Runt duckling?

Hi just wondering if there are any duck experts around? My mallard Darcey & her daughter recently hatched out six ducklings between them, five of which came out on the same day & one which came out two days later, it is much smaller than the others, and the rapid growth which baby ducks usually go through isn't quite kicking in for the little guy who's still tiny & has a tiny little beak and legs. The little thing is just as active as the other ducklings and is eating well, but is there any additional help I could be giving him/her to boost growth etc. will it be okay despite it's size? Here is a very quick video of the little duckling swimming with the others at one point he is seperate from the rest of them to the left of Darcey. It's at the left of this image which you can click to access the vid.

 

Sorry I don't know anything about ducklings, Freedom Spark, except that they are lovely.
Thank you for the lovely little video. The little one does look much smaller than the others but looks very active. Maybe ducks are just like people and don't all come out the same size. Or maybe 2 days in the life of a duckling is a lot and the little one will catch up.

 

Glad you liked it Alice, I suppose there could be some variation in the size of ducklings but generally speaking they're all similar in size & grow at a very similar pace & these little guys are over a week old now so the little one is quite noticeably on the small side, hopefully he'll be okay, he's so cute!

 

They're gorgeous, Freedom Spark, but unfortunately I don't know anything about ducklings either!

 

Looking good there , could be the little one is female & the others male .

 

Good observation Gogs.:gnthb:

 

:hehe: Guessing lol .

 

And maybe he/she didn't hatch the same time as the others, hence the delay in making her appearance. I don't think you need to worry. There's plenty of time for it to feed itself up before the winter sets in.

 

Thanks everyone, he/she seems to be doing well, still quite tiny but is eating well & doing everything his/her larger brothers and sisters are doing.

 

Thanks for sharing the video.

In the wild, this small duck could either be picked off by a preditor or lose out in the search for food. But in this situation it'll probably be fine if it's eating well.
The only thing that should concern you, is if it starts to appear to be lethargic or any of the other ducklings start to bully it. It seems active enough and only seems "small" as a duckling compared to the others.

Reminds me, we have a large pond on our golf course and the resident pairs of moorhens have several chicks each year. Now they are really small when you first see them, only the size of golf balls, but jet black!

 

What a lovely video, they look so cute!

 

How is the duckling getting on now?

 

Thanks for asking Sussexgardener! He/she is getting on brilliantly very healthy & cute, still considerably smaller than the rest but growing well, I'll get a new pic/video when I get a chance.