Orphan duck

[Sidhe13]

A friend brought a wee duckling to me to care for. He is so tiny and looks like he still has his egg tooth. I have no idea what species he (or she!) is.

He is eating and drinking well and likes to be snuggled in my shirt when he is not in the brooder for the night. He splashed in a puddle in the farden today and ate some dandelion leaf and nettle leaf. He washed it down with some sand and more splashing. I scooped him up and got him warm when I suspected he might be getting chilled...he wasn't finished but I made a Mama choice for his own good!

Problem is- I have no duck food and the only chick food in town is all medicated. So he is on normal chicken pellets with a bird handrearing mix added in. There is also no brewer's yeast in town.
I can't get to a bigger town until Friday. I hope he will be ok until then! Any suggestions or advice??

 

[THescovieguy]

A friend brought a wee duckling to me to care for. He is so tiny and looks like he still has his egg tooth. I have no idea what species he (or she!) is.

He is eating and drinking well and likes to be snuggled in my shirt when he is not in the brooder for the night. He splashed in a puddle in the farden today and ate some dandelion leaf and nettle leaf. He washed it down with some sand and more splashing. I scooped him up and got him warm when I suspected he might be getting chilled...he wasn't finished but I made a Mama choice for his own good!

Problem is- I have no duck food and the only chick food in town is all medicated. So he is on normal chicken pellets with a bird handrearing mix added in. There is also no brewer's yeast in town.
I can't get to a bigger town until Friday. I hope he will be ok until then! Any suggestions or advice??

you could show us the picture of your duckling so we could see what breed of duck it is,you could try making a diet for duckling but chicken starter is fine

 

[Sidhe13]

 

[THescovieguy]

i think she may be a rouen or a muscovy duck,but i am pretty sure thats a pied muscovy duck

 

[THescovieguy]

i think she may be a rouen or a muscovy duck,but i am pretty sure thats a pied muscovy

the high chances for that duckling is a muscovy duck

 

[Debs Flock]

Brewer's yeast is added to their food since they need more Niacin that what's in chicken food. I believe Niacin is also known has B3 vitamin. You might do a search on here for B3. I believe some have bought the vitamins and then dissolved them in their duckling's water.

I'll tag some people here that know more about this than I do.

@jtn42248
@JadeComputerGal
@Miss Lydia
@needlessjunk
@WVduckchick

 

[JadeComputerGal]

She'll be fine until Friday if you can get into town then and get some duckling feed. Unmedicated chick feed will work, but I'd add Brewer's Yeast to that for the first few weeks, as Deb said. You typically find Brewer's Yeast at drug stores or health food stores.

 

[jtn42248]

chick feed with a sprinkling of brewers yeast will probably be easiest for you to find. water fowl chick feed would be best but where you are located probably impossible to find.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Can we see a better pic of the little ones face please. I'm not sure if Muscovy or wild

 

[needlessjunk]

There have been no proven studies that medicated chick feed (amprolium) is dangerous to waterfowl. Pellets for a duckling can be hard to eat. I would do chick starter in crumbles and add Nician tablets (plain not the no flush or time released) to the water since you can't get Brewers or nutritional yeast.