New to ducks and needing advice please

[Koekoek]

Thanks guys
The positive is that the remaining 8 are doing well. Just checked on them this morning and they're all looking great.
Now at least I know what to do going forward.
It's a pity about the black one, it was almost like the runt of the clutch, weaker and a bit smaller than the others.
I always like an underdog and was really rooting for him.
It would have been really interesting to see how he developed in comparison to the yellow chicks.
I suppose if I can raise the remaining ones to adulthood then 8 out of 9 are probably better odds than they would have had if I hadn't bought them and they had been left in that outside aviary at the pet store.

Our winters are very mild here but obviously not mild enough for little ducklings.
The day is just starting here so I'm getting ready to construct a really cosy brooder for them.

I'm really glad that I joined this forum - it seems to be one of the few with some genuinely nice people.
With a lot of the forums I've been on it's just been about some people trying to prove they know more than you and can be very condescending but I'm finding that here everyone so far just seem really willing to offer good advice with a view to really helping out.
It really feels like people here are rooting for you to do well so thanks again guys - must be something about keeping chickens and ducks that attracts a certain kind of person and brings out the best in them

 

[Tlammy]

Sounds like you have Pekins if they're yellow! Good luck with your duckling journey!

You will love it here

 

[wendeld]

If you are feeding them non.medicated chick (not duck) starter you need to add niacin to the water chick starter usually doesnt meet the niacin requiremnets that ducks need. I am.not sure if you know that already , this is my first year with ducks and i have.learned sooooo much and i.know the niacin is an important thing. And like mentioned above storeys guide to ducks is great ! I am.always going back to it! I dont know how old your little ones are but when i had.mine.in a brooder (my bathtub haha) i hade shavings (dont use cedars shavings they are toxic to ducks) under the heat lamp and newspaper with papertowel on top so they wouldnt slip and then i found a mesh drying rack with small enough holes to put over the bath tub drain (i dont know if this is making sense) bit i put the water feeder ontop of the mesh so that the excess.water that they love to splash in went down the drain and the mess (shavings , poop) got caught in the mesh it made for.easier cleaning. i would give a good clean to the brooder/bathtub every second day (i cleaned it twice a day but did a really good.clean eveey second day) and then filled up the tub just to where they could touch the bottom and let them have a swim for about five or ten minutes and then dried them off really good put them in a box under the lamp until the bathtub turned into the brooder again. When you start feeding treats (i fed mine kale when they were younger now they get bananasa every.morning) make sure you have chick size grit available.for them the need it for dogesting but you probably know that from raising other.birds. I guess i didnt help to much just gave you some insight into what i did. My ducks and two geese are almost 7 weeks now and outside now free range.all day and locked up at night in a predator.proof duck house. Enjoy the babies.....

 

[Koekoek]

You helped a lot Wendeld - a lot of things there I hadn't thought of.
I've got Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens and to Raising Poultry and I agree they are really good! I've got the Guide to Raising Ducks on order
Anyway, I'll give a full update soon but the surviving ducklings are thriving now - I did lose a few more unfortunately, it was a bit of a trial by fire.
I really battled to find a food that they thrived on.
I eventually got a pelleted food which I soak in wate water and mush up into a paste - after switching to this food I noticed a huge turnaround and since then things have been going really well.
Although I've kept/keep other birds (namely finches) I really don't know all that much about chickens and ducks.

 

[wendeld]

Just make sure you check the protien precentage on your food because as they get older it should go down in protien if not it can cause wings to grow funny i think my starter was 20% protien and then the next bag was grower at 18% now they are on chicken feed and it is 16% it is non.medicated. There is also a great post on here about duck treats it gives what ages they can have different things. I have really only give mine Kale which they love ! I chop it up mashed bananas, plain yogurt and carrots and lettuce but they dont care much for the shredded carrott even when its mixed with bananas. The pig out on the bananas and are quite dissappointed if i dont bring it for them in the morning they stand there and wait for me to crouch down with spoon fulls of banana mash. I dont know what you will be keeping them.in outside but after they are a bit older mine were probably 5 weeks i stopped putting water in the duck house at night it just ended up being way to.messy. and the cant have food if they cant have water soi let them have a good meal and drink before i lock them up at night with out any food or water and the duck house is soooo much easier to clean and it smells better and just overall nicer. I have sand as a base and i throw in my grass clippings for comfort rake it around everyday and they are good i will be using the deep bedding method over the winter with shavings and then in the spring clean it all out add it to compost or garden and start all over again . Its very.low maintenance and suprisingly not to smelly.

