Can ducklings eat medicated chick starter feed?

[1234duck]

The medicated chick starter is fine for both baby chickens and ducklings.. as Oregon Blues said in the post, a longggg time ago it wasn't good but its fine now. I also use it and have no problems. Good luck with your little ones, ~Julie~

 

[Oregon Blues]

If you are worried about medicated, just check the label to make sure the medication is amprolium. It's actually vitamin based. It's not an antibiotic. It's to control cocidia, which can kill your ducklings really quickly with dehydration from diarrhea. So it is very worth it to me to play it safe and use the medicated feed especially for shipped birds. No matter how fast the shipping, the shipped ducklings have been stressed and that lowers their resistance.

Home raised ducklings, hatched and raised by their mother, get some immunity from the mother (by nibbling her poop).

 

[AlabamaChickenLady]

I was told not to on here (BYC) but the folks at the local feed store said it was fine to use it. There was even a pic of a baby chicks & ducklings on the bag. So we used it and had no problems at all.

 

[newlyduckmom123]

I am using Manna Pro Medicated Chick feed for my ducks. We decided to give to all three ducks because our smallest one is having a niacin defiency. She is doing much better than Wednesday. I am hoping that this will continue to help all of them!

Tori

 

[EJPedrazzi]

Personally I don't use medicated feed for the ducks, after doing my research on here (and having a duckling with niaicin deficiency from just feeding her chick food) I switched to flock starter or waterfowl feed. If you do use chick starter, just be sure to add niacin. There's a bunch of information on this site about it - how to add it, complications if you don't add it etc.

 

[newlyduckmom123]

EJ,

We added Niacin to the water and have been feeding them starter medicated chick food. So far there have been improvements. I put the littlest one in the bathtub last night and it was freaking out. I am doing the bandaid trick on and off today to give it a break. I am afraid she might have these leg problems forever but I am going to engineer something to help her. the sweet little duckling is well taken care of. The other two are always energetic and hanging out together. I can't be happier.

Tori

 

[mamaduck143]

Regarding medicated chick feed and my now 7week old ducklings. I did notice my boy duck started having leg problems ( sit down all the time, and legs warm to touch) they too only had medicated chick feed. One I've added Cheerios as a treat for the last week, he's improved. The niacin in Cheerios has helped him. I've also added sunflower seeds, raspberries, brewers yeast, and organic salad spring mix.
My question is regarding the new Blue Brand organic walnut shell cat litter that my cuties dove head first into (I had just changed it, whew) I've read everything I can about it. It states organically and ergonomic to the environment. Is it beneficial to ducklings? I had to pull them away from it.....

 

[LilValleyRanch]

Is the same Chich starter ok for Baby Geese too?? Mine is MannaPro medicated too and it IS the Amprollium.. My Ducklings did fine with it ... Don't Geese eat the same thing?

 

[poultry bro]

I have been doing a lot of research lately and want to know if niacin deficiency is always fatal.

 

[LilyD]

I have both at my feed store but I tend to feed a gamebird starter for all my birds including my chicks. It is 20% protein and does well for the chicks but it also has extra niacin in it for the ducks. Once they are 4 or 5 weeks I switch them to a chick grower with less protein until they are ready to start laying then they go onto a layer pellet with all the adult chickens and ducks. So far everyone has done fine with no leg issues or any other health issues for that matter.