Please Help!! 😥 BEI Duckling not eating and losing weight

[OliveGreen]

I wet feed to soupy mess. with my tiny Calls I use my coffee grinder to make the feed into a powder that I mix with warm water.

This is exactly why I should have asked for help earlier! I ended up using a mortar and pestle to crush up the crumble into smaller pieces, but even then she was still struggling to actually swallow much. I would like to try and raise some BEI again one day so I’ll have to be better prepared for what to expect next time.

 

[Jpat]

Sorry for your loss

 

[Miss Lydia]

You keep yours along time too so do I I have a Muscovy female that will be 13 in March. When one of my Muscovy had her first hatch she killed one duckling and was on her way to doing the second one in but thankfully I came in and found the little one with bite marks on its head. So I brought it in and raised him inside, the next year she was the first to go broody but I was ready to take the ducklings soon as they hatched she turned out to be an awesome mama no problems at all. So you just never know with these girls.

 

[chickens really]

Sometimes first time Mommas are confused. Seriously it's nothing you did wrong. I'd let her try again and I'm sure she will know better the next time.
I had one that set the eggs and the day they began hatching she never returned to the nest. I hatched them in my incubator.
She was scared of the Peeps.
Better luck next time.

 

[Jpat]

How are the belgian chicks doing? Did they hatch under a broody?

 

[OliveGreen]

What breed are your ducks? That was the problem with my hatch my Muscovy sitting on Runner eggs and she crushed the eggs because she insisted on moving all the shavings out of the way and had the eggs sitting on hard surface when I found the one crushed I brought the last 2 eggs inside in the brooder since their egg shells were already cracked open. Just stood an watch those 2 hatch all on their own.

That was a lucky save! It’s really wonderful watching them hatch! Nerve wracking, but wonderful.

Hazel’s not quite a bantam, but the lightest of the light breeds. She’s an Elizabeth duck which is very rare breed from Australia, (and she’s actually a bit smaller than the standard). They look a lot like bantam Welsh Harlequins. She weighs about 1.3kgs, so similar to a Mallard.

There was a second egg that had pipped and began to zip, but when I found it on Tuesday it was dead in the egg. I’m not sure if that one may have suffocated before hatching... she was sitting on them quite heavily (not like my Campbell who sort of ‘hovered’ over her eggs once they began to hatch.

She was such an incredibly determined broody, but I guess she just doesn’t quite have the intuitive knack for mothering (yet). Strange, since she was mother-raised while my old Campbell girl was born in an industrial sized incubator at a factory farm!

 

[OliveGreen]

How are the belgian chicks doing? Did they hatch under a broody?

The Belgian chicks are going gangbusters. This was my second hatch of 3 chicks using an incubator. My first incubation and my first chickens! I’ve always been a duck person (still am), but their floofy feet and bushy beards got me sucked in. Funny little things!
The first batch are now three months old and living it up outside. The little cockerel from this batch unfortunately has scissor beak though. He’s been managing fine up until now, but I’m not sure how he’ll fare in the long run. It seems to be getting worse the older he gets.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Aww sorry about the roo. Hazel sounds lovely. Maybe you can share some pics of your ducks with us we love pics and your chicks to?

 

[OliveGreen]

Oh no!! I am so sorry about the little baby!

Thank you Quackiemama ❤
She was such a sweet little thing

 

[OliveGreen]

Sorry for your loss

Thank you Jpat ❤
It’s so easy to fall in love with those sweet little ducklings. It doesn’t take long and they’ve got you! I will still think about her in years to come I’m sure.