Ping the Duck: From Micro Duckling to Mega Muscovy (Page 6 Update!)

[Kedreeva]

Ok, I will be heading out for the store shortly to get some stuff for this guy... so some questions-

Is oatmeal (plain, not instant) ok for him to eat? I thought I might try to add this to warm yogurt, eggs, starter, and some electrolyte water.

Are there any other vitamins that can/should be added to the water? Are there any I CAN'T add? I know iron is bad for chickens.

I'm going to pick up a heated water balloon thing for them to cuddle to- if I can find one. Will do surgery on a stuffed animal if I can find an appropriate one to modify to hold this.

 

[Amiga]

I fed oatmeal that I chopped up the first few days to my ducklings since they were two or three days old. I watched to make sure they would not choke. I also gave them chick grit from day two on, so that they could digest things like oatmeal.

You may want to give the oatmeal a soak or let it soak up some yogurt for a while before offering it to him.

 

[Kedreeva]

So here's the pics before I head out the door for supplies... The light one is the little guy, and the dark one is his friend, born a little shy of 48 hours after him (but nearly twice his size now).

Even just the size difference in their bills is crazy.

These pics are not the best comparison, but it's hard to get these two apart, they will scream their heads off if one of them is not laying atop the other. The dark one is *especially* noisy if I do ANYTHING in the brooder, much less take away his friend. Thankfully he's got a much softer voice than any of the other ducklings.

 

[Amiga]

I can see why you are working to help this little one along. wow.

 

[Kedreeva]

So I ended up buying some liquid vitamins for birds and a bottle of pedialyte from the grocery store. I added a few drops of the vitamins to their water tower and then filled it about... maybe 1/4 with pedialyte and the rest with just their normal water. Dark duck and the peachick in with them were very mad when I took the water tower away to do this, standing where it was and screaming, and everyone had a drink when I set it back down. I will check on them again in the morning.

I looked at my calendar, and I think he will be a week old on Saturday. He sure doesn't look like the others did at one week

But he was playing zoom around the brooder with dark duck when I came home from work, so here's to hoping.

 

[chickensioux]

This is my MicroDuck when he was 2 mos. old. He is with a hatch mate of the same age. For most of his young life he struggled. One day we found him in the kiddie pool with the others, unconsious and ice cold. I thought for sure he was gone but we brought him back. I fed him peas everyday with some sort of added nutrient in the water. One day it would be crushed brewers yeast (for niacin), one day fish oil, one day polyvisol without iron. He continued to grow but at an extremely slower rate than the others.

Today, he is a little older than a year old and is a fiesty little guy. He still has some breathing issues but zips around like the others. His feet are very small too and he stumbles alot. He is smaller than the female calls. His name is Pippin but he is known as MicroDuck on BYC.

Everyone helped me with him on here. Lots of advice. The additives in his peas came from advice from BYCers. We all came to the conclusion that it is probably dwarfism for my liittle guy. Good luck with yours!!!!

 

[Kedreeva]

He's very cute, I actually visited your thread when someone mentioned microduck by name. It certainly does give me hope to know little bitty ducks can make it with the right help. I will certainly do my best here.

Fish oil, eh? I was actually looking at capsules of that today while scouring for vitamins... I wondered if that was dangerous or not. Guess this answers my question!

I should get a picture of him next to the rest of his hatching group, maybe that will be a project for tomorrow. They hatched a few days earlier (I want to say three, but I'm bad with dates and I don't have the calendar I marked).... I put Yin and Yang in with him for a couple days thinking maybe he just wasn't understanding how to get food and that those two could show him. Nope!

 

[ilovemuscovy]

Quote:
How exactly did you "bring him back?"

 

[chickensioux]

Quote:
How exactly did you "bring him back?"

He was barely breathing, you know, one gasp every now and then. I wrapped him IN a heating pad and massaged him. Trust me, we thought he was gone. I was just going to hold him until he passed. It took about 30 minutes and he started to "come around" as he dried off. After about 15 more minutes or so, he was conscious and looking around. He started to wiggle around like he was annoyed that he was being held. I put him down and he was walking around like..."where's my buddies?" I really think Micro's will to live is very strong. He has been and is such a trooper.

We're not sure what happened in the kiddie pool as to why he was unconcious. We think he got tired and couldn't get out even tho' there were bricks stacked up like steps for him to use to get out. He had gotten in and out plenty of times so he knew how to use them. We're just happy we saw it in time to do something about it. Even tho' I was a vet tech. for years, I had no knowledge on how to resuscitate a duckling. I think it was a combo of luck and his tenacity.

 

[Kedreeva]

Got some more pictures before leaving for work today... Pulled Yang in from their rabbit run outside and boy did he NOT like that AT ALL. I had to hold him in place because he just wanted to get back to the others.

So here's Yang. He's a little over a week old (9-10 days). I picked Yang because he's the only other one that's the same color as the little guy... sort of a brown-tipped yellow color.... and is *probably* the closest species-wise. The ducks all come from a pen with Pekin, Rouen, Runner, and Muscovy ducks all lumped together and I didn't collect the eggs, so I have no real idea who is what. I suppose it will be interesting to see what colors he ends up being.

And I feel bad calling him the tiny duck or the little duck all the time. He definitely needs a better name.

He was doing really well this morning. Instead of sitting still, he actually ran away from my hands when I went in to get him out, and he was FAST at it! So fast he spooked the peachicks into jumping away from him. They'd obviously been into the water, as it was about 1/4 drained.... although whether this was because they drained it onto the floor or actually drank some is questionable.