So i went to my feed store today and asked for regular duck feed for like....READ ON

How old are your ducks? Are they for egg laying? How many males? Will you be breeding them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by duckmagnetyup 

grown ducks. The lady asks me if i want mash or starter, but seeing that everybody has pellets i asked for pellets, she says laying pellets, me being me, i said ya. Went home noticed it was for laying, cam back and returned it for mash. Came home again, it says laying mash feed. Is that okay for my ducks to eat, even though theyre not laying?

Mercy, it is not as simple as it can be....

Laying pellets would be okay as long as all the ducks are adult, laying (females).  

If you have drakes, or the ducks are not laying, you need just regular feed.  The other word I have heard used is grower.  Or sometimes they call it maintenance.  There are other names for it.

I find my adult runners have a hard time eating mash.  It falls out of the sides of their mouth.  When I had some mash, I dampened it, but dumped any leftovers after a day to prevent mold problems.

I have gone around and around and around with feed store clerks, so, welcome to the club!! 

I see that this manufacturer has game bird/turkey developer crumble.  That may be as close as you can come.  If you have a mixed flock, this plus free choice oyster shell probably would be fine.  Or if you have older ducklings (3 weeks or older) not yet laying, then you would not yet need the oyster shell.

Yes, I would say that at that age, layer is not the best idea.  Too much calcium for little kidneys.

Bravo for you taking the time to be sure, especially after they gave you the run-around.  Perhaps you can call and insist on a grower/developer/maintenance feed.  If all they have is crumbles, then see how they do.  They may, at 3 to 4 weeks, do just fine with crumbles.  If they seem to splash it all over the place, try dampening it, but be sure to remove dampened feed before it starts to get icky.

And if you can upload photos, well, that would be very nice.  I love seeing duck photos.  I'm not alone in that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by duckmagnetyup 

but the bag says less than 16% of prude calcium

Is that calcium or protein?

Just as a "for instance," I looked up Payback's feed formulations for layer versus non-layer.

In their non-layer feed, the calcium is between .75 and 1.25 percent.

For layer, it is 3.5 to 4.5, over three times the calcium levels.

Protein of 18% or so should be good, if I recall correctly.  Someone can correct me if I am off, but remember that non-protein treats lower the average protein for the day, protein treats (worms, bugs, mealworms, cat kibble) increase it.

Mash, pellets and crumbles are just different textures that feed comes in.  It is owners choice on style.  Think of it as it all starts as a pellet then can be ground down to crumbles or ground further to mash.  So, there are starter crumbles and mash (meant for very young ducklings), there is usually grower/maintenance/developer crumbles or mash (for growing birds to maturity) and then there are layer pellets, mash or crumbles (to feed after they lay the first egg).

A lot is based on protein level.  Ideally, day old to 2 weeks get 18-20% protein, 3-8 wks get 15-16% protein, 9 wks-sexual maturity get 13-14% protein.  Again this is the ideal and is not practical for many people.  I think most people do 20% protein for the first few weeks then 15-16% after that.  Any layer feed, regardless of form, is not appropriate for young non-laying birds.  Per Storey's Guide layer feed should never be fed to growing birds because more than 1.5% calcium in the diet can cause permanent damage to organs or bones and even death.

If there is 16% calcium in the feed it should not be fed to any duck.  I'm thinking that was protein. 

Amiga, you are right about treats.  Too much of a low protein treat will affect overall protein level.