Mites?

[jandavis]

My two-week-old ducklings have started scratching a lot and biting at themselves. Could they have some kind of mites and is there a spray or rub I could use on them to help them be more comfortable?

 

[Amiga]

Sounds like feathers coming in, to me. Do they get any bath time yet? No soap, just warm water - about 80 degrees F, up to the tops of their legs. Generally about 5 to 10 minutes tuckers them out. Then back to a warm clean dry brooder, and help drying off if they don't start preening right away.

 

[jandavis]

I've only let them swim twice. I think they are about three weeks old now. I'll let them swim tomorrow and if they do well with it, will increase it some. It could be feathers coming in. They are at the raggedy stage now where their down is all spikey and sticks up at the tail. I hope these don't turn into drake tails because we now have one fully grown drake and four females. If these two little ones turn out to be males, we'll have to go to a local farm and find five more fully grown females to indoctrinate into our three acres. they don't use the pond at all in the summer. Too many snapping turtles, but they use the creek that runs through our front yard, all day long.