 

[Koekoek]

Thanks Wedeld,
I've switched to the grower now as you said.
Going to try some of those treats too
I battled with the starter in the beginning.
At one stage I had perfected my brooder but was still losing ducklings :'( - I was down to four and knew it must be the food.
After changing to a different food, the losses suddenly stopped and the ducklings all of a sudden had way more energy.
Since then I haven't had any more problems and the ducklings continue to do well.
I filled the tub yesterday with warm water and let them have a little swim before drying them off with a hair dryer.
They're so clean and fluffy now!
I'm able to leave a bigger water dish in their brooder now without them falling in and soaking themselves - They were getting dirty very quickly but now they can at least dunk their heads and clean themselves.
One of them has a few little bald patches around the neck area - I thought that it could be something to do with nutrition but it doesn't really make sense as it's the biggest duckling of them all - surely if any were suffering from any kind of mulnutrition it would be the smallest?

Wish I knew what kind of ducks they are - i really need to post some pics soon!
I thought that they were Pekins at first but now I'm not so sure - their beaks look a different shape.
They're almost curl upwards towards the end if that makes any sense.
Will try and post some pics soon - thanks again for all the advice and tips

 

[wendeld]

I dont know about the bald patch the only thing i would think would be getting picked at due to lack of.nutrtion in diet and them needind a balanced diet but now that you have switched maybe that wont be an issue ? I havent experienced that. The upward bill is odd i have heard of hooked bills have you tried googling it ? I know there can be bill deformation due to hatching situations but i have never read of a turned up bill. Pekins would be all yellow as ducklings is that what yours are?

 

[Koekoek]

I also thought it could be nutritional at first but the one with the patches is the strongest so surely the others would have it too - not even the smallest does.
I also added vitamins and amino acid supplement to the food every few days - I thought that maybe they could have had too much of that but I give it to my finches in higher amounts when they are breeding and I've never had problems - they're so much smaller and underdeveloped when they hatch too.
I'm thinking that maybe a bit of food dried there and pulled the down with it - maybe it's just genetic.
The beaks definitely don't look mis-shapen or deformed, they look like they are supposed to be that way.
I probably exaggerated the extend of the curves - the general shape of them though doesn't really look the same as the pictures of Pekin ducklings I've seen.
I could be wrong as I don't really have the experience.
I've got a feeling that they're Muscovies.
One of the ducklings that died early on was black with a yellow stripe by the eye but then again it could have been from another clutch

 

[Koekoek]

I though I'd post a long overdue update ony ducks.
They're fully grown now and are looking beautiful.
I turns out that they are Pekins, although I think there might be some Mallard mixed in with them as there was originally a black duckling in the clutch and one of the adults has a few brown feathers in the tail.

They've turned out to be beautiful, healthy ducks - no bald patches to be seen and no mis-shapen beaks. I'm feeding them duck pellets at the moment. I had been told that adult ducks will eat the same as chickens but they don't seem to touch any of the fine chic chic or the mixed poultry grain I put in so now I just give them the pellets.

I have them in a big enclosure at the moment. I've just moved them into there from a smaller one. I'd like them to get used to it as 'home' first before I let them out to free range.
My property is on the banks of a river - the pen is quite a distance from the water but should they wonder down to the river and meet up with any wild ducks is it likely they will still return to the pen at night or for food?

Some pictures are long overdue by me too - i'll try and post some 'then' and 'now' pics.
I can't believe how quickly they've grown from chicks to adulthood - I've learned a lot along the way and despite the initial difficulties I faced it's been a wonderful experience raising them.

 

[wendeld]

I wouldn't worry about them going with the wild ducks because the wild ones can fly. Mine fly but only a few feet off the ground for short distances. I would be more worried about not getting them in from the river the only reason. I worry about that is because mine go to our pond on our property and I have hard time getting them in at night and they have spent many nights on the pond because they won't come in. My khakis and geese which I raised since day Olds were kept up at their house and the yard until I felt it safe for them to be elsewhere but now that they are much older they go wherever the please mostly just the yard and pond though. I have 11 new ducks that have their own agenda and they think that at 7:30 pm is time to go to the pond for the night to sleep (if I haven't walked them there in the morning or if I managed to get them back around 4 pm). They kind of have it backwards. They have been safe this whole time so I don't worry about them at night anymore I just would like to get them in at night now because winter is coming and it gets very cold where I love. Sometimes there are wild ducks on the pond but they leave as soon as my ducks get there. I have been told that wild ducks and farm.ducks should not share the same water source due to.wild ducks bringing disease in