Correct Chicken/Duck Food

[Angie Lew]

Hello
Thank you for the Welcomes to this group.
Please bare with me as I am new to this group and still finding my away around. I need help with determining what food is appropriate for my chickens and ducks. They are 4 1/2 months old and unfortunately, my local feed store gave me wrong info. Therefor one of my ducks was Niacin deficient and is slightly lame in one leg. I don't trust them anymore.
Can someone tell me what I should currently have them on ? They are no longer on starter/medicated but a regular Purina food for both. Should I be putting them on a layer feed ? I am also currently adding the crushed oyster shells to their diets.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello
Thank you for the Welcomes to this group.
Please bare with me as I am new to this group and still finding my away around. I need help with determining what food is appropriate for my chickens and ducks. They are 4 1/2 months old and unfortunately, my local feed store gave me wrong info. Therefor one of my ducks was Niacin deficient and is slightly lame in one leg. I don't trust them anymore.
Can someone tell me what I should currently have them on ? They are no longer on starter/medicated but a regular Purina food for both. Should I be putting them on a layer feed ? I am also currently adding the crushed oyster shells to their diets.

Don't add oyster shell to the feed. Put it out in separate containers.
Flock Raiser is an appropriate feed for both species.
Are you housing them together?

 

[Angie Lew]

Don't add oyster shell to the feed. Put it out in separate containers.
Flock Raiser is an appropriate feed for both species.
Are you housing them together?

Thank you for responding.
No, they are not housed together as I was told they have different needs. Ducks are in a stahl in the barn and chickens have a coop away from the barn. Again, my feed store told me I needed to add the oyster shells for proper digestion. and to mix with their food. I will add to separate container. The measurement is not easy to figure out.

 

[Angie Lew]

Thank you for responding.
No, they are not housed together as I was told they have different needs. Ducks are in a stahl in the barn and chickens have a coop away from the barn. Again, my feed store told me I needed to add the oyster shells for proper digestion. and to mix with their food. I will add to separate container. The measurement is not easy to figure out.

Also, I was told to only give it to them once a week ?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

As @DobieLover has said, an "All Flock" or "Flock Raiser" type feed, with free choice oyster shell on the side is appropriate. Look for the nutritional label on the bag, and its listing of Niacin. If it doesn't appear, look on the ingredients list for niacin suppliment, B3 suppliment, or the addition of yeast. Ducks need about twice the niacin a chicken does, so comparing labels makes it pretty easy to determine which feeds are niacin enriched, which arent. Nutrena's All Flock, which I've had success with, is 125 ppm Niacin, for reference. Purina's "Flock Raiser" is also Niacin enriched.

If you have no good options, you can suppliment Niacin (vit B3) by adding Brewer's Yeast - about 1/4 tsp per gallon of water. You may also be able to use Nutritional Yeast from the grocery store, its often "enriched", check the label.

Do be aware that if you are using Nutritional or brewers Yeast and it has B1, that can counteract the protective effects of feeds medicated with Amprolium.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you for responding.
No, they are not housed together as I was told they have different needs. Ducks are in a stahl in the barn and chickens have a coop away from the barn. Again, my feed store told me I needed to add the oyster shells for proper digestion. and to mix with their food. I will add to separate container. The measurement is not easy to figure out.

Your feed store is ignorant. Thank you for asking here. You should likely avoid the feed store's advice in the future. We aren't here to seell you anything, and in the main, are persons like yourself interested in healthy flocks who are happy to share our experiences - what worked, and what didn't.

Mixing oyster shell in can easily result in a bird consuming too much calcium, which can be as bad for them as too little, even for layers. It is definitely bad long term for roosters, and for pre-laying hens. and your ducks, who likely won't lay until they are around 7 months old or so.

Here is a post from yesterday you might find helpful. There is a lot of bad advice out there from people whohaven't done the research, and made assumptions based on advertising claims, labels, and "the knowledge of the crowd".

 

[Angie Lew]

As @DobieLover has said, an "All Flock" or "Flock Raiser" type feed, with free choice oyster shell on the side is appropriate. Look for the nutritional label on the bag, and its listing of Niacin. If it doesn't appear, look on the ingredients list for niacin suppliment, B3 suppliment, or the addition of yeast. Ducks need about twice the niacin a chicken does, so comparing labels makes it pretty easy to determine which feeds are niacin enriched, which arent. Nutrena's All Flock, which I've had success with, is 125 ppm Niacin, for reference. Purina's "Flock Raiser" is also Niacin enriched.

If you have no good options, you can suppliment Niacin (vit B3) by adding Brewer's Yeast - about 1/4 tsp per gallon of water. You may also be able to use Nutritional Yeast from the grocery store, its often "enriched", check the label.

Do be aware that if you are using Nutritional or brewers Yeast and it has B1, that can counteract the protective effects of feeds medicated with Amprolium.

Thank you so Much for the info

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I had a wry neck duck from likely niacin deficiency I hatched back in April. Learned the hard way. Have been doing lots of feed research since.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I use a flock feed for my ducks and chickens. Some ducks just need more niacin than what feeds provide. So, when they are growing, I add nutritional yeast to the feed. It won't harm the chickens if they eat it.
Instead of adding oyster shell to the feed, offer it on the side. The ones that need it will pick at it.

 

[Bitofablonde]

I house my ducks and chickens together, as I know others here on BYC do as well.

I was feeding the Purina all flock, but I switched all the girls to the Nutrena All flock and seem to be having better success. Oyster shell on the side for those that are laying.

Pretty much everyone is laying at this point (about 20 weeks old) ducks are my hold outs and at least one of the hens lol. But beside a few soft shell eggs in the beginning (not uncommon) everyone's eggs are just beautiful! Solid thick hard shells and many double yokers

Definitely recommend the Nutrena all Flock food! Plus then you aren't buying multiple foods for both sets of birds