Got an ill/weak duckling U/D on health

This morning my brother said there was a duckling alone in the yard peeping so I went to herd it back to its mom (who came over to it and acted very protective) and it wouldn't go with its mom. It ran, sometimes in circles, and looked very weak so I brought it inside.

It didn't move and only peeped a few times after being brought inside while I was getting the tank and heat lamp prepared but then after holding it close to a heat lamp for like 10 minutes it started coming back to life (can't count the number of times i've had a baby/hurt/ill bird near death come back to life after holding it a few inches away from a heat lamp!)

I held my hand over her (just a guess/vibe on sex) for hours while she was in her tank under the heat lamp since she would get upset and start breathing hard if I left and she slowly started to get better after getting some sleep, now she's eating/drinking/pooping well and much calmer, though still wants her mom, like all ducklings do (she imprinted on me, so to her there's no doubt in her mind that I'm her mom)! But she still doesn't move around very much. I've only seen her properly walk like once or twice. I don't think anything is wrong with her legs though, she's just weak I think.

I'm so relieved she seems to be doing well, I feared neurological problems when I saw her going in a circle! I'm not sure if she was just born weak or if she went through a traumatic experience (maybe a predator got her or tried to). She's only 2 or 3 days old at the most so with some TLC hopefully she'll be okay!

few pics of her


IMG_0445 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_0471 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_0474 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_0485 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

How sweeet! You are an angel

Vibes for a speedy recovery for the little one!

Thanks
I'm glad I was able to help this one, unlike the one with the hurt leg I still feel guilty about that little one.

she's so cute!

What happened to the one with the foot? I remember you saying you were going to try to catch it...

How is she imprinted on you if she was born with her mum?

He got eaten by a predator apparently http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?395896-William&highlight=hopalong 6 of his siblings are still alive...hopefully they stay that way!

How is she imprinted on you if she was born with her mum?

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At such a very young age they will imprint on another large moving thing quickly I always initially spend a few hours with new ducklings and within that time they imprint on me. You can always tell because they'll follow you and peep when you leave...which is really heartbreaking so I end up taking them basically everywhere with me, lol. Good thing I love ducklings.

Aw - I'm sorry

That's great, sending vibes for her

Does the imprinting thing mean that, in theory, a young duckling could imprint back on its mother when it was better?

elmoandfern said:

That's great, sending vibes for her

Does the imprinting thing mean that, in theory, a young duckling could imprint back on its mother when it was better?

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I'm not sure, I'm never heard of it happening before. If it were possible the duckling would have to be within 5-ish days old and would have to be forced, like with them confined, because if you put the duckling down it would just stay with you and not follow after the mom duck. I'm not sure how fast the mom loses the imprint on her duckling too so that could be risky as mothers won't care for ducklings that aren't their own and may hurt them.

It's interesting though, I tried to do a search and didn't come up with much on that particular type of situation. I found some things about having to help a pet ducks egg hatch and the duckling being too weak to give back to the mom right away (this is how my duck Dill imprinted on me) and then when they tried the mom wouldn't accept the duckling and the duckling wouldn't accept the mom...but that's different because the mom had never imprinted on the duckling in the first place.

William said:

I'm not sure, I'm never heard of it happening before. If it were possible the duckling would have to be within 5-ish days old and would have to be forced, like with them confined, because if you put the duckling down it would just stay with you and not follow after the mom duck. I'm not sure how fast the mom loses the imprint on her duckling too so that could be risky as mothers won't care for ducklings that aren't their own and may hurt them.

It's interesting though, I tried to do a search and didn't come up with much on that particular type of situation. I found some things about having to help a pet ducks egg hatch and the duckling being too weak to give back to the mom right away (this is how my duck Dill imprinted on me) and then when they tried the mom wouldn't accept the duckling and the duckling wouldn't accept the mom...but that's different because the mom had never imprinted on the duckling in the first place.

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Interesting! That's a good point about the mum duck not 'remembering' her baby. Ducks are so fascinating and complicated! I don't really know anything about them at all. I really wanted some when I was little and went as far as to dig them a pond in our garden but my mum said no

elmoandfern said:

Interesting! That's a good point about the mum duck not 'remembering' her baby. Ducks are so fascinating and complicated! I don't really know anything about them at all. I really wanted some when I was little and went as far as to dig them a pond in our garden but my mum said no

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They really are! They're so amazing and the bond you develop is so strong, no matter what way they're imprinted on you, as long as you spend a lot of time together for those that aren't imprinted in the #3 way (there are 3 different 'types' of imprints, kinda hard to explain but this sums it up well http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id6.html).

aw I'm sorry you never got your ducklings When we moved into this house we had feral ducks coming to our yard and with a one acre backyard and a half acre 'lake' we were like 'why not get some ducks, we got plenty of space and they'd like the lake.' So me and my brother researched and everything and begged for ducklings and mom and dad gave in but we had a hard time finding any ducklings for some reason so we had to keep hounding them for a couple of weeks until one day we spent hours going to different feed stores (we got lost) and finally got our ducklings!:lol:

My brother was originally the one that had the idea of indoor adult ducks, he wanted one to sleep in his bedroom but then decided against it when we got them and he realized how messy they were and so I was the one who ended up with ducks sleeping in my room:lol:

Aww she's so cute

Since last night she's acted like a normal healthy duckling it's great having some good luck for a change, lately i haven't so much with the animals.she's walking and even running well and when i put her back in her tank after cleaning it she went around investigating!

she's very clingy now too (which is normal). nothing cuter than to have a duckling peeping its head off and then when you pick it up it instantly closing its eyes and going to sleep in fact i'm having to type with one hand right now because my other is holding her:lol:

I once had to get a duckling away from her mother (due to same issues as yours - I think it was because another duck lay an egg in her batch a week later so she was forced to hatch earlier than needed due to her siblings hatching out) - she imprinted on me but when she got better within two days, I gave her back to her real mother and it was as if the duckling never left!

The duckling is now 2 years old and still follow her mum around but is very often the front for the treats!

In the last couple of days she hasn't eaten well, I have to really tempt her to eat duck food, if I dont she has very small and infrequent poop (except she did eat ok through the night last night). She seems fine otherwise and eats other foods better. It's like she's decided she doesn't like duck food much. Which is weird because for the first few days I had her she ate like a pig. I have had this happen before with other ducklings so hopefully it doesn't really mean anything...

And she also has a wobbly neck while eating. Her neck will wobble back and forth for a few seconds, then she's fine, then it happens again a couple minutes later. But only when she's eating/drinking I think. It's weird but it seems vaguely familiar...I've raised a few dozen ducklings though so I can't really remember if I have experienced this before or not. Can't find anything online about it..so not sure what to think.

LaraFarah said:

I once had to get a duckling away from her mother (due to same issues as yours - I think it was because another duck lay an egg in her batch a week later so she was forced to hatch earlier than needed due to her siblings hatching out) - she imprinted on me but when she got better within two days, I gave her back to her real mother and it was as if the duckling never left!

The duckling is now 2 years old and still follow her mum around but is very often the front for the treats!

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Aww, that's so cute that she still follows her mom. I think if they don't have siblings they are imprinted on their mom for life, just as they are with humans. I had a pekin duckling like that. she had 2 siblings, Dill, and another duckling that was accidentally squashed by her mom shortly after hatching. So Tommy was the only duckling with her mom and she always followed her around even when she was older. She later got killed by a predator sadly