Duckling diet advise!

[Muscoveyman]

Tomorrow I'll be buying two Aylesbury ducklings they are three weeks old,I have a bag of unmediated chick starter crumb and was wondering if I should feed them on this because they are a meat breed and grow larger than other ducks? I know they need extra niacin and I can supplement that. I'm in Ireland and for some reason growers pellets for ducks are hard to come across! At the moment I have two call ducks and three muscoveys and they are on wheat and free ranging and there doing fine so would mixing the crumb and wheat 50/50 be a good option? Any help is appreciated!

 

[Carcajou]

Muscoveyman,

You can feed Purina Flockraiser or equivalent for the life span of your ducks. The niacin and calcium are in okay proportions. I would recommend a regular duck pellet ration.

Here is a gook link from this forum site: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/750869/raising-and-caring-for-ducklings

 

[Muscoveyman]

Muscoveyman,

You can feed Purina Flockraiser or equivalent for the life span of your ducks.  The niacin and calcium are in okay proportions.  I would recommend a regular duck pellet ration.

Here is a gook link from this forum site: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/750869/raising-and-caring-for-ducklings

There none of that available where I am, there's just the starter crumb so could I mix this with wheat to equal out the protein intake or will just the starter crumb be ok for a week or two until I can source some growers pellets?

 

[mara DuckMom]

I had my ducklings on an unmedicated starter that was 18% protein until they were about 4 weeks old. I know a lot of people keep their ducklings on starter feed with 18% or higher protein for longer than that with no issues. I personally wanted to lower the protein level at 4 weeks based on the recommendations in Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. If you go on the metzer farms website there's a calculator to help you figure out how much of different feeds to mix to get you the level of protein you're going for. It also has a table of other things you can mix in to adjust protein levels, such as oats. From what I've read, a lot of people mix in oats with their feed to lower the protein content. Hope this helps!

 

[Muscoveyman]

I had my ducklings on an unmedicated starter that was 18% protein until they were about 4 weeks old. I know a lot of people keep their ducklings on starter feed with 18% or higher protein for longer than that with no issues. I personally wanted to lower the protein level at 4 weeks based on the recommendations in Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. If you go on the metzer farms website there's a calculator to help you figure out how much of different feeds to mix to get you the level of protein you're going for. It also has a table of other things you can mix in to adjust protein levels, such as oats. From what I've read, a lot of people mix in oats with their feed to lower the protein content. Hope this helps!

Thank you! My feed is 20% so it definitely needs a bit of lowering I usually use it for quail but I'm sure the ducklings will be ok for a week!

 

[mara DuckMom]

no problem! Oh yeah I'm sure the ducklings will be fine on that feed for a week. Good luck with your new babies!

 

[Muscoveyman]

Thank you for recommending the site I managed to make my own 17% protein feed out of wheat and starter crumb!

 

[Carcajou]

I had my ducklings on an unmedicated starter that was 18% protein until they were about 4 weeks old. I know a lot of people keep their ducklings on starter feed with 18% or higher protein for longer than that with no issues. I personally wanted to lower the protein level at 4 weeks based on the recommendations in Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. If you go on the metzer farms website there's a calculator to help you figure out how much of different feeds to mix to get you the level of protein you're going for. It also has a table of other things you can mix in to adjust protein levels, such as oats. From what I've read, a lot of people mix in oats with their feed to lower the protein content. Hope this helps!

Great advice!

 

[mara DuckMom]

you're welcome, that's great! Glad I could help! That website was a big help to me when I was trying to lower the protein levels of the starter feed, I'm happy to pass along the info

 

[Muscoveyman]

Wheat is ok for young ducklings isn't it? :/ I suppose I'd need to offer sand as a grit as well?