Nine ducklings, about two weeks, and I keep catching them nibbling at droppings in the brooder. Not once, repeatedly, and more than one of them does it.
They are on a chick starter with niacin added, drinking from a dunkable waterer, and the bedding gets changed every morning. Is this a thing ducklings just do, or does it mean something is missing from what I am giving them?
Boredom is underrated here. Nine ducklings in a bare brooder with nothing to investigate will investigate whatever is on the floor, and the floor is mostly droppings.
More space as they grow, a shallow dish of water for supervised splashing at a safe depth, and greens to rummage in. Mine stopped almost entirely once there was something else going on in there.
Also keep the feed dry and fresh. Damp starter is a separate problem that looks like this one.
The reason to bother at all rather than shrug: droppings spread coccidia and bacteria, and a wet brooder with droppings trodden through it is how a batch gets ill. A few pecks will probably do nothing. A dirty brooder is a different bet.
What I watch for after losing two: diarrhoea or blood in the droppings, lethargy, anybody off their feed, weakness or trouble walking, and poor growth against the others. Any of those with poultry and it is a phone call rather than a clean-up.
@mesh_over_tray · 5d ago · 3 replies
They do it because they test everything with their bills, and droppings are on the floor like everything else. There is also undigested feed in duckling droppings, which makes it more interesting to them than it should be.
Nothing is necessarily missing. Changing bedding every morning and a starter with niacin added means you are already doing the two things that matter. Worth discouraging rather than worth panicking about.
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@pecks_at_anything · 4d ago
Discourage how? Short of standing over them I am not sure what else I can do.
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@mesh_over_tray · 4d ago
Get the water off the bedding. A waterer on a mesh platform over a tray keeps the bedding dry for far longer, and most of the problem is wet bedding making a slurry of everything. Then give them something better to peck: finely chopped greens scattered about does a lot.
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