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

[OliveGreen]

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?

Love to!

 

[OliveGreen]

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.

It’s so lovely you still have your old Muscovy girl. The bond with the oldies is so precious (although my girls seem to get grouchier with age! ) Half my flock are old duckies now. My Campbell girl Olive will be turning 13 as well in just over a fortnight. I might have to bake her a mealworm cake or something! I lost one of my old boys in July so now I’m extra aware that the others might not be around too long and I try and spoil them and give them as much love as I can. ❤

Well done on saving that baby. Do you still have him in your flock?
Fingers crossed Hazel will learn to be a better mum next time. I was hoping she might help her breed by bringing some more Elizabeths in to the world.

 

[OliveGreen]

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.

Thanks Chickens!
I’ll see how thing are looking next spring and if she’s keen I’ll give her another go (but have a much better back up plan this time just in case!)

 

[Miss Lydia]

What a nice hat! lol they are so cute love feathered feed chickens my fav are Cochin bantam. Like those beards too

 

[Miss Lydia]

I still have that duckling he’s 8 yrs old. They really do get grumpy In old age mainly my females just like us lol.

 

[DuckyDonna]

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!

I've seen pictures of Elizabeth ducks and they are so beautiful! I'm so sorry the little one didn't make it.

 

[chickens really]

Thanks Chickens!
I’ll see how thing are looking next spring and if she’s keen I’ll give her another go (but have a much better back up plan this time just in case!)

If you ever need help ? I'll be around to help. Just contact me.

 

[johntfs]

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.

I'm really sorry for what happened. I was really pulling for the little adorable one to live.

I can't speak specifically to Black East Indies, but muscovys aside most domestic ducks are descended from wild mallards. Mallard mothers tend to lay 8-13 eggs. Even if they all hatch, she might hope to see 1 or 2 of those ducklings make it to adulthood. So, mallards very much play the odds. They're protective of their babies, but they'll kill one that's sickly or weak to keep it from slowing the flock or endangering the others.

That all said, the odds were pretty far against the little one living. Even if the baby wasn't with Hazel its weight in English terms was less than an ounce by my figuring. I know it's been a painful experience but I hope you try again with Black East Indies.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We’re all here for you @OliveGreen so you have plenty to call on!

 

[quackiemama]

We sure are @OliveGreen