When to help? When to worry?

[pinusresinosa]

YES!!!! Wow, what an amazing thread!! The Incredible Dr. Lacrystol! And Krissyg2991, fabulous work. This has been wonderful to see. I'm so glad everything turned out well for the helpout!

 

[Lacrystol]

Ladies and gents, it's the morning after an we still have a fluffy duckling. One that thinks my nose ring might make good eating. Thank you so much for your help, L. And all the thoughts and concerns from everyone else. When can I give this baby some food!

WOOO HOOO

 

[Lacrystol]

Cngrats krissy2991, adorable duckling[ and just wanted to say] Muscovys are beautiful and have awesome personalities

Usually ducklings don't need to eat for the first 24 hrs. but like Lacrystol said you need to get some infant vits without iron and give your little one a drop to start off and give it a good start. it may want some water by days end. How's it's belly look? closed up..

He can eat after 24 hours, give him that much time to fluff up. Game bird feed or Turkey feed is good for him. The baby vitamins is still good to give him but I recommended it early because I knew he was going to be very weak once he got out. So if he's got his little head up, he's ready to eat and drink but we have to give him 24 hours.

 

[Lacrystol]

OMG, that is just the most amazing sight ever! Hard to believe what that little duckling has gone through to be here.

I think all baby ducks have a bit of magpie in them, they love shiny things. I am just so pleased for you Krissy, well worth all the worry and the wait.

Lacyrstol you deserve a medal .

LOL, you silly goose, oops DUCK LOL

 

[Lacrystol]

Understand he can technically go three days without eating right now, he's got his yolk inside to give him all the nutrients he needs to last that long. I would NOT advice you to let him wait that long, usually after 24 hours they can be introduced to food and water. Please make sure the water is low enough so that his feet could fit in it but he can not swim.

You see his fluff right now is like a sponge, letting him swim it will suck up and weigh him down. Causing him to possibly drown. Why does a mommy duck take her kids for a swim. you ask?. Well Ill tell you, you see a mommy duck puts her babies underneath her wings, when she does this she puts her Oils on the babys so that when they go swimming the water rolls off of them. We can't duplicate this, so we need to give him at least a week to produce his own oils..

But I can see it now, He's going to be an under water dolphin once you allow him to swim. LOL, Make sure the water is warm at that time and 10 to 15 minutes should be long enough.. Get him dried and warm once his play time is over.

Good luck with the little guy, SOOO glad he's doing GREAT.. LOL...

 

[Lacrystol]

He can eat after 24 hours, give him that much time to fluff up. Game bird feed or Turkey feed is good for him. The baby vitamins is still good to give him but I recommended it early because I knew he was going to be very weak once he got out. So if he's got his little head up, he's ready to eat and drink but we have to give him 24 hours.

Even chick starter is good some say without medication, I have giving my calls it with medication when I couldn't get to the store and that's all I had and I didn't have any issues...

 

[Lacrystol]

Well done Lacrystol, I take my hat off to you. That was great work and so good of you to stay up late to help another out. I really hope that little guy lives because he deserves to, he has fought to survive against all odds and that has to put him in good stead. Whatever the outcome this really was his only hope and at the end of the day we have to accept that you do your best but it really now all down to the duckling himself now and that little guy isn't the sort to just give up!

Krissy, I feel I have been with you every step of the way, during my hatching I have been thinking of you and your duckling. You have been so brave, after losing the other two this has been doubly scary to have to carry out. Such a roller coaster ride of emotions, I dearly hope that the last of these is happiness watching your duckling grow into a duck and sharing his life with you.

On my front, my two ducklings that hatched yesterday are already exploring the world, they are eating and drinking and walking around. My third duckling hatched this morning. I did have to remove some of the shell, didn't touch the membrane but could see it was like paper. Once I removed a bit off the side and top of the shell a few more pushes and she broke out herself. Without that intervention I honestly don't believe she would have hatched. She really has worked hard most of yesterday and all through the night and made hardly any progress. I have worried all the way through about having to do something like this but actually when the time came I felt calm and made the decision that I needed to give her a chance. If that fails and she dies then I will have to live with that.

She is a LOT smaller than the other ducklings and she is a bit sticky but I have placed her on a clean face cloth and she is now in the incubator drying out. She is no where near the size of the other two so I guess there was a problem with temperature along the way but she really did work very hard at trying to get out. The egg shell just didn't crumble like the other ducklings did. On saying all of this she has totally absorbed the egg sac and the cord was not attached, her belly was sealed, all the veins had disappeared inside the egg and she has also done that first poop in the egg too. She was ready to be hatched.

She is now in the incubator drying off. She was hatched an hour ago now and has been flopping around. She's had lots of naps, is chirping and has now started to stand up. Getting a tad annoyed I think as the top of the grid in the incubator is hitting the top of her head. I'll give her a few hours to really dry out then do a revamp of it. I can take the tray out and cover the channels at the bottom with something, then put the wash cloths back over and that will give her more head room for the next 24 hours.

I've no idea if she will live, she is sleeping now but that is hardly surprising given what she has been through. Her breathing isn't laboured and her heart is beating normally - in fact other than the fact she is so small she is perfectly formed. This is really all down to her determination to survive now but when she loses balance and rolls on her back she is strong enough to get up again so I'm hoping that is a sign that I just have a tiny duckling.

I believe I warned you!! LOL, "you aint seen nothing yet".. LMAO

 

[pinusresinosa]

I have this old homesteader book that says sick ducklings do well on a mash of goat milk wetted breadcrumbs. I had some sick ducklings last year (never buying ducklings from a place that's filthy and the husbandry is poor again, learned my lesson!) and this mash I believe is what saved most of mine.

This duckling might not even be that sick though! I'm so glad this turned out great.

 

[krissyg2991]

Went hone for lunch and checked o him. Still seems well. I think he needs a friend and I've though about going to the feed store and buying him one. I'm torn though because they only have giant pekins and rouens. I was hoping for a small duck for my small yard and I'm already gonna have a giant muscovy, so I'm not leaning toward the pekin, but the Rouen might be too loud for my city lot. I've been doing lots of reading on muscovy ducks and seems like they are generally quiet. Maybe I just need to go to the guy that sold me the eggs and see if he'd be willing to sell me a duckling.

Miss Lydia, I will be sure to take more pics so you can help me get a definitive ID on the breed. May I ask what you are looking for? I noticed some roughness around the edge of his bill and wondered if that wasn't gonna turn into caruncle some day. If it is muscovy, are there ways to sex them by color, etc?

 

[pinusresinosa]

Sounds like he's imprinted on you, and if you don't want or can't handle that, getting him a friend might be necessary and lessen his stress.

Plug in for rouens- they're not very loud in my experience.