OliveGreen
Chirping
Hello lovely duck people,
I could really do with some help and advice!!
On Tuesday my broody duck Hazel hatched out a single tiny baby Black East Indie duckling from some fertile eggs I gave her. (The only one to successfully hatch out of 5 developing eggs). Baby was actually born 4 days earlier than I was expecting so I really wasn’t prepared and didn’t have a separate baby-safe pen already set up for them away from my other 8 ducks. She had made her nest in a pet carrier in the duck’s night time aviary and I thought I’d let her stay there for the 28 days and simply move the whole carrier to a new location once the babies were born, but when I tried moving her on Tuesday to our 2nd bathroom (as a temporary solution) she became
frantic and flew straight into a window twice trying to get back outside 
ouch!! So out went that idea! Luckily she didn’t seem to be injured, so I reluctantly moved her carrier back to the secure 3x3m aviary where she was before and she settled back down with baby. All seemed well.
Since then I have been closing the door of the carrier in the evenings to keep baby safe while the other ducks sleep in the aviary at night and letting Hazel and baby roam around the aviary during the day while the flock is out in the garden. (Not ideal as baby hasn’t had access to food and water overnight other than what I offer them from a cup when I go in to check on them). I set up a large shallow plant saucer with water and unmedicated chick mash mixed in it for baby to eat/drink during the day, and have also been letting them out of the aviary together a few times each day to forage on the lawn under my ‘helicopter’ supervision.
While Hazel was a totally dedicated sitter, she doesn’t seem to quite have the best handle on motherhood and most of the time when I let her out with baby she simply takes off around our 1/2 acre yard leaving baby stranded and vulnerable in the middle of the lawn, so I‘ve been following her around on her jaunts with the baby cupped in my hands, setting baby down beside her when safe. Several times a day Hazel gets really frantic pacing up and down in the aviary trampling or ignoring baby until I let her out, so the last few days I’ve often just taken baby inside with me to try and encourage her to eat and to keep her warm in mum’s absence.
Baby has been drinking water from day 1 when offered it from the cup and the plant saucer, and was dabbling in the food but didn’t seem to actually be eating anything. I started to getting concerned on Thursday when she still wasn’t eating after 48hrs so I brought her inside to try to encourage her with various foods in water - chick mash, crushed duck pellets, some finely mashed egg white, and tiny 1mm pieces of dandelion greens. She tried to eat a few of these things but she really is sooo tiny that she had trouble swallowing the pieces even when I ground them smaller with a mortar and pestle, and she seemed to be getting indigestion from the fragments of egg white. The only thing she is really keen to eat is the grass seed on the lawn, but I don’t think she’s actually managed to swallow much of that either. On Friday I thought I’d better start monitoring her weight to see how much she’s actually getting and she was only 27grams. I’ve been progressively getting more worried about the lack of eating, until last night (Saturday) when I had a brainwave and offered her some mashed egg yolk in plenty of water with some probiotic added to make a thin ‘soup’ and she LOVED it! Lots of happy sounds, and she drank quite a bit. I thought I’d solved the problem and at least got some good nutrition into her and started things on a better trajectory, but I was so disheartened today when I came home at lunchtime to find baby standing shivering in the middle of the aviary floor and mum perched calmly up on top of the nesting boxes. I took baby inside immediately to warm her up and spent an hour trying to give her some food and water, but she would only take a few sips of the egg yolk probiotic mixture when I gently dipped her bill in it and wouldn’t even sip at the water I offered. I tried weighing her again, sure that last night’s feed might have made a positive impact but she’d actually lost weight and was only 24grams.
Over the last few days I’ve actually noticed baby with long strands of straw from the nest sticking out of her bill on several occasions which I’ve pulled out, so I’m wondering if this could have given her an impacted crop? She did do three poops on my hand while I was trying to feed her today so at least I know she is pooping. It’s almost 12 years since I’ve raised any ducklings so I’m finding it hard to remember exactly what to expect, but I do remember my last batch (Khaki Campbell crosses) zooming around and eating with gusto from around day 2 or 3. This little one just seems so tiny and frail in comparison.
I’m so worried, and am too-ing and fro-ing about just taking baby inside permanently away from mum but I have no idea what more I can do to help her eat anyway. I don’t have access to any poultry drench, but I’ve been giving her some avian vitamin powder in her water since Thursday, and just purchased some brewers yeast yesterday to see if that will help as well.
Should I take baby and put her in a brooder inside? Is there anything else I can try to feed her or do to help her eat? What can I do to help her if her crop is impacted? If anyone has any suggestions I’d really appreciate it!!
