Can ducks eat cat food ?

[SolarDuck]

I had a light on 24/7 at first too, it was pretty dim but my ducks actually started laying about 1 week after I removed it from the coop.

 

[FernbergFarms]

@Dottie the Chicken i am only housing 3 ducks in there right now. It is not too cold. The walls are made of wood beams and chicken wire. We covered them with plastic and old windows for the winter

I just turned the light off. I have 3 2 month old ducklings (they actually are almost full size) how should I introduce them to the other 3? I’m worried about the drakes going at the drake babies... sorry this is a little off topic but it would be nice to have them join each other soon.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Oh boy! - Lot's of issues here:

1. The ducks need at least a short break during the height of winter. It does not make any sense for birds to lay eggs when it is too cold to raise chicks. Forcing them into egg laying by feeding additional protein and artificial light will make your hens age quicker.
2. Yes, feeding cat-food to ducks is very likely to trigger egg-production in conjunction with the days getting longer or artificial light.
3. Artificial light: Can you sleep with the lights on? Most humons cannot and it is the same with ducks. I had a really hard time to convince my first ducks, who grew up under 24 hours of artificial light that there's light's off during the night. Even today, they are three years old by now they sometimes panic when we have a power outage during the night and until our generator kicks in.
4. Grown up ducks do not need additional warmth in their house! - Unless you live far inland and north of the arctic circle. My ducks can go into their open run at anytime during the night and i have some girls consistently sleeping well "outside" , even in the nastiest of snow-shower. Ducks have built-in down jackets!
5. A duck-house needs good ventilation! Ducks are waterfowl and emit gallons of water(vapor) every day through their breath and their excretion. If that water is not ventilated away, your duck-house will turn into an ammonia producing chemical plant!
   Ventilation! - Not draft! Ducks can become hypothermic if they can't get out of drafts! (Except for some of my crazy outdoor-sleeper ducks )

To the main topic, the cat food: In December last year my 40 ducks consumed 60lbs of cat foot as a treat, as additional protein to help re-grow feathers after molt (Yes, feathers are protein!) and to support egg-laying! That is 1.5lbs (680grams) per duck per month or about 22 grams of cat-food per day as the theoretical average. Theoretical because i have some gluttons who claim much more of the treasure for themselves and i have 11 drakes who rarely grab a kibble.
However their main source of food are calcium- and protein-rich layer-pellets with 20% protein from a local feed-mill. They have access to their pellets 24x7x365 as well as access to crushed oyster-shells and unlimited fresh water.
During the warm season, when insects are plentiful, the cat food consumption dramatically sinks to ½ of what they eat in Winter, it seems grasshoppers, crickets and spiders still taste better than "fast-food".

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@Dottie the Chicken i am only housing 3 ducks in there right now. It is not too cold. The walls are made of wood beams and chicken wire. We covered them with plastic and old windows for the winter

I just turned the light off. I have 3 2 month old ducklings (they actually are almost full size) how should I introduce them to the other 3? I’m worried about the drakes going at the drake babies... sorry this is a little off topic but it would be nice to have them join each other soon.

Depending how aggressive your drakes are, three "old" plus three 'new" ducks could just fight it out. How many drakes and how many ducks do you have?

 

[Pollo Blanco]

Get a reptile heater to replace the light bulb in your fixture.

 

[FernbergFarms]

My ducks have very good ventilation and they can go in their run as much as they want.
So my ratio of drakes and hens are terrible so I have 4 drakes and 2 hens.. but I have 2 coops. So my plan is to keep the boys in the coop the big ducks are in and the girls in the coop the little ducks are in (our old chicken coop). Thats why I’d like to introduce the little boys and the big boys so I can move out the big girl into her own hen house with her other lady friend. So that when spring comes I’m not finding my hens in bad health.
I hope that makes sense.

 

[FernbergFarms]

My drakes aren’t aggressive at all just my older Kkaki Campbell Drake likes his gal

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I would just give it a try and see how they react to the new ducks. At two months old, they are young ducks and no ducklings anymore.

 

[FernbergFarms]

Should I keep them all in a pen together? I’m afraid if I let the young ducks free range right now they won’t know how to get back. I let my duck walk around outside once and she ran off (I did get her back) she was probably a month old when this happened. I’ve introduced all the ducks before just between chicken wire and me holding them and the big ducks were exitedand the little duck was shaking (this was 2 weeks ago)

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Should I keep them all in a pen together? I’m afraid if I let the young ducks free range right now they won’t know how to get back. I let my duck walk around outside once and she ran off (I did get her back) she was probably a month old when this happened. I’ve introduced all the ducks before just between chicken wire and me holding them and the big ducks were exitedand the little duck was shaking (this was 2 weeks ago)

Sure you should have an area fenced off for the ducks until they have accepted their house as "home". Once they got used to sleep in their house overnight they may wander around (my ducks do that) but will come back when it gets dark.