What Causes Runts?

The word ‘runt’ has a lot of negative connotation to it. Runts are thought of as weak and sickly. I’m here to tell you that this is not true! The official Google definition of a runt is “an animal that is smaller than average”. A runt is just a smaller version of the same breed. That doesn’t mean it is sick or weak, just small.

What causes this? Our veterinarian’s theory is that it has to do with the flora in the gut. Everyone has bacteria in their stomach, both good and bad. The good bacteria colonizes in the stomach and helps with digestion. Runts, however, do not seem to have as much good bacteria or it has the wrong kind of bacteria colonizing in its gut. This means that it doesn’t digest its food as well and therefore does not grow as fast as its siblings.

There is a way to fix this. By providing the correct probiotics, runts are capable of catching up in growth with the rest of the flock. You can find probiotic supplement packs at your local feed store or Amazon. The probiotics help to develop the good bacteria in the bird’s gut that will help with digestion and facilitate growth. You can mix this in the communal feed as the extra probiotics may benefit your other birds, too.

Other potential causes include hatching from small eggs, viral infection, genetics, coccidiosis, and bacterial infection during incubation. While these are valid causes, our veterinarian believes they cause far fewer runts than improper bacteria in the gut.

For further information, Andy Schneider, the Chicken Whisperer, has an article in his Chicken Whisperer Magazine that goes further into probiotics for poultry. While this article is about chickens, the same applies to ducks and geese.

The main question is what this means for you. If you are a commercial producer, we suggest culling the runts if only because their growth rate will be off of your expected processing date. For example, Pekin are ready for processing at 7 weeks, but your runt may not catch up until about week 12.

The following picture is from one of our customers, a Hutterite colony in Montana in 2014. They and other colonies order Pekin ducklings by the thousands and you can clearly see in the photo that there were several ducklings that were not growing as fast as the others. They were 4 weeks and 4 days of age for the picture. When it came time for processing at 12 weeks, however, they could not tell which had been the runts!

If your main concern is egg production, a runt’s egg production start will probably be delayed. If the runt is treated, however, and catches up in growth, they should be on time to start laying with the rest of the flock.

Both the meat and eggs are still good to eat. Remember, a runt is simply smaller.

Whether your birds are pets or not, make sure you keep them all fed, watered, and warm. It will take time for them to catch up in growth, but it will be worth it in the end.

Can Medicated Feed Be Used for Waterfowl?

Can medicated feed be given to ducks and geese?  Many people say No.  I will explain why I feel the answer is Yes.

First of all, there are four drugs (medicines) that are approved by the USDA for the use in ducks.  These have been used successfully for years to control a variety of waterfowl diseases.   They are Chlorotetracycline, Neomycin,  Novobiocin and Rofenaid. 


The bigger concern, however, is sacked feed sold at your local feed store.  Some of these sacked feeds (especially starter feeds) have medications in them to control coccidiosis.  Coccidiosis is an internal protozoa parasite that can harm chickens, turkeys, game birds and occasionally waterfowl.  As coccidiosis is a common problem, and most people have chickens, the feed manufacturers will often include medication in starter feed to better control this disease.   But what about waterfowl?  Will it harm them?

Non-medicated Starter Feed by Ace Hi - though I would prefer a starter as a crumble, not a mash

We have contacted all the feed mills that we could find that make sacked poultry feed in the US.  From material they have sent us or from their website, we have learned that these 29 mills make 59 different starter feeds for chickens, waterfowl and game birds.  Of these 59 starter feeds, 19 have a medication in them to control coccidiosis.

Four drugs are used.  Fifteen of the feeds contain Amprolium, 1 has Monensin, 1 has Lasolocid and 1 has BMD (Bacitracin methylene disalicylate).

Medicated Starter Feed with amprolium by Kalmbach Feeds

To investigate this further, I asked for the assistance of Dr. Larry McDougal of the University of Georgia and Dr. Alison Martin of the Livestock Conservancy.  Both of these individuals have done extensive work with coccidiosis.  They found research that had been done here in the United States and abroad on the effect of these four drugs on waterfowl.   As Dr. McDougal said “Not one of these papers described any harmful effects to waterfowl except where the normal dosage was significantly overdosed.” 

Non-medicated Grower feed by Southern States

Many of you have heard of Dave Holderread, of Holderread’s Waterfowl Farm in Oregon.  Dave is an expert on waterfowl and an ultimate waterfowl breeder.  He conducted research on coccidiostats with Oregon State University in 1982 (1).   His paper states “Frequently publications pertaining to waterfowl state that medicated feeds should not be fed to ducklings and goslings.  In some localities, producers and hobbyists who raise a small number of ducklings and goslings can only purchase medicated chick, turkey or game bird starter and grower feeds.  Because of the lack of documented information on this subject and the numerous requests for advice on this matter, anticoccidial drugs zoalene, sulfaquinoxaline and amprolium were mixed in mash feed and fed to ducks up to four weeks of age.”

