Angel Wing Explanations Here Please

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Quote:
My business model due to my LGD in training was to confine the ducklings until five weeks of age. Then they were allowed access to the fenced pasture with 24% protein mash provided 24/7, and recently have been allowed unrestricted access to the four acre pond.

I am a proponent of no particular theory because it hasn't affected my business model any. I slaughter my Pekins beginning at seven weeks, and my muscovies beginning at twelve weeks. Seven pekins, eight wild mallards, and ten white muscovies out of my recent batch have been retained as breeders for next year. None of this group has shown angel wing, and they are all fully feathered with a minimum age of twelve weeks.

edited due to grammer

 

[CityChicker]

That seems to be the experience of a lot of people here, myself included- when they have access to forage and a decent amount of exercise, they typically do well. Is your feed the Manna-Pro 24%? If so, I have used that before as have others here. I had a few minor issues with it (not Angel wing), but only after I had raised 30-40 ducklings on it and only a few birds in the bantam breeds. Overall, my birds did pretty well on it and of course, the couple of issues we saw when feeding it several years ago might have been completely unrelated to the feed and were only a couple of birds out of several dozen. At the time, I remember asking Holderread's about the issues (roached back in BEI's) and they seemed to think it was the protein level in the feed, but take that for what its worth. Thinking something is the cause does not necessarily make it so and 99% of our birds did beautifully on it.

Anyway, my thought on Angel wing is that there are probably multiple factors involved in a bird developing it, but it is something we virtually never see in our flock.

 

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Quote:
My 24% protein feed was a feed mill house blend:

Corn 1150 pounds
Soy 600 pounds
Country Acres Poultry Blend 250 pounds

Two weeks I switched to this 17% protein blend:

Country Acres Poultry Blend 515 lbs
Ground Corn 1445 lbs
Calcium Carbonate 10 lbs
Dicalcium Phosphate 30 lbs

 

[Wifezilla]

As far as I can see the Carbohydrate theory has few backers and references to the wild seem to be based on the miss conception that ducks don't eat carbohydrates in the wild.

I am one of the few backers. My theory is based on the fact that waterfowl do not eat REFINED carbohydrates in the wild. The carbohydrates they do get in early spring during that fast developmental phase aren't coming from grains. Their primary food in spring is invertebrates and aquatic plants. Sure some seeds and grains may be available, but not in any great qty at that time of year. The fact that they will eat grains and seeds available in fall well after they are feathered out and past the risk of developing angel wing really isn't relevant.

Operating on this theory, I feed 24% protein game bird feed and make sure my ducks have plenty of greens.​

 

[deanna&rich]

[email protected] :

Wow. My girls are free range but almost every day I give them a slice or two or white bread. (5 hens) It's their favorite thing. Should I stop that?

Cndula, white bread has very little nutrition of any kind. The bran and the germ of the wheat has been removed (that's the difference between "white" and "whole wheat" bread. Personally, I wouldn't feed it to any of my animals and not eat it myself either ... none of us need to fill up on empty calories.​