I’m really hoping this little one will pull through!
I could really do with some help and advice!!
On Tuesday my broody duck Hazel hatched out a single tiny baby Black East Indie duckling from some fertile eggs I gave her. (The only one to successfully hatch out of 5 developing eggs). Baby was actually born 4 days earlier than I was expecting so I really wasn’t prepared and didn’t have a separate baby-safe pen already set up for them away from my other 8 ducks. She had made her nest in a pet carrier in the duck’s night time aviary and I thought I’d let her stay there for the 28 days and simply move the whole carrier to a new location once the babies were born, but when I tried moving her on Tuesday to our 2nd bathroom (as a temporary solution) she became
ouch!! So out went that idea! Luckily she didn’t seem to be injured, so I reluctantly moved her carrier back to the secure 3x3m aviary where she was before and she settled back down with baby. All seemed well.Since then I have been closing the door of the carrier in the evenings to keep baby safe while the other ducks sleep in the aviary at night and letting Hazel and baby roam around the aviary during the day while the flock is out in the garden. (Not ideal as baby hasn’t had access to food and water overnight other than what I offer them from a cup when I go in to check on them). I set up a large shallow plant saucer with water and unmedicated chick mash mixed in it for baby to eat/drink during the day, and have also been letting them out of the aviary together a few times each day to forage on the lawn under my ‘helicopter’ supervision.
While Hazel was a totally dedicated sitter, she doesn’t seem to quite have the best handle on motherhood and most of the time when I let her out with baby she simply takes off around our 1/2 acre yard leaving baby stranded and vulnerable in the middle of the lawn, so I‘ve been following her around on her jaunts with the baby cupped in my hands, setting baby down beside her when safe. Several times a day Hazel gets really frantic pacing up and down in the aviary trampling or ignoring baby until I let her out, so the last few days I’ve often just taken baby inside with me to try and encourage her to eat and to keep her warm in mum’s absence.
Baby has been drinking water from day 1 when offered it from the cup and the plant saucer, and was dabbling in the food but didn’t seem to actually be eating anything. I started to getting concerned on Thursday when she still wasn’t eating after 48hrs so I brought her inside to try to encourage her with various foods in water - chick mash, crushed duck pellets, some finely mashed egg white, and tiny 1mm pieces of dandelion greens. She tried to eat a few of these things but she really is sooo tiny that she had trouble swallowing the pieces even when I ground them smaller with a mortar and pestle, and she seemed to be getting indigestion from the fragments of egg white. The only thing she is really keen to eat is the grass seed on the lawn, but I don’t think she’s actually managed to swallow much of that either. On Friday I thought I’d better start monitoring her weight to see how much she’s actually getting and she was only 27grams. I’ve been progressively getting more worried about the lack of eating, until last night (Saturday) when I had a brainwave and offered her some mashed egg yolk in plenty of water with some probiotic added to make a thin ‘soup’ and she LOVED it! Lots of happy sounds, and she drank quite a bit. I thought I’d solved the problem and at least got some good nutrition into her and started things on a better trajectory, but I was so disheartened today when I came home at lunchtime to find baby standing shivering in the middle of the aviary floor and mum perched calmly up on top of the nesting boxes. I took baby inside immediately to warm her up and spent an hour trying to give her some food and water, but she would only take a few sips of the egg yolk probiotic mixture when I gently dipped her bill in it and wouldn’t even sip at the water I offered. I tried weighing her again, sure that last night’s feed might have made a positive impact but she’d actually lost weight and was only 24grams.
Over the last few days I’ve actually noticed baby with long strands of straw from the nest sticking out of her bill on several occasions which I’ve pulled out, so I’m wondering if this could have given her an impacted crop? She did do three poops on my hand while I was trying to feed her today so at least I know she is pooping. It’s almost 12 years since I’ve raised any ducklings so I’m finding it hard to remember exactly what to expect, but I do remember my last batch (Khaki Campbell crosses) zooming around and eating with gusto from around day 2 or 3. This little one just seems so tiny and frail in comparison.
I’m so worried, and am too-ing and fro-ing about just taking baby inside permanently away from mum but I have no idea what more I can do to help her eat anyway. I don’t have access to any poultry drench, but I’ve been giving her some avian vitamin powder in her water since Thursday, and just purchased some brewers yeast yesterday to see if that will help as well.
Should I take baby and put her in a brooder inside? Is there anything else I can try to feed her or do to help her eat? What can I do to help her if her crop is impacted? If anyone has any suggestions I’d really appreciate it!!
I’m really hoping this little one will pull through!
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