His conclusion was “From this experiment, it appears that sulfaquinoxaline, zoalene, or amprolium at the manufacturers' use levels for chickens and turkeys did not cause mortality, stunted growth or cripples when fed to Khaki Campbell ducklings to 4 weeks of age."

Therefore, it appears research shows these drugs do not harm waterfowl if used at the rates commonly used with chickens and turkeys.

Medicated Chick Starter using amprolium by Lone Star Mills

Have there been coccidiostats used in the past that were harmful to waterfowl?  Probably and that is why the myth began. But those drugs are no longer allowed or no longer used in the United States.

What if you have the choice of medicated or non-medicated starter feed of equal nutritional value?  My recommendation would be to use the non-medicated feed.  There is no point in feeding medication when it is not needed.

HOWEVER, if the choice is nutritionally correct medicated starter feed (20%+ protein) or non-medicated feed that does not meet the nutritional needs of the ducklings and goslings, I would definitely recommend the nutritionally correct, medicated starter feed.  Research shows the medication will not harm the waterfowl.

(1) Holderread, D., Nakaue, H.S., Arscott, G.H. 1983 Poultry Science 62:1125-1127

Mixing Medicine for Small Flocks of Ducks and Geese

Originally posted by John Metzer on Wed, Mar 09, 2011 @ 04:21 PM

Oftentimes there is confusion on how to mix commercial sized packages of medicine or vitamin supplements for small flocks of ducks and geese. In addition, many injectable medicines are shown for heavy livestock, not smaller poultry. I will show you how to mix medicines for small flocks or individual birds using some simple examples.

Read the instructions Does it give one medication level for chickens and another for turkeys? If so, use the more dilute formula (more water/less medicine) as waterfowl drink more water per pound of body weight than non-waterfowl. Therefore they will get more medicine per bird.

Powder Medicine Open the package and measure how many teaspoons of medicine are in the package (assume for this example there are 12 teaspoons and the package is supposed to be mixed with 256 gallons of water). Divide the number of gallons of water by the number of teaspoons in the package: 256 / 12 = 21.3 gallons of water for every teaspoon of medicine. Knowing there are four ¼ teaspoons in every teaspoon, you can divide the 21.3 by 4 and get 5.3 gallons of water for every ¼ teaspoon of medicine. Knowing this, you can then mix slightly less than ¼ teaspoon of medicine in a five gallon bucket of water for your ducks and geese.

Liquid Medicine How many ounces of medicine are in the container? Assume 8 ounces and it is to be mixed in 128 gallons of water. Divide the number of gallons of water by the number of ounces in the bottle: 128 / 8 = 16 gallons of water for every ounce of medicine. As there are 6 teaspoons in every ounce, divide the 16 by 6 and you get 2.7 gallons of water for every teaspoon of medicine. Knowing what you learned above, you can now divide the 2.7 by 4 and it will show you that you can mix .7 gallons of water with every ¼ teaspoon of medicine.

Injectable Medicine Assume the package says to give 10cc medicine for every 200 pounds of body weight. Dividing 10 by 200 shows that you are to use .05cc for every pound of body weight. If you can, weigh your sick bird. If not, look at the weight ranges on our Duck Breed Comparison Chart and Goose Breed Comparison Chart on our website. Normally a sick bird will be on the lighter side. Assume you have a Khaki Campbell and it weighs four pounds. To determine how much medicine to give it, multiply its weight (4) by how much medicine it is supposed to get per pound (.05 in this example). This gives a dose of .2cc.

Rules for powder medicine:

Divide gallons of water by teaspoons of powder medicine to get how many gallons of water for each teaspoon of medicine.

To convert gallons of water per teaspoon of medicine, to gallons per ¼ teaspoon of medicine, divide gallons by four.

Rules for liquid medicine:                                                 Divide gallons of water by ounces of liquid medicine to get how many gallons of water for each ounce of medicine.

To convert gallons of water per ounce of liquid medicine, to gallons per teaspoon of medicine, divide the gallons by six.

Rules for injectable medicine:                                                For injectable medicine, divide cc's of medicine by pounds of body weight. Multiply this number by the weight of your bird to determine the dosage.

Explanation of Stock Solution  Most larger farms dispense medication via a proportioner. Normally one packet of medicine is mixed in one gallon of water and this is called the “stock solution”. Then the proportioner is set to pump one ounce of the stock solution in one gallon of drinking water. With this method, one packet will treat 128 gallons of water (there are 128 ounces in one gallon). Most of you will not be using a proportioner. I only explain this so you can understand why the label has information about a “stock solution.”

Summary These are just examples. You will have to do the math with your specific medicine. Remember to give the medicine as long as prescribed. If you don't, you are contributing to the proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria. You want the bacteria affecting your ducks and geese to be completely killed. If you stop medicating before instructed, there is a chance the more resistant bacteria will live and reproduce. If you medicate the prescribed length of time, there is little chance any bacteria will live – reducing the chances of antibiotic resistant bacteria developing.