My question is, how often does this happen?
My first brooding duck, hatched ducklings that are 2 weeks apart.
The twins I call them, (because both hatched around the same time) were found outside their pen, shivering.
I used a stick to help push them back to the nest, thinking they rolled away somehow while hatching. It looked like the mom was unsure but allowed them to cuddle into her feathers.
Throughout the day i would notice they kept ending up out of the pen and so i would repeat bringing them back to the nest.
come evening I realized the mother was chasing them away from her other duckling. I brought the babies in and under the heat lamp we have to warm them back up.
After a few days later, when they were stronger and more lively, i tried again to give them back, she along with the drake flat out attacked the babies when they ran to the mom and their older sibling.
They hatched around her and don't seem to have any defects, why won't she accept them? Is the age gap too significant for her to accept them as her own?
My first brooding duck, hatched ducklings that are 2 weeks apart.
The twins I call them, (because both hatched around the same time) were found outside their pen, shivering.
I used a stick to help push them back to the nest, thinking they rolled away somehow while hatching. It looked like the mom was unsure but allowed them to cuddle into her feathers.
Throughout the day i would notice they kept ending up out of the pen and so i would repeat bringing them back to the nest.
come evening I realized the mother was chasing them away from her other duckling. I brought the babies in and under the heat lamp we have to warm them back up.
After a few days later, when they were stronger and more lively, i tried again to give them back, she along with the drake flat out attacked the babies when they ran to the mom and their older sibling.
They hatched around her and don't seem to have any defects, why won't she accept them? Is the age gap too significant for her to accept them as her own?
