Help! Choking ducklings

Not sure what's going on. They are eating their bedding, cedar shavings. Chicks pick at it too but I have NEVER had a problem with chicks.

Last night noticed one chick seemed a little 'off'. Later he began choking, gasping, mouth open, head stretched up, bubbling at nose, shaking the head, bubbly mucous in mouth. I panicked and attempted various methods (all of them unpleasant, I'm sure) to dislodge or wash down the problem. I squirted water in with a syringe. I suctioned mucous out with a bulb. I held him upside down and hoped he'd drain. He was getting that droopy, dopey, I think I'll die now, look about him. Finally I have him a dose of Rescue Remedy, poured myself a glass of wine and cuddled him. He lived. It was the wine.

So is this the shavings? Is it because their crumbles are so dry and jam in? Is it because they are PIGS and eat so much it starts rolling back out again? But I had another duckling go through this same procedure this morning. It is awful to watch and seems to cause them distress.

I have made their crumbles into slop. Have removed their shavings and now they are on poop covered towels. But soon they are going to have to live on shavings again. So...they are either going to have to learn to quit eating shavings OR drop dead from it.

Does anyone else notice that duckling put EVERYTHING in their mouth and are poor decision makers when it comes to good vs. bad stuff to eat? Any guidance here would be appreciated, and save another duckling from my version of the Heimlich maneuver.

I brood ducklings on a towel for the first week, then move them outside to a secure enclosure with a warm floorless shelter and have them live on the dirt.

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I always brood on papertowel for the first 3-4days because yes EVERYTHING goes in the mouth. Can they get heads down into water to clear nostrils? Put another pan or something under the water so they must get into outer pan to drink the water it will keep your brooder drier and easier to clean. When they drink they poop so outer pan will be easier to remove and rinse and keep the dribbled and flung water from soaking the brooder bedding.

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THanks everyone.

So..I'm going to have to go out to the little brooder house and shovel up all those shavings that I put down? Sheesh. Live and learn, I guess.

I have a laundry rack of 'duck towels' drying in the sun now. It's like washing diapers by hand, all those poopy towels! Oh the things we do for our pets...I can see this getting old really fast!

Thanks for the pics, Higgins, have given me some good ideas to work with.

I would just lay paper towel on top. Easy to change. I use a ferret litter box to put my waterers on so it fits on a rack and water collects underneath. Easy peasy

fuzzylittlefriend wrote:I would just lay paper towel on top. Easy to change. I use a ferret litter box to put my waterers on so it fits on a rack and water collects underneath. Easy peasy

This is a most excellent idea!

I have tried paper towel but had a couple geese that found it too slippery and their legs were always sliding sideways. A good idea, but watch out for slippery duck feet!

How are they doing, lovely Uno?

I agree most likely the shavings. As we all know, or should, cedar has an oil in it that can cause various health issues, mostly respiratory, in many animals.

For the first few days I put the goslings on towels... they don't let them slip and i can wash them afterwards. thin towels.. not big fat bath towels.

Sprinkle their food on the towel and a small container for water.

No shavings, no straw.

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I usually use cat litter pellets ( pine) underneath so its bumpy ( or shavings) and not just smooth on smooth. So far no bad legs with ducklings.

The ferret box is the best invention ever! I use it for chicks now too keeps their water cleaner.

(sighing)

I observed the little wagglers this afternoon. Really paid attention to what was going on. I observed the following:

They ate shavings. They ate each other's fuzz. They ate poop. They ate things they imagined they saw. They try to eat my fingers. They bite each other on the face and eat each other's eyeballs. Those beaks are never still!

More detailed observation showed that small bits of shavings did indeed go down the hatch. But larger bits were munched, then rejected with a violent shake of the head. They love to get their head wet then shake like the dickens. There is goop sprayed all over the place! But the big bits of shavings did not go down the gullet.

Furthermore, none of them choked upon eating a shaving. No, the choking happened at the food dish! BAD TABLE MANNERS! Gulping like little pigs. THEN they start gagging and stretching the neck and looking like death was imminent. Sneezing, shaking, desperate head dunking. I have concluded that as with the chicks, the shavings consumed have no effect, but that unlike chicks, ducklings are hasty gulpers who overeat! I think eating until they have passed the full mark is what causes them trouble.

