All was going well until I found a dead duckling this morning and then another one at noon. From the position they were in, I have a feeling they may have been smothered by their mother. The ducklings are 3 weeks old and I thought we were past the point of that being a problem. I've now seperated the other two ducklings from their mother but hate having to do that-their momma is throwing a fit! I guess I'll wait until they're bigger and won't need their mother for warmth before I put them back out. Has anyone else had these problems? p.s. they are white pekin ducks

-- c.d. (his4ever@mac.com), June 28, 2001

Answers

c.d. Remember the other duck posts? If you will post this question on The Poultry connection General Waterfowl Forum you'll get some very knowledgeable duck people that will help you with this. At three weeks of age, I am skeptical, as are you, about the smothering thing but then my ducks are bantams and not large like your beautiful pekins. I am worried about botulisim or cocci? Duck food molds and goes bad so quickly do you think one of these could be the problem? Wish I could do more but I know the gang at PCGWF can help. :-)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), June 28, 2001.

This is just a guess, but many domestic ducks aren't great parents (of course, there are always exceptions). Your Pekin may very well love the idea of setting and having ducklings but not be quite sure how to handle actually having them. We usually only leave a couple with the parents and pull the rest, leaving all of them with them seems to be more than they can handle. Don't forget that in the wild some of the offspring don't make it to adulthood.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@Linkup.net), June 28, 2001.