Pekin duckling sudden death HELP!! PLEASE

[Miss Lydia]

I'm sorry about the loss of your ducklings. Sad but it happens all to often with shipped poultry. Also sorry about the one you lost last night, can you describe your brooder set up with pictures and what your feeding what are the temps in your brooder? How many ducklings are left? any symptoms that you can see like loss of appetite, unusual poops?

 

[Gearhead846]

No unusual poops, no loss of appetite I am a feeding duck starter and grower type thing with plenty of niacin and the heat lamp temperature is around 90 to 95 degrees and the Ducks are hovering at about 80 degrees

i have also never brooded any other poultry in this one and there are 3 ducklings left

 

[Gearhead846]

And this only happened with my pekin female not my khaki cambells

 

[shawluvsbirds]

And this only happened with my pekin female not my khaki cambells

Like I said earlier in p.m..
Seems like pekins have the most trouble. Your set up looks good to me and your feed sounds fine.
My guess is you just got a weak bird to begin with unfortunately.
Also I wouldn't keep it that warm at 2 weeks old even though you do have plenty of space for them to move away from the heat.
By 2 weeks old I'm probably only running about 80 to 85° in the warmest spot.
Pekins do seem to overheat faster than others too I guess because of their size.
And I have found that sometimes the silly things will sit under that heat a little too much because it feels good to them and get themselves dehydrated.

 

[Gearhead846]

Ok, thanks for your help!! And I will move that lamp up today! That does make sense because I found it under the heat lamp when it was dead

 

[carlaashdown]

I know absolutely nothing about ducks, but wanted to say I’m sorry you lost your babies.

 

[Gearhead846]

Thanks

 

[picklestheduck]

hmm.....well can we have some more background on the ducklings? Any abnormal poops? Any abnormal signs of illness or anything? When you found the dead duckling were there any signs of injury or anything on it?

 

[Gearhead846]

I have another thread that explains all of it and there was no injury

 

[Miss Lydia]

Exactly what I was going to advise move your heat lamp up. I have never brooded ducklings even tiny new ones over 85 and by 2 weeks they are under 80. Every week after that drop your temp 5* until they are at house temp.
I would get rid of the chicken feeder and waterer though. They need to be able to dunk their heads and eat without having to stick their bills into those small holes.
here are some ideas These are easy to make and in the one picture the feeder is a cheap dollar store dog food bowl but works great for duckling feeder. it's very important ducklings can dunk their heads to clean their eyes and nares.