Originally Posted by
aja19919 
Wow, thanks for the tip. I had no idea. I do have Brewer's Yeast but would probably have to go to a vitamin store for the niacin. what would the dosage be? Could I just sprinkle BY on the feed or would that be a waste? Feed ducks seperate from chickens? (pain to do this as they currently mingle) . Those who use brewer's yeast sprinkle across the top of the food, perhaps a tablespoon a day. Niacin is water soluble, and though I cannot tell you I am certain, it seems water soluble vitamins ought not bother the other birds. Perhaps someone else can check in, who does this with chickens. For now, you may want to separate the duck and feed it a special diet, till you are more comfortable with the concern about the others. Won't hurt other ducks, that's for sure.
I do give oyster shell, free range. Is that adequate enough for the calcium? In my experience, it depends on the duck. Zwei is a smart duck, she noms on the oyster shell quite a bit, as do most of the others. Sieben forgets to eat it, and Michele does not seem to even think about it. Since all my flock are layers, I add sprinkles of it to their food, the dust gets dissolved into their night drinking water, and I feed them organic layer pellets. Every way I can get calcium into my layers, I do it. If I had ducklings, I would need to rework the system. sigh.
This duck has lost more of its mobility. I take it and put it in a 1000 gallon tank where it swims and is quite happy. I feed it there as well. It can swim. Tonight it had enough and was able to get out on its own, I then put it in the enclosure for safe keeping at night. Beautiful! I think hydrotherapy works wonders.
Wondering if I should put the duck in a pet crate so it can get it's own supplemental feed? See above
By feeding "duck" feed (all purpose poultry?) will it affect the chickens that are in there with them? I don't have chickens, I have read many people feed Flock Raiser with good results. There are other flock feeds as well. A friend of mine feeds Countryside Organic, which is pricey but she says the hens are in great shape and the eggs are wonderful. I fed CO for a while, but the ducks had a hard time with eating it all. They would pick out the parts they liked and leave the rest. Pelleted food helps them get a better diet for now, till I figure out alternatives.
This reminds me of copper levels for goats and sheep. Too much will kill a sheep and not enough will harm a goat. Who knew we would need to be nutritional chemists when we got involved in raising animals?!
Thanks again
