Muscovy ducklings dying

[dragonfly126]

Hi I have a male Muscovy duck and a couple of female Muscovy's. One of our females hatched 17 ducklings. They are about 8 weeks old. Yesterday when my hubby came home one of our ducklings was found dead. It looked like a wooden decoy. There was not a feather out of place. And today my hubby found another duckling that was in the process of dying. He tried to give it mouth to bill resuscitation. But it did not make it. There appears to be no physical reason why these ducklings are dying. Has anyone ever experience anything like this?? Or have any idea what could be going on?? I appreciate any and all replies. dragonfly126

 

[Amiga]

To be sure, you would need a necropsy.

Are there mosquitoes or black flies out where you are? Those can carry diseases deadly to ducklings.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Might want to make sure they are all getting feed sometimes when there's that many someone maybe getting left out of the feed bowl. I have 38 in my flock and put out a lot of feed containers in different places so all can get food.

 

[Going Quackers]

I haven't experienced this, what is the set-up like? i agree about feed and so forth, could be a deficiency ? what are they fed. I will say sometimes babies just pass on for no reasons obvious.

 

[dragonfly126]

We live in a rural area with a small area of woods. And we use to have a couple of pigs. They are long gone now. The ducklings are 10 weeks old now. We feed them cracked corn and whole corn. Some times they get cooked rice. We have a small pond and my hubby floods the ground around it for them as well. He makes sure everyone gets something to eat. He spends a great deal of time out there with the animals.

Going Quakers what set up are you asking about?? Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We live in a rural area with a small area of woods. And we use to have a couple of pigs. They are long gone now. The ducklings are 10 weeks old now. We feed them cracked corn and whole corn. Some times they get cooked rice. We have a small pond and my hubby floods the ground around it for them as well. He makes sure everyone gets something to eat. He spends a great deal of time out there with the animals.

Going Quakers what set up are you asking about?? Thanks everyone for your input.

cracked corn and whole corn isn't a well balanced diet, if you read on the bag of scratch it will say only feed as 10% of diet. They need a balanced chicken or duck feed to go along with it. I use an all flock since I have a mixed flock. and feed whole oats and cracked corn at 10%. Especially ducklings they need more niacin and other vitamins and minerals that corn alone can't supply.

 

[Going Quackers]

I was meaning set-up in like what they can access, what is around them, basically if they can get into anything harmful, i do agree with ML though while i know it gets touted whole corn is not a complete diet and definitely cause deficiencies in young birds, i keep little ones on a starter or all flock then switch to growers.

I do use whole grains here but they still get a complete feed despite foraging.