, so 2-week-old ducklings can handle 80-85 degrees, and 3-week-old ducklings can handle 75-80 degrees. If it doesn't go much below 75 degrees during the day, they should be all right. But maybe you should wait a little longer before giving them to him, if possible.

Perhaps you could tell your friend to mix vitamin B in the water for all of them. They should all be having supplementary niacin anyway. But I think it would definitely be best if you could keep the weak one until it recovers. Reintegration shouldn't be a big problem, I don't think. Ducklings of the same age can usually be integrated without major problems even if they're strangers.

If she doesn't improve, personally, I'd put her down or ask your friend to. They just can't live a good quality of life walking on their hocks. I think niacin deficiency is usually curable though, at least if you catch it quick enough. She's still quite young.