I have six khaki Campbell ducklings and one has always been smaller than the others. The rest are growing like weeds and she has grown a bit. She is about a third of the size of the rest. Should I be worried. They are three weeks old.
That happens sometimes. Other than not appearing to grow as fast as the others how is she eating good running around like the rest?
I too have one of my mallards that is much smaller than the others. She eats and drinks and runs around fine. I guess she,i like to think it's a hen,will be fine.
Might be a good idea to invest in a digital kitchen scale and start weighing it every few days. Growing ducks, chicks, peachicks, goslings, poults, etc should make daily gains. As long as my runts are gaing a little each day I don't wory, but if they don't gain, or lose weight, then I try to figure out what might be making them sick. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your duckling is sick, just that getting a baseline weight on it would be a good idea. The digital scale I bought at Target and weighs anything from about 5 grams to 5kg. One of the best $25 I spent for the birds. -Kathy
I've got a Welsh Harlequin duckling who is substantially smaller than her nine siblings -- she is growing, just waaaaayyyyy slower than everyone else. Just a word of caution, mine was in with everyone else and got stepped on several times, which seems to have caused some problems with her legs. I separated her, and she seems to be recovering, but if I had it to do over again, I would have separated her (maybe with one other duckling for company) as soon as I noticed how much smaller she was to protect her from being squished.
Not only can they get stepped on and injured but sometimes they can't get to the feed if the bigger ones push her out so yes separating with one buddy can really help in situations like this. Glad you little on is recovering.
