We had ducklings hatch today! One very exhausted - advice appreciated! :)

[Jen1979]

We just had 2 ducklings hatch today! We thought we could hear peeping coming from under the Mum's this morning, and this afternoon, there they were!

One of them looks exhausted. I'm not sure if he or she is just tired from hatching or if we should do something to help - anyone have any advice?

 

[Orca5094]

They generally lay around like that (looking half dead) for at least 12 hours after hatching, then they'll be up and more active for short periods of time before falling asleep again. The first day or two of life they are extremely worn out from hatching. How long has it been since that particular one hatched? If they just hatched today I wouldn't be worried just yet.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks all! Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I'm in Australia, so time difference and all

The little one has perked right up now! Looking much better!


The only worry we have now is as 3 girls are pretty much sharing one giant nest, 2 of the girls are completely fine together, 1 of them however keeps trying to push another out of the way and they end up sitting ontop of each other. We're worried she'll step all over the ducklings and hurt them.

She's been the least committed to the nest of all so we tried putting her and our male out into another section where they could see them but not get to them while the other 2 took care of them. That worked for a few hours, but when it came close to bedtime she freaked right out. Kept throwing herself at the door of the enclosure and screaming

So we let them all back in together. Hoping it goes ok because were not really sure what the right thing is to do there!

Your right your new ducklings can be trampled to death with 3 ducks sitting on the nest and tussling. I would again take the least committed out and put her back with the drake. She may not like it but your ducklings have a better chance of survival. it very seldom ever works out having more than one duck with eggs and ducklings, You've waited along time of these and they are very fragile at this stage. . Glad to hear the lil one has perked up.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm very sorry this happened, Too many feet and mamas can cause havoc as you have found out. I'm relieved to hear one of the ducks has been removed, hopefully you'll get more ducklings so the remaining one will have some buddies. I wish you the best.

 

[Jen1979]

Very nice, what breed?

Our ducks are Indian Runner x Pekin @Lyss I had heard Indian Runners were not so good at hatching chicks or even going broody - but all 3 of our girls apparently didn't get that memo!

 

[Lacrystol]

Thanks @Lacrystol ! I've just checked and she has been swimming now, her undercarriage is all wet and the eggs are dampened down. I'm not sure what's happening with the eggs she has left though

I moved her to check (I got bitten a lot lol) and I can't see any of them moving and no external pips that I could see

Does this mean the one who was moving about has died?

I so hope she still hatches at least one, she's done such a good job of sitting all this time!

The other girl Coco is still sitting on a fair few eggs too, I haven't moved her yet to check on those ones. Waiting for an opportunity where her duckling isn't right under her wing just incase she steps on her!

OH GOOD, if she's swimming then they aren't ready yet. Give them another three more days, lets see what pops out then, when it gets close to hatching time and I don't know how these mothers know it, but that's when they take there swim. That other one just must have been very impatient or she sat on him then collected more eggs.. LOL Usually they collect all there eggs before sitting but perhaps she didn't want to wait to collect them all. LOL

 

[Miss Lydia]

I went out and watched them closely for an hour. Mum duck didn't show any more signs of pushing him away at this stage. Had him tucked under her except when she got up for a drink. I picked him up, put him in a box and she freaked out, so then I put him down infront of her and she didn't push him away, he just tucked himself under her.

So I made the decision to leave them be for the night. Now I'll pray all night he will be ok in the morning.

I'll reassess in the morning again and watch to see what she does. So frustrating I have to go to work tomorrow, I've got 4 days off after that and can watch them all day to see if there's problems! I'm too worried to take him tomorrow and put him inside for the day incase she won't accept him back afterwards...

I'd leave things alone now as long as the duckling is allowed to get under her it should be fine, if at all possible it is always best to leave the ducklings with mum unless you feel the littles life is in danger so keep watchful. you dif need to check those eggs though maybe this will help
http://wildliferehabber.com/candling-eggs

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks guys

They have all calmed down this morning, Coco and her baby are doing really well. Baby is 10 days old now and getting so big!

We're in such a catch 22 at the moment because we've got a week and a half of 40 degree Celsius temps happening , so of course, lots of water bowls are a must! I've given Coco and baby a shallow cake tray and a paint tray but they seem to splash the water in those all over the place pretty quickly. I've been filling the bowls up 6 times a day but I have to work for the next 3 coming days. So I've put a deeper bowl back in but with a brick at the bottom and a brick on the outside. I sat and watched until I saw the baby easily jump in and out. She's of course a lot taller than the other little guy was, being 6 days older.

I'm trying not to be so hard on myself (that was harder when I put the bricks in the bowl this morning and though "you idiot, this is the bowl you used when you bought the ducks home in the first place at 2 weeks old and you ALWAYS had a brick in it!" And wondered if a brick could have saved my little guys life, but I guess there's no point dwelling on the what ifs now.... I have learned some valuable lessons)

Glad to hear Coco and baby are doing well, you forgot well again don't feel so bad please, about 4 yrs ago my lil bantam hen hatched 3 little chicks and haveing water fowl I had tall buckets set out for them and chicken waterers for chickens and babies, so this day I go out to check on everyone and see mama hen with only 2 chicks I walked all over the property looking for that chick only to find it drowned in the bucket, I would never have thought that lil tiny thing could get up and fall in a 2 gallon bucket. But it did. So now when I have chicks . I keep mom and babies from being in with adult ducks and other chickens too. and most important geese.So see we forget at times and pay dearly. But we'll remember next time I believe.

 

[Lacrystol]

Thank you, I'm so glad I took your advice and have kept mum and ducklings separate from the others after we lost the first one on the first day, even with all their complaining. I'm not going to let them run together until this baby is at least 4 weeks and even then I'll probably be paranoid supervising them for a few weeks after that!

Anyone that thinks animals don't show grief should see what I'm looking at now. Coco (the mum) is in the enclosure with her remaining baby making a sad quacking noise and Princess (the mumma who's eggs went bad) is sitting right outside answering every quack with a sad little noise of her own. For the last few days Princess has just been free ranging with the others, but now she won't budge. It's like she's consoling her.

Awee that's terrible, your making me cry. STOP THAT, I'm not one to cry.....

 

[Lacrystol]

10 days, he's almost there, I usually let my ducks out when they turn 3 weeks except during the cold months.

I had to bring to of my older babies in they are about 4 weeks, they still had some baby feathers on there head, well what they were doing was dipping there beaks in the water and splashing it every where, that water would get on there heads and sure enough there heads had ICICLES.

Usually my calls wont let me touch them, well these two babies were GLAD to have me hold them. So inside they went, they are in my room now and BOY I can't wait for this weather to break, they do NOT smell very pleasant. .

I'm afraid to put them back outside right now even though they no longer have those baby feathers because I'm afraid they will go into shock. I had a rabbit do that once, go outside in the snow, then want to come in he went right by the heater and sure enough went into shock and had a heartattack and died, so Im afraid if I send these guys out now that the same thing will happen to them...