trembling legs?

[froggie71]

Bought some Brewers Yeast this morning. Hopefully it does the trick. I'll let you know.

 

[stumble_n_mumble]

ok it worries me. like the rest of you said they act perfectly fine but there legs tremble. what does the yeast actually do?

 

[mtcougar832]

It provides Niacin (a B Vitamin). Chick starter doesn't have enough niacin for ducks (my understanding from these forums anyway). Hope it helps!

 

[TheBoonducks]

Both chick starter and scratch grains are inadequate nutritionally for ducks. They require a balanced feed with vitamins and additional niacin, 2.5lbs brewers yeast per 50lbs of feed, they need more like 3.5lbs when they start laying , or 100-150mg niacin per gallon water, or 35mg niacin from 0-2wks and 30mg from 2-10wks, more isn't better. The niacin (brewers yeast is a source) is essential for them to absorb other nutrients, ducks should have access to pasture as bugs are a primary source of natural niacin and protein. Rickets is often confused with niacin deficiency and is caused by vitamin D deficiency or phosphorous/and or calcium deficiency/imbalance. Make sure the feed isn't too high in protein, it should be around 15% from wk 2 pretty much on (you can give more protein to layers and obviously meat birds are different), you can bring the protein level down a bit by adding oats. If they don't get enough excessive and eat too much (especially without niacin) they easily develop shaky legs and become lame. Ducks are "allergic" to medications and preservatives in feed, make sure in is medication free. We give a blend of probiotics to all our ducklings and then occasionally to our ducks, probiotics are especially helpfull with sick ducks and will help them recouperate after antibiotics, you can use live cultured yogurt for this. Hope this is helpful.

 

[Lauryn Dee]

I started putting a lil Niacin into their water...time to watch and wait.
Anyone know how long the Vitamin takes before taking effect?
I guess its subjective to every case, sorry if thats a silly question.

Anyone else seen any changes yet on theirs?
I am only on Day 2 of Niacin...nothing yet...

 

[froggie71]

My DS has been giving the brewer's yeast (day 2) and said he doesn't notice the trembling but Coco the duckling is still sitting a lot.

 

[Lauryn Dee]

How old are your ducklings? are the big?
The ones that tremble the worst are the two largest of the 4 I have.
The medium sized one only trembles a little, and the smallest not at all!
I am starting to wonder if maybe they have grown to large too fast for their skinny little Runner duck legs...

I wonder if this is possible?

 

[froggie71]

The one I have is 9 weeks old now. runner/khaki campell mix. Stands like a runner. I took a picture of how is sits funny after standing a bit. He/she is already bigger that the khaki campbells and just a large as the runners. I'm amazed at the size and coloring. We think he/she is just beautiful.
This is Coco sitting funny.

close up of Coco swimming.

 

[Lauryn Dee]

Wow that is a beautiful kind of chocolate-like colour!
How pretty!

My 2 largest runner babies (1 month old) sit like that too...
The other two don't.

I emailed the breeder and she got back to me yesterday (somehow I missed the email in my inbox until now) says that some of the shaking is just their nerves at being in a new place...and she mentioned that the Runner ducks often have an unsteady walk as youngsters cause until they grow older and get better strength in their legs.
She also says that her little guys haven't had alot of freedom yet to build up muscle...so...here's hoping!!

I just made a bigger pen for them outside today, hoping that more room to run and play will strengthen their little legs.

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

Hi Froggie, I was wondering if you could give in update on your duck's shaky legs? I know it has been a few years, but do you remember what ended up happening? My runner's legs are very shaky and I've been adding niacin to their water (doesn't seem to be helping after 2 or 3 days), now I'm going to switch to brewers yeast and give that a shot for a while. (Although the brewers yeast seems to have a lower dose of niacin in it than the niacin capsules, but that's what everyone is saying works so I figure it's worth a shot).


I've done some research and asked around on other threads, but I still don't understand if this shakiness is truly caused by a niacin deficiency (where people talk of potential for deformation and lameness

) or if ducklings just go through a shaky phase that is normal and they eventually grow out of it (and everything ends up being fine

)...