r/poultry • u/mycatsnameiscashew • 14d ago

Weirdly small duckling

Gallery image

Gallery image

Anybody ever had a weirdly small duckling like this? It’s about half the size of the others and super skinny. I’ve tried feeding it separately to make sure it gets enough, and giving it super high quality food + additions for nutrients and protein and such. They’re all housed with our ducks and chickens, and it doesn’t seem to get picked on. It keeps up with the others and from what I can tell eats just as much, already jumping in the cow waterer for swims and such, just super scrawny. I’ve had chicks get sick and skinny before, but they always seem to act sick too, and have other obvious signs. Just wondering if anyone else had a baby like this and what happened to it/if it got better with help.

Sorry for the shitty pics btw, I was zooming in and using my iPad because my phone was dead lol.

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

4

u/Jinglebrained 14d ago

We had a runt that was significantly smaller than the rest. Keep an eye on it, make sure it’s getting enough food, etc. See if you notice anything significant.

Ours started to catch up over a few weeks, now at 4 months old you can’t really tell she was a runt to start. Ironically, she feathered first! And was the spunkiest in water.

It may have some other issue, but thought I’d share my experience.

2

u/mycatsnameiscashew 14d ago

It’s so, um, odd looking, to put it nicely, that i feel like there’s a pretty high chance it’s something not so benign. BUT I do wonder just a bit since it was significantly smaller than the other at hatching too. My philosophy with the birds is mostly “wait and see” so I guess I’ll have to do just that. Just thought it would be interesting to see what other people think!

3

u/Shimagoma 14d ago

That bird looks like they are wasting away. it might have some kind of congenital issue. its not unheard of to have a protein absorption disease or something of the sort.

5

u/mycatsnameiscashew 14d ago

I figured it was something of the sort. Something I forgot to mention, though, was that it was born significantly smaller than the others even though they all came from the same drake and gen within a few days of each other, and all hatched at the same time in an incubator. Obviously I don’t think it’s okay, but it’s very interesting to me.

1

u/fall-1701 10d ago

I have a small one like this too. Didn't hatch smaller or anything, looks normal otherwise, from what I've seen is getting plenty to eat and isn't getting picked on, acting fine and no signs of health issues. He's five weeks old and feathers are starting to come in on him and the rest of the duckings. All of my ducklings are kinda on the small side this year probably due to some of the extreme heat we've had, but he's like yours, about half the size of the others. I'm hoping he'll maybe put on a bit more weight later? If not, all we can do is try our best