Niacin/yeast for ducklings okay for chicks?

Janstpatrick

Hatching
May 28, 2016
4
0
7
Brighton, CO
Hello All. My fiance' and I are new to raising chickens and ducks. We have 4 chicks and 2 ducklings that we are raising together. We need to start giving the ducklings a niacin supplement or brewers/nutritional yeast and i need to know if it is okay for the chicks to have it as well or if we are going to have to feed them separately. I appreciate any advice.
 
I can't speak to the ducklings but nutritional yeast is a cornerstone of the hand made feed I make for my chicks and adult birds. However, if you plan on feeding commercially prepared feeds they should be complete and balanced nutrition as they are, and so any supplementation if you feel it's necessary should be done sparingly.

This is a great resource:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...ltry/nutritional_requirements_of_poultry.html
 
I can also tell you that each bag of commercial feed is stamped with the date it was made. Check the dates carefully as the vitamins and minerals they supplement with degrade over time. I lost several chicks to a vitamin A deficiency before I figured out what was going on. That led me to grinding my own feed and doing a lot of research on chicken nutrition.
Cod liver oil makes a wonderful supplement too. Again, sparingly if feeding commercial feed.
 
Two months ago I also had 2 ducklings in with my 6 chicks and had to add nutritional yeast to the chick starter because it did not have the added niacin that the ducks needed. I switched them over at 4 weeks to a non-gmo organic grower pellet that was nutritionally made specifically for ducks and chicks and said could be started as early as 4 weeks (most grower pellets say 8 weeks). I did this because the chick starter was "medicated" to help prevent worms and they say that is bad for ducks... but mine thrived for those 4 weeks, with no problems. The pellets were a bit difficult at 4 weeks but they managed perfectly fine with deep water bowls for the duck's nostrils to take a sip while eating, I just kept the bowls close to each other. The ducks soon started to eat greens like dandelions at 4 weeks old so they also got extra niacin while free-ranging too, and we fed them worms for more protien. No problems with nutritional yeast for the chicks at all because it is water soluble.
 

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