Cockadoodledinos
In the Brooder
- Apr 17, 2024
- 13
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I have an orphaned Mandarin duckling that's currently in the brooder with a mama silkie and silkie chicks the same age. They're all 2 days old. The chicks are eating but duckling seems uninterested in food (all flock starter crumbles, what I fed babies last year but they were with mothers always to teach them), he just stays hiding under the hen, who has accepted him fortunately. Any advice on when it should start eating and will it learn from the other chicks? I don't want to force it. Seems lively and healthy for now but definitely wild.
It was hatched under a call duck hen but it rejected that mother. I have another Mandarin hen due to hatch eggs any day now and I put the baby in the nest box with her but he jumped out and was swimming around alone so I put him in with the chickens to stay safe. If the other Mandarin babies hatch I'll try to get him to join them again. Just don't want him to get weak in the meantime. I've never brooded Mandarin babies, only calls and they took to food and water right away. Thanks for any advice to keep this little one healthy until I can get him with a duck mama!
It was hatched under a call duck hen but it rejected that mother. I have another Mandarin hen due to hatch eggs any day now and I put the baby in the nest box with her but he jumped out and was swimming around alone so I put him in with the chickens to stay safe. If the other Mandarin babies hatch I'll try to get him to join them again. Just don't want him to get weak in the meantime. I've never brooded Mandarin babies, only calls and they took to food and water right away. Thanks for any advice to keep this little one healthy until I can get him with a duck mama!
