My Muscovy isn’t eating

[Dmira91]

Hi everyone!

My pet duck who is a year and a half old, suddenly stopped eating. She’ll pick up the food, shake her head and then spit it out. She’s drinking plenty of water and she’s acting exactly the same. She’s just as chatty and she’s still foraging during the day. The only other noticeable thing is that she keeps preening herself and 2) this all started right after she finished her egg cycle.

So the last time she finished her egg cycle she did something similar but it last a day and a half. Now it’s been about 3 days and nothing. Just little things here and there. Does anyone know what could be wrong? She’s also still very clean so she’s def taking care of herself.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Did you change her food at all? My Muscovy love dry dog food so maybe try adding some to her feed to entice her to eat.. Then once she is back eating good cut back on the dog food until she is only getting some out of your hand daily.
When You say laying cycle are you meaning brooding or just stopped laying?

You could also try wetting her feed and see if she will eat. Just a small amount to try? My ducks love at the end of the day any feed left over gets warm water added to it and they slurp it right up.

 

[Canadian Wind]

It may just be less need for calories if she isn't laying anymore. Perhaps adding some electrolytes to the water, too, just so she doesn't get dehydrated (this can happen with only water, since it doesn't contain all the minerals they need).

We have a large group of very knowledgeable people from all around the world. You're in good hands!

 

[Dmira91]

Did you change her food at all? My Muscovy love dry dog food so maybe try adding some to her feed to entice her to eat.. Then once she is back eating good cut back on the dog food until she is only getting some out of your hand daily.
When You say laying cycle are you meaning brooding or just stopped laying?

You could also try wetting her feed and see if she will eat. Just a small amount to try? My ducks love at the end of the day any feed left over gets warm water added to it and they slurp it right up.

Hi! Thank you for answering! So she lovessss cat food and we’d let her have that from time to time and we did switch it. But we’ve tried ALL her fave treats now and nothing.

When I say laying cycle, i mean stopped laying eggs. So after laying eggs for a while she’ll stop eating when she’s done for a few days. I don’t know how normal this is but it seems to be her cycle. So she stopped laying eggs a few days ago and that’s around the time she stopped eating.

This morning she was also slightly aggressive towards my mom (with me she’s perfectly fine though) and she keeps scratching herself. At first I thought she was going to start molting but so far she hasn’t dropped any feathers.

Warming her wet feed might be a good idea. I’ll go ahead and try that. Thanks!

 

[Dmira91]

It may just be less need for calories if she isn't laying anymore. Perhaps adding some electrolytes to the water, too, just so she doesn't get dehydrated (this can happen with only water, since it doesn't contain all the minerals they need).

We have a large group of very knowledgeable people from all around the world. You're in good hands!

We did that! I’ve also been giving her Nutri-dench.

and I think she might need less calories too, but what’s concerning is that she’ll try to eat and then spit it right back out.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Any other symptoms besides not eating still active? foraging and no pulsing vent like she may need to lay but can't get the egg out?
That's concerning she will try and eat then spit out the feed.

My Muscovy will act aggressively towards each other when broody. But doesn't sound like she is broody. Or has she been broody since she started laying? Just to be sure to rule this out.

 

[Dmira91]

Any other symptoms besides not eating still active? foraging and no pulsing vent like she may need to lay but can't get the egg out?
That's concerning she will try and eat then spit out the feed.

My Muscovy will act aggressively towards each other when broody. But doesn't sound like she is broody. Or has she been broody since she started laying? Just to be sure to rule this out.

Hi Miss Lydia!

Yes, she’s been slightly more aggressive and I’m monitoring now and all she wants to do is huddle up in a spot in our backyard behind some bushes. She’s still cleaning herself and wagging her tail. I think she might be broody but there aren’t any eggs since we removed them all immediately. She was, however, making hidden nests all up and down our backyard at one point.

 

[Canadian Wind]

They don't need eggs to go broody. Some have been known to sit on nothing because of the hormones. And Muscovy are one of the broodiest out there!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Boy that’s for sure mine will brood for months when they haven’t any eggs. Hopefully she’ll come to her senses long enough to eat they can sure be nutty. Keep us updated please.

 

[Dmira91]

They don't need eggs to go broody. Some have been known to sit on nothing because of the hormones. And Muscovy are one of the broodiest out there!

Hi everyone! Still doesn’t really want to eat but I put some dry cat food in her water along with nutri dench and apple cider vinegar and she’s drinking that. She’s still extremely chatty which I’m assuming is good and she keeps cleaning herself. Although she’s obsessively picking at herself and cleaning so i don’t know if this is good or bad.

She is DEF broody. She kept trying to hide under the computer and I assumed maybe it was just her being “sick.” So I blocked it off to test things out and she became obsessive and extremely chirpy and is trying to find a way around the little fence I put up.