New ducks help!

[wildhorsechaser]

Ducklings picking out feathers! I have six in a plastic tote and they started to pick out each others and their own feathers. They're almost a week old and I'm not sure what started it. I'm feeding them Dumor chick starter/grower and I thought it had enough niacin in it but don't know any advice would be good. I'm also using hay as bedding and they seem kind of itchy.

 

[TLWR]

Chick starter doesn't have enough niacin. Get some niacin tablets (not the no flush kind) and add it to their water.
I think I bought 500mg capsules and used half of that in a 1 gallon waterer. (maybe they were 200mg).

How big is your tote? It may not be big enough. 6 ducklings at a week old are getting big and need space.

I wouldn't use hay. With my ducks, I used towels and just rinsed with the hose daily and washed.
I used puppy pads the first few days.

 

[Going Quackers]

Have a look through this...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/750869/raising-and-caring-for-ducklings#post_10611711

Can't comment on the hay, i use shavings for brooding ducklings.

 

[wildhorsechaser]

The tote is a 30gal was the biggest I could find at the time. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Amiga]

I ended up using a puppy playpen, put 6 mil plastic on the bottom and up the sides about a foot, with old towels for bedding at first (mine would try to eat the shavings).

This was for eleven ducklings. Storey's Guide says feather eating and feather pulling can be cause by too little space in the brooder.