4 weeks old Cayuga not growing much

[Bridger Davis]

Bacon? that is one thing you need to not feed way to much sodium. Try tuna or salmon.

They just don't speak the same language. lol

X2. Also, ducks can't even digest bacon so it basically slips right through them..

 

[Pyxis]

X2. Also, ducks can't even digest bacon so it basically slips right through them..

Out of curiosity, do you have a source on this that I could read up on? They can digest frogs, tuna, slugs, bugs, whole fish bones and all, so I'm just wondering why they couldn't digest bacon specifically.

Definitely not a good thing to feed them either way, of course!

 

[Bridger Davis]

Out of curiosity, do you have a source on this that I could read up on? They can digest frogs, tuna, slugs, bugs, whole fish bones and all, so I'm just wondering why they couldn't digest bacon specifically.

Definitely not a good thing to feed them either way, of course!

A book called 5 pounds of chocolate: A lifetime of true stories and tales by Jack Passerello. If you can find it at your library, page 182 gives insight to the topic of ducks and bacon. During the Great Depression, people needed to get food with very limited material. Therefore, they would tie a piece of bacon onto a string and allow a wild duck to eat the bacon thinking it was a worm or a slug. The book says because a duck or a goose does not have the ability to digest this bacon strip, it will pass through its body very quickly. Then, after the duck has "Passed" the strip of bacon through its system still attached to the string, another duck sees the bacon and so on. The book says that not long after that, there may be a whole string of ducks.... Cruel, but effective for those people that needed food back then. So there you have it. That's were I got my info.

 

[Pyxis]

A book called 5 pounds of chocolate: A lifetime of true stories and tales by Jack Passerello. If you can find it at your library, page 182 gives insight to the topic of ducks and bacon. During the Great Depression, people needed to get food with very limited material. Therefore, they would tie a piece of bacon onto a string and allow a wild duck to eat the bacon thinking it was a worm or a slug. The book says because a duck or a goose does not have the ability to digest this bacon strip, it will pass through its body very quickly. Then, after the duck has "Passed" the strip of bacon through its system still attached to the string, another duck sees the bacon and so on. The book says that not long after that, there may be a whole string of ducks.... Cruel, but effective for those people that needed food back then. So there you have it. That's were I got my info.

I think that may be an old wive's tale. A duck's digestive system is about five feet long, so that would have to be a pretty long string, and it would have to make it through the esophagus, proventriculus, gizzard, then wind its way through the small intestine and large intestine, and finally exit the cloaca, and then somehow it would have to just keep passing through so that enough of it came out of the duck far enough to allow the next duck to grab it and pass it through its digestive system, and then rinse and repeat. And, both the string and the bacon would have to survive the pepsin, hydrochloric acid, and various enzymes the bird's digestive system secretes to digest food (which includes gastric lipase, which is an enzyme that breaks down fats).

Easy enough to test though. Feed a duck a small piece of bacon, isolate it where you can easily examine its poop, and watch it for a couple hours. I may just do that, in fact, since now I want to know.

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[Bridger Davis]

I think that may be an old wive's tale. A duck's digestive system is about five feet long, so that would have to be a pretty long string, and it would have to make it through the esophagus, proventriculus, gizzard, then wind its way through the small intestine and large intestine, and finally exit the cloaca, and then somehow it would have to just keep passing through so that enough of it came out of the duck far enough to allow the next duck to grab it and pass it through its digestive system, and then rinse and repeat. And, both the string and the bacon would have to survive the pepsin, hydrochloric acid, and various enzymes the bird's digestive system secretes to digest food (which includes gastric lipase, which is an enzyme that breaks down fats).

Easy enough to test though. Feed a duck a small piece of bacon, isolate it where you can easily examine its poop, and watch it for a couple hours. I may just do that, in fact, since now I want to know.

Let me know what you find out! With pictures so @casportpony can have a look! Anyways, I only believed it because it was from a primary source. Well experiments are always best, right?

 

[Ravynscroft]

That just sounds like one of those, "Walked to school every day, 20 miles, barefoot, through 5 feet of snow and uphill both ways!"

 

[Bridger Davis]

I think that may be an old wive's tale. A duck's digestive system is about five feet long, so that would have to be a pretty long string, and it would have to make it through the esophagus, proventriculus, gizzard, then wind its way through the small intestine and large intestine, and finally exit the cloaca, and then somehow it would have to just keep passing through so that enough of it came out of the duck far enough to allow the next duck to grab it and pass it through its digestive system, and then rinse and repeat. And, both the string and the bacon would have to survive the pepsin, hydrochloric acid, and various enzymes the bird's digestive system secretes to digest food (which includes gastric lipase, which is an enzyme that breaks down fats).

Easy enough to test though. Feed a duck a small piece of bacon, isolate it where you can easily examine its poop, and watch it for a couple hours. I may just do that, in fact, since now I want to know.

When you do your experiment though, try it without the string!

 

[shawluvsbirds]

@Chi Sorry I'm late. . glad your duck
Is doing better! Sounds like you've gotten things under control.
I didn't read every page. . so apologies if this has already been posted but here is a good list of foods and treats for your duck along with things to avoid. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-ultimate-list-of-duck-treats-and-supplements.242460/

 

[kwhites634]

That just sounds like one of those, "Walked to school every day, 20 miles, barefoot, through 5 feet of snow and uphill both ways!"

HEY! It was only 5 miles