Young duckling not growing - much smaller than siblings

[donnavee]

I hatched 5 call ducks about 3 weeks ago and the last one to hatch just isn't growing like the others. It also sits around and sleeps a lot more though it does seem to eat and drink normally. It was the last to hatch, but just a day behind the others and they all looked the same size then. None of the other ducklings pick on it - in fact they cry when we pick it up. From the beginning, it was more docile in the others which we loved - we could actually pick up a little duckling and hold it without it squirming and sounding like a car alarm. Now, it does protest some - but not like the others.

Here is a pic and though the size difference doesn't show up so much here, it is at least half the size of the others. The others are also starting to get their feathers, but not this one. I have been adding some of the poultry vitamin powder to their water every couple of days but I don't know if it is helping or not.

Should I be worried? Any one have any ideas as to why she is so much smaller? They had the same mom and dad - the mom was killed by a predator a few days before hatch and I put the eggs in the incubator where they all hatched.

It is the little duck in front of the other one.

 

[Pidgey104]

Had the same problem with that.
I hatched 4 call ducks from seabrightmom and one was a runt and did not grow. By the time the other three had started getting their feathers in the runt still looked a week old. He died not long ago. Not sure what the problem was he was eating fine and everything.

 

[donnavee]

Quote:
Oh no, I was hoping it would snap out of it. It does as you said, eats and drinks fine, swims when I put it in the water. Most of the time, it seems content to lay by itself in a corner while the others snarfle around. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a better outcome but be mentally prepared for a less than happy ending.

 

[donnavee]

Pidgey 104 - Also forgot to say, spent many, many happy summers in PC as a teenager. I'm sure the place has changed but back in the day I lived in AL and those white sands were the place to be.

 

[megsjo]

That happened with one Ancona out of three. She stayed tiny, the other ones shot up, I got six more khaki Campbells that were about three weeks younger, They all outgrew my small Ancona. I got a Cayuga, then a welsh harlequin, two or three weeks after that. They’re all bigger than my Ancona now. She’s feathered out now and is eating and drinking and making lots of noise, but she’s almost half as small as the others. Don’t know what’s up. I just got three more anconas, one is a quarter of the size of the others even though it hatched at the same time. I don’t know why, but I’m hoping she turns out like the last slow grower and thrives.