Duckling Care 101

If those fluffy little ducklings end up finding their way onto your farm and into your hearts here is all you need to know for duckling care.

Temperature Ducklings are a little more hardy than chicks are, but they still will need temperature control for the first few weeks. Newly hatched ducklings like to be at 32C for the first few days of life. On day 3 we lower their temperature to 31C and on day 5 we lower it to 28C. After the first week of life you can lower the temperature by 5degrees a week, until you hit your current outside temps. Some people split this into 2x a week and other just drop the full 5 degrees at once. Just keep an eye on your birds for signs of being cold or hot! Between 6-8 weeks your ducklings will become fully feathered with their juvenile feathers, at this point they can withstand freezing temperatures. If you have been brooding inside at room temperatures, I wouldn't leave them out in a freeze. I would take some extra time to acclimatize them by giving them the option of a heat source over night. Signs of being too warm are "wing droop", this is where they hold their wings away from their body and the tip of the wing droops downwards. Panting and trying to get away from the heat source are also signs of being too hot. Signs of being too cold are when your ducklings huddle together tightly. Often ducklings like to lay by one another but if they are piling up then they are too cold. Trying to get as close as they can to the heat source even if that means climbing on each other. The last sign is a lethargic ducklings, if your duckling is not moving around the brooder freely to eat and drink then they might be too cold. While ducklings are on heat we do not give them cold water to drink, this can shock their little systems and in turn it makes them act drunk. Staggering around and drooling, it's really not ideal for their health. We give room temp water to all our brooder birds. A ducklings body temperature is 40C and these little ones cannot control their heat retention or heat loss until they have feathers.

Baths Ducklings at any age can go for baths and they will love it! We do advise that it's warm water and short durations for very young ones. Room temperature water for older ducklings. Once you have them outside they can access to water but it needs to be shallow enough that they can stand up in it. Hand raised ducklings are not waterproof until their oil gland starts working properly around 4-8 weeks old. Wild ducklings are waterproof and float due to their mothers oils rubbing off on them when they go under her for heat.

While little, after their baths they should be taken out and placed near their heat source to start preening and learning to dry themselves. Some people blow-dry them, I think that is counter productive. They need to preen in order to stimulate their inactive oil gland to start producing oils.

Feed Ducklings need a higher protein at the start of life, they should be on around a 20% protein feed for the first few weeks. Our bigger meat breed birds we need to cut their protein sooner than our smaller-weight breed birds. We cut feed between 4-6 weeks. By cutting feed I mean lower their protein. You can get creative with feed for treats even at a young age; pick grass, weeds, grow bugs, give them some veggies, ferment their feed. If you do decide to give them anything but a crumble feed they will need a grit provided to them in their brooder. I think any duckling that is being brooded without access to bugs should be on a niacin supplement. Duck starter feed is a bit low for what a duckling needs for niacin. Chicken starter feed is much lower than what a duckling needs for niacin. We use a 100% pure niacin powder here at the Mini Farm. Others use brewers yeast with good success. That takes us to the question of whether its okay to feed ducklings chicken starter. Yes it is. Lots of people say it has to be non-medicated, but Amprolium medicated chicken feed is actually safe for ducklings. Supply companies used to use a different medication that was not safe for waterfowl.

Water This will be your biggest hurdle with the ducklings, they like to splash and make a mess in their brooder. Please remember that ducklings always need access to water if their is feed out, and they need access to water deep enough to dunk their heads in. They do this to keep their eyes moist and their nares (nose) cleaned out. They use the water to wash their feed down, so just remember food and water together. You can make a blocked tray under their water and raise the water up a bit so what they splash out falls into the tray that they cannot play in. You can cut holes in jugs so they can fit their heads in but not their bodies. It's important they cannot fit their bodies through the hole they could get caught inside and die. Or you can just not fight their nature, cut a door into a tote and put the open water dishes inside the tote. The tote will contain the mess and the ducklings will enjoy splashing. The later is what we do and it works very well, then we just clean the water totes out as needed and the brooder stays dry!

We hope you found all the basics of what you need to know to brood some happy healthy ducklings!