My Duck's wings are drooping

[Willowbrook]

Animallover, you've received lots of good advice so far, but I must say everything you've described is very normal for a developing duck. The vitamins will give your bird and extra boost, but if you are providing a well balanced diet for this bird, you'll be fine. You've not mentioned anything that seems out of the ordinary.
Please give it some time and I'm sure you'll see improvement shortly.

 

[animallover94]

Alright I think I will do that. Do you have any suggestions for the brand of vitamin/mineral supplement?

 

[Willowbrook]

You've never mentioned what you are feeding your ducks. Most duck/game bird diets are nutritionally balanced and really don't need additives.
I feed a duck/goose/game bird crumble with a 21% protein value throughout my ducks entire life from hatch till whenever.
As they get older they also have access to a layer crumble for the chicken and that has 21% protein and added calcium and minerals.
In addition they get safflower, millet, wheat and some corn along with dry cat food during the winter.

I'm not the one to ask about supplements as I don't use them, simply because I've never had a need.

My ducks and fowl are free range so they also have access to pond plants and whatever they choose to eat when out of the barn.

 

[katharinad]

21% is pretty high. I'm giving them 16%. I'm using Nutrena Naturewise Poultry Gro/Dev complete crumble for ducks unmedicated. For electrolytes/vitamin I use this product. It goes a long way and 1 teaspoon goes for one gallon of water. They don't need daily, only once per week until they are 12 weeks and after that only once per month.

 

[charmian]

Hi, I am completely new to all this and have found myself landed with a duck I rescued. We live in Abu Dhabi and the temperatures are v high. The duck was one of four that some local neighbours had in tiny cage in garden. I started feeding them vegetables and bits and giving water to supplement the spicy food and dry rice left in their cage. To cut a long sad story short, one duck was being pecked v badly. I removed and took to vet. He said she would have been dead two days later if left. I have nursed her in my garden. The other ducks have been taken to a farm. I'm stuck with this one. She is growing and free range in my garden. I have been unable to source duck food.. I am feeding rice, cucumber, lettuce, corn, peas., boiled egg. She does not like oats.
Today her wings are drooping. She seems v unhappy if picked up in such a way that wings are being folded in. She has long shafts from tips of wings with flight feathers just poking out ends.
Help!!!!

 

[Amiga]

Can you get ahold of wheat? I like to soak wheat for overnight, then rinse it a couple of times a day for a few days so it sprouts, then feed that to my ducks.

The egg is good, for protein. Is there millet there? Amaranth, if you can get it (though that is pretty much a New World seed, you may be able to find it there).

Bless you for helping out!

Ducks need water with their food, always, or there is danger of choking.

Her feathers will probably recover at her next molt if you can give her some good nutrition. Can you get small canned fish, in water, no extra salt? Like sardines? Not too much, I think protein should be no more than about 18% (between 15 and 20%) of her diet. She needs some calcium - finely ground, clean egg shells in her food or water, I can get calcium citrate tablets that I dissolve in water and add to my ducks' food at about 50 to 80 mg per duck per day, most days.

Does she have a place to bathe? Not with soap(fixed that!), but even an eight gallon shallow bucket (ducks actually can drown if they get stuck in a straight-sided container) for an hour a day in addition to drinking water available 24/7.

If she is not an adult, the water needs to be lukewarm, not cold.

Apple cider vinegar, a teaspoon per quart of water, twice a week as a tonic might help.

Can you get something like Poly-vi-sol without iron? It is a children's vitamin, and some have used that for a boost for their ducks when they could not get a complete ration.

Here is Joybilee's feed recipe
Feed Mix recipe:

When supplements are needed, in winter, during gestation or early lactation, for instance, this is the feed that we use:
1 part whole wheat
1 part whole oats
1 part whole barley
1/2 part whole flax seed
1 part whole or split peas, garbanzo beans or other pulse (not soy)
Keeping the grains whole ensures that the oils in the grain don’t go rancid. Ruminants will digest the whole grains in their rumens. Chickens need grit to digest these grains. For young chicks and growing pullets we feed ground grains and increase the protein by soaking in milk or yogourt overnight before feeding it.
If you are concerned about pesticide and herbicide use you can go with certified organic ingredients. If expense is a concern conventional ingredients will still give you GMO-free (not really as there can be contamination in the feed trucks and at the storage facility). You can’t advertise this as GMO-free, but you can explain what you are doing to your customers. Our customers appreciate knowing the rational behind our feeding decisions.
Using this as a basic guide, you can switch out ingredients to take advantage of price drops — sunflower seeds can be added to increase protein and vitamin E during early lactation. The pulses can be switched out to home grown — If you don’t have a combine, most of us don’t, harvest while the seed is still immature, by taking the whole above ground plant and drying it as hay. There may be some shattering of seed, but there is protein in the plants and the seed can be cleaned up by your chickens.
Field peas and desi garbanzo bean can be grown even if you get some summer frost. These plants can withstand light frost. If you have a warmer climate you can pick a bean that can withstand warmer temperatures during the growing season.


@charmian