Runt duckling or deprived?

[Miss Lydia]

Do you have multiple feeding stations for your flock? That is important so everyone I gets to eat and drink

 

[CalliBee]

Do you have multiple feeding stations for your flock? That is important so everyone I gets to eat and drink

I have 1 feeding station in the run, and let them out for a few hours each day to forage. The babies stick together naturally and stay close to the older ducks but kind of do their own thing

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’d put out at least 2. I have 31 birds and have 4 feeding areas spaced so everyone gets to eat. That’s still cutting it close here.

 

[Miss Lydia]

At least you’d be able to make sure the little one is getting to eat.

 

[CalliBee]

At least you’d be able to make sure the little one is getting to eat.

Ok that definitely makes sense! I’ll have to do this

 

[ruthhope]

She is definitely lowest on the pecking order, but my question is, is she lowest because she is so small? Or small because she’s lowest?
Is she small because the flock not letting her eat/drink or swim in the pools until very last?
It’s gotten to now when I go and feed them treats and refill their feeders she just sits in the background and doesn’t even try to make her way in.
Not sure what to do. Should I separate her? Or is she just naturally smaller and let her stay with the flock? She becomes very panicked when separated, one of the most afraid ducklings I’ve ever had! Especially towards humans.
Thanks for any help

I adopted a muscovy hen who was tiny. She was taken to a rehabber when only a few days old -- she had become waterlogged and nearly drowned and mama had departed with the other ducklings. She grew rapidly at first and was thought to be a drake. Then after 6 weeks, she was transferred to another rehabber [because the first went on vacation] She was a favorite and naughty -- she would grab sandwiches and other human food when she got the chance. She stopped growing and became obviously female: and small female. Too small and too tame to be returned to the wild on the private pond she was rescued from.

Well with my ducks -- who she knew from living with them at the rehabber -- she was bullied in the coop and excluded from food. She would only go in the coop at dark, well after the others, and went up high on bales of pine straw to sleep. It seemed to me that she had stopped growing because she was not getting enough food -- and that was probably why she was stealing sandwiches and other human food. So we moved her to my son's flock of pekins where she thrived She grew bigger [heavier] although she was 5 months old when she went there, and bonded tightly with the others. She is now broody and squeeking, but still close with the others -- sometimes I find her and the bigger of the pekins lying squeezed in the same nesting box in the morning.

So my advice is separate your little girl with the next one in the pecking order and make sure they each have access to a food bowl and water source so that neither can exclude the other from food and water. She will grow and I hope, be happier with her buddy. You may be able to integrate both back in with the others in the fall when she is bigger and hormone levels have fallen.

 

[CalliBee]

I adopted a muscovy hen who was tiny. She was taken to a rehabber when only a few days old -- she had become waterlogged and nearly drowned and mama had departed with the other ducklings. She grew rapidly at first and was thought to be a drake. Then after 6 weeks, she was transferred to another rehabber [because the first went on vacation] She was a favorite and naughty -- she would grab sandwiches and other human food when she got the chance. She stopped growing and became obviously female: and small female. Too small and too tame to be returned to the wild on the private pond she was rescued from.

Well with my ducks -- who she knew from living with them at the rehabber -- she was bullied in the coop and excluded from food. She would only go in the coop at dark, well after the others, and went up high on bales of pine straw to sleep. It seemed to me that she had stopped growing because she was not getting enough food -- and that was probably why she was stealing sandwiches and other human food. So we moved her to my son's flock of pekins where she thrived She grew bigger [heavier] although she was 5 months old when she went there, and bonded tightly with the others. She is now broody and squeeking, but still close with the others -- sometimes I find her and the bigger of the pekins lying squeezed in the same nesting box in the morning.

So my advice is separate your little girl with the next one in the pecking order and make sure they each have access to a food bowl and water source so that neither can exclude the other from food and water. She will grow and I hope, be happier with her buddy. You may be able to integrate both back in with the others in the fall when she is bigger and hormone levels have fallen.

Aw I’m so glad she’s doing better with her new flock!

I separated her with another duckling and they aren’t too happy at the moment
Where I have them set up they are still in sight of the flock and peep at them constantly to come and get them.

It was nice seeing her eat though! At first she was hesitant and let the other one eat but once she realized she didn’t have to fight 19 other birds for food or water she gobbled down. Made my heart happy to see it

 

[CalliBee]

I think I’ll have to make another thread about possibilities on why she isn’t quacking/peeping. Think this one is buried too deep now.

Thanks for all the advice y’all!

 

[ruthhope]

Aw I’m so glad she’s doing better with her new flock!

I separated her with another duckling and they aren’t too happy at the moment
Where I have them set up they are still in sight of the flock and peep at them constantly to come and get them.

It was nice seeing her eat though! At first she was hesitant and let the other one eat but once she realized she didn’t have to fight 19 other birds for food or water she gobbled down. Made my heart happy to see it

The will get used to their new living arrangement and as she is eating the new arrangement is obviously good for them. Let us know how they get on in future weeks!!

 

[CalliBee]

The will get used to their new livign arrangement and as she is eating the new arrangement is obviously good for them. Let us know how they get on in future weeks!!

I definitely will!