Choking on feed

[MallardDuckling]

At night, I lock up my duckings and they don't have food while they are locked up.
When I go to let them out in the morning they go straight to the feed bowl and start chowing down. My only concern is that they are so hungry that they start to cough or make choking sounds. I've tried to put just a handful of feed in there at a time till they slow down on their food intake, but it hasn't been working. I'm really concerned, I don't want them to be so worried about eating that they choke.

 

[zooweemama]

At night, I lock up my duckings and they don't have food while they are locked up.
When I go to let them out in the morning they go straight to the feed bowl and start chowing down. My only concern is that they are so hungry that they start to cough or make choking sounds. I've tried to put just a handful of feed in there at a time till they slow down on their food intake, but it hasn't been working. I'm really concerned, I don't want them to be so worried about eating that they choke.

Mine do this at mealtimes all the time. My ducks (14 of them) are housed at night. I put them up at 9pm. When they come up to the coop- they have supper in their coop and there is water in there. In the morning we let them out to the pond (we do not feed them at this time- they usually have a little food leftover from the previous night so they have eaten something that morning). Around 2pm I bring out 'lunch'. They know it's lunch too. They quack up a storm as they all run out of the pond to the feeder. Despite there being water nearby - they gobble gobble gobble and sometimes you here the dry cough of one trying to shove dry food down. There is water there and I have to trust they will go get a drink if they need it. And eventually they all do when they want one.

Are you placing fresh clean water nearby so they can drink water and help push the food down? How old are the ducklings? I think most people don't start withholding food at night until they get their feathers (someone can come along and correct me on this though!). How soon before you lock them up for the night do you feed them?

 

[MallardDuckling]

They do have water nearby at all times.

For now, since I'm just working on their enclosure, I have made a small one out of very large dog cages. Since they don't have a lot of space to forage, I provide them crumble at all times, to make sure they do have some food. Usually they will bounce between eating bugs and crumble throughout the day. They have food up until 9 PM when they get put up.

They are a few days over 7 weeks old. They will be 8 weeks this coming Sat.

 

[Amiga]

At night, I lock up my duckings and they don't have food while they are locked up.
When I go to let them out in the morning they go straight to the feed bowl and start chowing down. My only concern is that they are so hungry that they start to cough or make choking sounds. I've tried to put just a handful of feed in there at a time till they slow down on their food intake, but it hasn't been working. I'm really concerned, I don't want them to be so worried about eating that they choke.

How old are they? It is best to keep feed with water before them for the first six to eight weeks or so 24/7. If they are older than that, eight hours without food is about all I would feel comfortable with.