I had set them up with a lovely little cedar shaving snuggle brooder. Then I took it all apart and set them up with towels, which quickly become soggy and matted with poop. Then I removed them and hand washed the poop out, hung them to dry and was about to remove the again wet towels and replace with line dried towels when a little voice in my head said, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?

So despite all my worry and how much I want these critters to survive, I made a cold hearted decision. I decided that I bed with cedar. Period. I have never lost a chick and have no known respiratory problems (take that, HillBully!) These ducks are either going to quit eating the damn shavings, although the shavings do not appear to be the problem, or they will die. I have given them warmth, food and water, to be smart enough to survive is their responsibility. While a mother duck may lead them to an area where they can find suitable food, she does not oversee and micromanage everything they put in their mouth. She can't. She lacks the ability. These ducks will learn not to overeat and gulp, or...

I have a feeling my ducklings are not the first to gulp their food and eat stupid things. I trust they will learn and if not, I will not be hand washing poopy tea towels when shavings do the job just fine.

I am just plain mean. (but enjoying the quackers!)

Ah, Uno, this is a sad thing you have been going through. And you wanted to be duck and goose mamma? You asked for it and you got it, teasing ya all the way. What a bunch of work you are doing, but what doesn't kill ya will make ya stronger, as that song goes, right?

I wonder if the food is too appealing to the little boogers? Maybe you should just let them have a bowl of the duck crumbles only, with nothing mixed in with it? You know, I am like that when something tastes so good, I almost choke cause I can't get it in fast enough

Truly. I am wondering if they are gorging because it is just too good. I have raised hundreds of muscovy ducklings and never seen anything where they eat so much and so fast that they are choking on it. Sure they gobble like little pigs, that is no doubt, but with the dry crumbles, only small mouthfuls can get in. With the moistened product, are they getting too big of a mouthful.

Oh, for your sake, I hope things work out, you were so stoked to hatch out these beauties -- and you have. If you feel you cannot go on any longer, (smiling this evil smile) -- contact Farmchiq. I know she has an empty boxstall or two and would just LOVE to raise these little babies for you, tease, tease tease. But that is an option. She did mention that she might like to get FEMALE muscovys again, not breed them like last year. Farmchiq, where are you??? Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

animals usually learn from their parents. Being the surrogate, makes me wonder what your table manners are like. With dishes like spaghetti, and all kinds of crazy pasta that italians seem to have created, there's no wonder these poor little gaffers have learned to slurp and try and inhale everything in their path.
I have decided I am never coming to dinner at your house.

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Clearly , that is not me. There is no frying pan about to connect with the back of my head, while she tactfully distracts me with a poop covered, slop bathed, cute ducky.

UNO you will power through! A few more weeks they will be so big and ugly and so messy you willbe able to kick them outside to make a mess! Maybe we will have a heat wave again?

Ah Tara, cute as the dickens!! Awesome days, CynthiaM.

Well, HillBully, it's true, my eating habits are not up to snuff. As stated in an earlier post when it comes to things like PIE, I prefer to heave it in with a backhoe and failing that, a dainty garden trowel.

Cynthia...you should see them eat! It's quite a spectacle. I was worried that the dry crumbles were too dry and catching in their throats, kind of like what happens to us if we eat a spoonful of flour. Gack! But now that I've wet it...holy crackers! You can't approach their little box unless you have safety goggles on and a lobster bib. They FLING that food right out over the edge of the box! What's up with that craziness? IT's a mob, it's a free for all, it's a natural disaster! I suppose this is instinctive behaviour for when they are floating along, sifting Gordon knows what off the bottom of ponds and large puddles. Bite, fling, carry on. Eeek!

But..they are hilarious! I've taken them outside for a walk a couple of times. They get distracted and plop into a puddle. BUt when they discover I am not near they come RUNNING as fast as they can, their mini wings sticking out, like fat, fuzyy 747s that will never get off the runway! They make me laugh.

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I LOVE WEEBLES!

Bills. Beaks. Things with which to bite and grab. You know what I mean.

Next time you have one choking try a bit of olive oil down there throat and give it a quick massage. I have had this problem a few times and just the other day again it fixes them up right away.