Two duck questions.

[chickfan]

We have a duck that is just now a year old. I noticed her crop was large this morning, and by tonight it is really large. I have to assume it is impacted, although I haven't picked her up to feel of it. If it is impacted, would the "treatment" be just as the treatment for an impacted chicken crop? I hope it is OK that I haven't tried to mess with her tonight. She went into her cage after dark, and I just noticed the crop looking larger than this morning, as she waddled past me. Am I pushing it by not trying to do anything tonight?
This evening, we traded a 2 week old chick for a 2 week old duckling. I have other chickens in the brooder, and put the duck in with them. Then read somewhere that ducks and chickens should not be in the same brooder. The lady who had the duck, kept it in a brooder at her house, with one baby chick, and had no problems. Do I need to put it in a separate brooder?
Thanks so much!

 

[Camelot Farms]

I can answer the brooder question

Yes, they should be separated because you are using medicated chick feed for your chick and duckling will shovel it in like a bulldozer and this is not a good thing

. So its really a food issue more than anything. If you can put a divider in your brooder to keep their feed separate then you should be fine.

I hope someone else can answer your crop question.

 

[spamee34]

Something that works well for me when brooding ducks and chickens together is to put the chickens food and water up where the ducks can't reach it or the water anyways . I have always fed my ducks the medicated feed so I do not seperate their feed. I have had two different experiences with the medicated chick feed for ducks and tho they say not to feed it to ducks I lost more ducks when I did not feed them the medicated as to when I did feed it to them. Although I will say make sure the medicated is the one with the AMPICILLIN in it rather that the tricycline . When you brood ducks with chickens the ducks can make an aweful mess with the water so if you put it up on a good sized brick or even a sturdy plastic bowl turned upside down so the ducks can't reach it and the chicks can fly up to it this keeps the mess to a minimum. I wonder what the person was feeding the duck before you got it. If it was medicated chick starter I would just continure with that if it wasn't them you may consider just getting what ever she was feeding it , and then you may be able to feed duck and chicken the same depending on what she was feeding the duckling to begin with.

 

[MuranoFarms]

I'm not sure about the crop question.

The brooder question I can answer. I keep my ducks and chicks together till about 6 weeks. It used to be that you couldn't feed ducks medicated feed because they eat so much that they got over medicated. With the medications they use today that's not an issue anymore. However, I would still make my duck a mash of non medicated feed and water 3 times a day. The chicks always tried to get it too! I figure a few bites couldn't hurt them. As the ducks wings start to grow in though the protein content of the chick starter is a little high. This could result in angel wing (easy to fix, but a pain in the butt to keep the tape on!) So to offset that, feed ducky lots of veggies or switch to a lower protein feed.

 

[chickfan]

Thanks for the replies. When I read that chicks and ducklings should not be together, there was no reason given. I hadn't thought about a possible feed problem. The feed we use is not medicated, or at least there is nothing on the package about it. It is designed for chicks and ducklings, among others, so I guess it is OK.
The older ducks crop looks better this morning, and she seems to be in no distress at all, so I'll just watch her and hope for the best. DH crumbled up some bread the other day...just one piece or so...and pitched it out for the chickens and duck and guniea to fight over. I noticed the duck going after it like a bulldozer, and she got much more than the others did. I was afraid maybe it had gotten impacted in the crop. But maybe not.
Thanks again!

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I've had my chickens and ducks together for a year now, they were shipped together at 1day old and have been together in the same coop since! The reason you hear most people say not to keep them together is due to the ducks being messier with the water issue. I have not experienced the crop issue but if I did, I would have tried the methods used for chickens, they should work the same for the ducks. Glad it's worked itself out for you though!