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

[Miss Lydia]

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.

They dif know when something has happened. Thankfully she still has the one to comfort her. how sweet of Princess to stay with her even through fencing. Keep us updated on everything and try not to be so hard on your self please.

 

[Orca5094]

Oh my, I'm so very sorry for your loss.

 

[Jen1979]

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)

 

[Lacrystol]

Good lord lots have been going on since I have been gone let me do some catching up. LOL

 

[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]

Phew, I hope she's learning how to be a good mum! I get the impression she's not very keen to bother sitting on the rest of the eggs anyway, she's kind of kicking them around and getting up more often to walk around. I'll definitely grab the other 2 when I get home tonight. It's going to be super hot again this weekend so I don't want them sitting in there if they're bad then!

I forgot to mention one thing last night - when she was pushing him around and looking really stressed (even fluffing herself up), I had given the other ducks a snack. Their favourite snack. Which she could see them eating.... I didn't even think! I gave her a few peas in her water bowl which she gobbled up, but she then went ballistic at the other ducks. Maybe the real source of her stress was that THERE WERE PEAS AND SHE WASN'T GETTING ANY! I'm an idiot, I did it because I thought it would calm the other mum down, but I probably just made things worse at the time!

Well, hopefully she's happy with her two babies now. Yesterday the older duckling gave the new one a few prods and tried to steal food from him, but this morning they're quite happy to feed and drink together. The little one is following the older one around

I'll still be a bit nervous until I get home tonight, but at least I'll be home for the next 4 days due to the weekend, a public holiday and my usual day off!


I can't thank you all enough for all the advice you are giving me! I would have gone insane if it wasn't for you guys. Even my local vet, who does specialise in birds, admits he's not had all that much experience with duck hatching, so you are all my lifeline! Hopefully one day I'll be able to become experienced enough to help other newbies like me!

LOL, They love peas don't they. LOL WOW I got a lot of catching up to do. LOL

 

[Lacrystol]

Well mumma Coco made the decision herself about the 2 remaining eggs and pushed them out of the nest during the day!

I've just got home and the 2 duckling siblings are snuggling together next to mum so it looks like happy families

OH HOW SWEET, usually when you have some that have hatching Momma's will either neglect the babies and keep sitting OR Neglect the Eggs and pay attention to mother hood. Sounds like she picked Mother Hood...

 

[Lacrystol]

Hehe ok, you asked for it!

Here's a couple I took last night and I'll get some more tomorrow

I love how the little one is just peeking out from under mummas wing on this one

WOW she's a PRETTY MOMMA....

 

[Lacrystol]

Nope too young to be completely free moms don't realize this so just do what you have to until they are a couple weeks old I keep mine inside fenced enclosure for 3 weeks to keep them safe and give them time to grow a bit before the other members of the flock can be around them. Some just let mom and babies run loose but after losing a couple doing that I changed this. I have Muscovy so when they don't like something they don't quack which is a blessing since i have geese who make up for it. Hopefully the neighbors will be understanding[maybe some fresh eggs will help]

I had a hard lesson to learn, I kept my momma with her baby ducks and let them free range, Little did I know I had some MEAN agressive bantams, sure enough they had flipped, pecked and beaten and killed two out of four of the babies, I had out there. So the remaining babies and momma went into there own coop. CONFINEMENT, she was NOT happy but at least those babies were safe...

Terrible lesson i had to learn, I just thought Momma will defend those chickens off, well you can't defend all of them exspecially when the ruler (rooster) has a gang of about 10..

 

[Lacrystol]

I have just found our youngest baby drowned. Inconsolable doesn't even begin to describe it.

I had lots of shallow water bowls for the ducklings in the enclosure and one talk one for mumma because I wanted her to be able to wash her nostrils out properly. I've kept such a close eye on them to make sure they couldn't get into it and there was no way they could even reach. I was wrong. I have no idea how he got in there but he did. Now it's my fault that another beautiful baby is dead and we've once again got a baby growing up without their sibling.

I am just devastated. I can't even bring myself to bury him yet, I just want him to wake up. I should have left bringing babies into the world to someone who knew what they were doing. RIP my gorgeous little one

OMG, So SORRY FOR YOU LOST, but you can't put the blame completely on yourself, you were trying to do the right thing. AND on the brighter side, you are teaching us some Safety skills in raising ducks, so don't feel BAD AT ALL.. Lesson to be Learned...