Best duck food for Laying & Non-Laying Duck & Geese Flock

[Niche Flock]

I am concerned that I am not feeding my flock appropriately.
I have a mixed flock of 22 ducks of various ages (8 months-8 years) + 2 8 month old geese.
The young ducks & the geese are just starting to lay but the older gals really aren't right now but maybe in the Spring-Summer when we have more daylight.

Currently I'm feeding the ladies Nutrena Hearty Hen (Soy-free) pellets and it has an 18% crude protein. Very occasionally they will get the Nutrena Naturewise 16% pellets if Tractor Supply is out of the soy free.
I also mix in some whole oats (which they sometimes acknowledge), crushed oyster shell, crushed granite (+they have these free-choice), and 5 scratch grain from Purina. Black Soldier Beetles & meal worms for a snack once in awhile, but they get addicted to them and will refuse to eat their food, so I treat them sparingly..sometimes in their coop before bed if it's going to be a cold night. The geese also have free choice timothy grass this time of the year to munch on if they want.

Sometimes I'll mix in some black oil sunflower seeds because they love them. And they get compost treats like tomatoes, cabbage, cukes, chard, kale & herbs a couple of times a week.

My question is am I am giving my ducks the right diet when it comes to the pellets? I know the younger ducks may benefit from the layer & hearty hen pellets, but is that 16-18% of protein & 3.7-3.9% calcium good for the non-layers?

I checked online and started a Chewy account so that I could order some 16% Flock Maintainer feed from Kalmbach that seems appropriate for geese and ducks (because my Tractor Supply only has chicken feed) BUT will this be appropriate for both Non-Laying and laying ducks? Will the non-layers benefit more from the maintainer and the egg layers suffer some how from eating it? Should I do a mix of both types of feeds or do you think they'll just shovel it all in their duck and goose faces not caring?

Any suggestions are appreciated! Also, if anyone has experience with Kalmbach feeds or Nutrena, let me know what you think!

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

i’m switching mine to Mazuri waterfowl as soon as possible! it’s the best feed possible

 

[3bird]

We use the Mazuri Waterfowl Maintenance for our flock that includes a drake. We feed free choice, otherwise, we'd feed the girls the Mazuri Layer. We offer oyster shells free choice for the girls, and we feed them back all their eggs. Mazuri is a really great feed. We used to get our local TSC to special order it for us.

 

[SolarDuck]

I agree with them, your best bet is Mazuri!

 

[Niche Flock]

i’m switching mine to Mazuri waterfowl as soon as possible! it’s the best feed possi

We use the Mazuri Waterfowl Maintenance for our flock that includes a drake. We feed free choice, otherwise, we'd feed the girls the Mazuri Layer. We offer oyster shells free choice for the girls, and we feed them back all their eggs. Mazuri is a really great feed. We used to get our local TSC to special order it for us.

I think Chewy.com sells Mazuri as well! I will see what the bag options are and inquire with my TSC to see if they can special order as well!
Thank you for the suggestions!!

 

[Niche Flock]

I agree with them, your best bet is Mazuri!

Ah, now I sorta regret having purchased the Kalmbach already.

I plan to slowly mix in the Kalmbach with the Nutrena til the Nutrena is used up to get them used to the Kalmbach, then perhaps I will do the same transition to the Mazuri. I have cats and I know they're a different animal altogether, but I remember my vet talking about switching animals between foods and how it should be done gradually.

Not sure if that applies to waterfowl, but I will try it and see what happens. I don't want any food waste, just to give them the best.

 

[3bird]

I think Chewy.com sells Mazuri as well! I will see what the bag options are and inquire with my TSC to see if they can special order as well!
Thank you for the suggestions!!

For us, TSC used to special order it at no charge. They said that was policy since it is available through their distributor. They were a little hit and miss though on getting it in when they said they would.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I actually really love Kalmbachs maintenance feed! I use it for my entire flock along with providing Small Pet Selects Oysters shells free choice and "free ranging" in a fenced area. My duck eggs are so hard that I have thrown them across the yard and they still did not crack. Any visitors comment that my ducks are the nicest and healthiest looking ducks they have seen. I even had someone comment "I never knew a duck could look so shiny" lol At one point I did have to put my ducks on a different feed because chewy was out of the Kalmbach and I noticed that with the new feed they did not look nearly as glossy and vibrant after a couple of weeks. After I used up that feed and put everyone back on Kalmbach they started to go back to looking awesome!

 

[Niche Flock]

That's great to hear! Yes everyone in the flock loved the Kalmbach and recently I ran out before my delivery from Chewy, so I purchased some of the soy free Nutrena from TSC because they like that type too. Going to keep up the Kalmbach seeing as how they're loving it.

 

[AbbieP]

Has any one fed their mixed flock black soldier fly larvae? I have two ducks right now a drake and a hen. My hen does great with her laying but I've noticed some eggs are soft not many and I feed her layer pellets but she really isn't keen to them. But I also have to keep her separated from the drake so he doesn't eat them. Anyways I bought some soldier worms for her to try and I wanted to make sure they won't harm him if he gets a few bc they say on the bag good protein and calcium for egg laying. If anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it. We only have two bx we don't have a big area and we don't need an abundance of eggs. Just enough for my family.