how to raise a baby duck eggs without their mother ?
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Question by Larry: how to raise a baby duck eggs without their mother ?
i found a duck egg . and was wondering how i should take care of the egg?
how do i know when a duck egg is rotten?
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8 Responses to how to raise a baby duck eggs without their mother ?
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First keep it warm , the best way to hatch the egg is to buy an incubator . it must be kept at the right temp or the egg will die . If you cant take care of it . keep it warm untill you can take it to your local vet office and they will hatch it .
Kelsey Wing
September 25, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Well first is to look to see if its by itself, because chances are if it was one egg, the mother left it because she knew it was rotten. If there are more, buy an incubator. Or bring it to a Vetenarians
Brie Becker
September 25, 2013 at 1:28 pm
I agree, incubator is the best way to go. If they are small duck eggs however, you might be able to get away with putting them under a broody hen. Cochin hens are notorious for sitting on anything, so that could be a way to go to. Like they said, check to make sure that the duck hasn’t abandoned the nest because the eggs were infertile or rotten. Hope that helps 🙂
Minda
September 25, 2013 at 1:42 pm
A real accurate thermometer is needed for any incubator. For Ducks it should be set at 99.5 degrees fahrenheit at first…run the incubator empty for at least a day to make sure it stays stable at that temp. Then the eggs can be placed in the incubator for 25 days at that temp. Days 26-28 the temp should be 98.5 remember to only change a half degree at a time and wait for several hours to make sure it has become stable at that temp before adjusting again. If you don’t wait for it to get stable you will tend to over adjust and possibly kill the eggs. If you don’t get down to the ideal temp on schedule for day 26 don’t panic..it is not as critical as over adjusting too fast.
Humidity is also very important. Humidity should be 86 for the first 25 days and 94 thereafter.
Also if your incubator does not have a automatic turner you will need to turn the eggs an odd number of times each day so that they don’t sit on the same side too many times for a long period of time. I mark mine with an X on one side so I know which side has been up last. An automatic turner does it every hour. I do it 5 evenly spaced times through out my day and make sure if the x was up one night it is not the next.
also make sure its a duck egg and its not rotten.
and you should think of what you will do with the duckling after it hatches.
claire cool
September 25, 2013 at 1:51 pm
You should check to make sure the egg isn’t rotten since it is just one egg, the mom could have left. A mother duck will not stay at her nest to wait for every egg to hatch. She has other babies to care for. You can check if the egg has a air pocket on the fat side. If it does, it’s fresh. You can float the eeg. If it sinks, its fresh. If it floats, its rotten. If it is kind of sitting but kind of not, it somewher between a week to 3. If it isnt rotten, you can either buy an incubator or make one. If you want to make one, you need a closed box or cabinet in order to maintain the tempature at 99 degrees. You’ll need a heat source to produce that and a tray of water nearby to the egg to promote the humidity of the air for the egg as it would in natural enviroments. You will need to rotate the egg 3 times a day. Be gentle when you do. After 5 days, use a flashlight. You should be able to see development in the egg. If you don’t it isn’t fertilized.
Phung
September 25, 2013 at 2:02 pm
Ducks lay their eggs in proper nests not just any old where. If you “found” an egg then I doubt it has got a live duckling embryo inside, if it was ever fertile the duckling embryo would die very quickly once it got cold.
I expect it was taken by a predator and dropped. You cannot hatch any sort of egg without a proper incubator. Eggs need constant specific temperature and also humidity otherwise they don’t hatch. You cannot replicate these perameters.
Just throw the egg away OK there is nothing you can do for it, not every egg is destined to hatch.
Trust Me I'm a Doctor ♥
September 25, 2013 at 2:21 pm
ducks today are under incredible pressure..mallards are forced into areas (where there is lake or stream) and springtime foxes coyotes hawks falcons are waiting to kill them.
and springtime is even more deadly for the female mallard. she has unreal stress due to attacking and rampaging male mallards, due to hostile habitat. she WILL be attacked if she remains, so she CANNOT NEST.
her eggs are dropped wherever because she is trying to save her life.
that egg WAS NOT ABANDONED. so if you found it soon enough and kept it warm covered with a towel with a light or heating pad, temp about 100 check on this, it will hatch.
mallards are very hardy, they need water, they eat water plants, seeds, you can feed the duckling cereals, the entire grain complex, check online for great suggestions. they grow quickly, 8 weelks they fly, but a bird raised in captivity wont make it outside. it wont matter much though, ducks outside dont make it either these days.
fortuitouz
September 25, 2013 at 3:09 pm
If you found the egg just anywhere, it was probably dropped by a predator after it was stolen from the duck. For all purposes, the egg does not have a baby duck waiting to be hatch. Even if there was one inside, it dead already. So, the best thing to do is to throw it out. Sorry…
— PA
Deltaflyer12
September 25, 2013 at 3:27 pm