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Baby duck hatched. How often should it eat?? Please answer ASAP!

18 years ago

HEY! Our baby duck hatched. She is doing ok. When should she start walking? She doesn't walk yet...

After she hatched which was about 3 hrs ago...when should she start wanting to eat? We have the baby and the mother in the house for tonight. Thanks.. GennyM

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Comments (10)

velvet_sparrow
18 years ago
Congrats!! :)

Don't panic, if ducks are anything like chickens (and I'm sure they are), their bodies are designed to live off of the yolk of their egg for hours after hatch, up to a day or so. Let Mother Nature and mama duck do their thing, just provide free choice food and enjoy watching them. I'm sure someone with more duck know-how than me will be along soon. :)

What breed is the duckling?

Velvet ~:>
shellybabe
18 years ago
When I hatched out my ducks, I would offer chick feed after the first few hours, they tend to be ok for the first day but some ducks are early eaters.
I have never had a duck hatched by it's momma, so there I am at a loss.
But as far as the walking give it a few more hours and it will be up waddling around, but they like to lay around alot atfirst.
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GennyM
Original Author
18 years ago
Ok, thanks! She has started walking now!! But, she hasn't started eating yet.. I am a little worried. She hatched at about almost 7:00pm yesterday. She has drank some water though. Just hasn't eaten food yet. She is a muscovie!!! She is so cute!
shellybabe
18 years ago
don't worry, she will be fine.
is she indoors with you or out with mommy?
usually the baby is not hungry for several hours.
As far as being full from the yolk, I am pretty sure the yolk is what developes into the baby, at least that is what it always looked like when I would candle them.
But don't worry she should be fine.
GennyM
Original Author
18 years ago
Hey, she's doing ok now. I'm so happy~ she is eating so I'm thankful... She is so cute! I'll send you all a picture of her if you want later... She was the only one and we named her Miracle. I'm keeping her inside with us. I let the mom outside with the other ducks during the day and at night I bring the mom back in to be with her. I hate to leave (Jake, the mother) in the house all day, I'm sure she enjoys getting out to stretch her legs and spread her wings out.
shellybabe
18 years ago
my baby ducks used to love swimming in the bath tub, if you put in like 1 inch of water, so it isn't enough for them to drown, they will tickle you to death with the games they play in the water, I would wait until they were 3-4 days old before doing that, it also keeps them cleaner.
GennyM
Original Author
18 years ago
We put her in the bathroom sink for a few min.. today. She wanted to get out though! She wouldn't stay in long. She is asleep right now though :) She is my first baby duck that was hatched at my house. All the other babies I've got were ones I caught at the river a couplde years back
velvet_sparrow
18 years ago
Don't know if it's true for all ducks, but I've read in numerous places that newly hatched ducklings should NOT be in water at first due to the fact that they have not had time to have their body oil properly coat their feathers and so insulate them against heat loss...they can get chilled and die.

Is that true with your breed? I'd hate to see you lose little Miracle...great name, by the way! :)

Velvet ~:>
GennyM
Original Author
18 years ago
Don't worry, I didn't put her in the water right away! She was 2 days old when I put her in the water. She's doing fine now :) We even got to watch her hatch out of her egg! It was so amazing!!!
mistressasria
16 years ago
Hey all. I've been watching over this wild mothers nest for weeks now. But when i checked it today i noticed the eggs had hatched and there was only two left un hatched. )( Mother and babbys weren't there. I even checked the cracks and logs for any lost babbys )( So i picked up the first egg to poked a hole in it. Yoke came out. So that was a bad egg. I picked up the second egg and well There was a little beak sticking out. So! I made its hole bigger so it could come out than i looked around for the mother. I could find her. So I ended up taking the baby duck home with me. What should i do? Right now its on a heating pad/shirt. I have the number for a rescue center to call in the morning. Will it be okay over night?

Asria

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