Curious duck neighbour

[Melissa56]

Hi folks. Just a little curious about me neighbours ducks. He has 5 ducks and it seems that the only get one bag of frozen peas per day and was wondering if that's enough

 

[dotknott]

What kind of ducks? My inclination is to say no, but if they free range they may be getting all they need.
It is certainly enough peas.

 

[Melissa56]

3 Kaki Campbell's and two large white ducks. They have a small garden but doesn't seem to be much there

 

[dotknott]

The white ones are likely pekins (less likely aylesbury)

You may be surprised at how much they can find, though generally you want to offer something for days where foraging is sparse.

Peas are great motivators for ducks, and are often used to get ducks used to humans, but they are far from being a complete diet. If forage was good my 6 will only eat a a cup of food a day combined. If the ground is frozen that goes way up.

There was a time when I was going through a bag of peas a day, but I had 21 adolescent ducklings at that point plus a few adults.

 

[dotknott]

Cost is a great motivator. See if you can find out how much a bag of feed is locally.

I think I pay $13/50lbs which will last me 3 weeks if there's lots of snow / below freezing weather. Compared to peas which cost $1/bag. It would be $21 worth of peas for the same 3 weeks.

That said even if you got him to make the switch the duck are gonna be ****** immediately, and it'll take a few day to get them eating duck chow.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Melissa56 What part of the country are you in? if in the south where there are still lots of bugs and worms and greens stuff growing they maybe okay. But if you in the part like most of us where the ground is frozen and everything is dormant those poor ducks are suffering. Maybe you can kindly print out some info On how to care and feed ducks especially over winter months. Even if i lived where there was forage all year round for my ducks and flock I'd still put out feed for them since I feel my layers need the nutrition.

Bless you for caring and Welcome to BYC.. if you go to top of the page you'll see the learning center you might find some good info there.

• Introduction to Keeping Ducks
• How To Raise Ducks For Meat, Eggs, Companions
• Incubating & Hatching Muscovy Eggs
• Raising Ducklings To Ducks
• Duckling Care & Brooder Ideas
• Duckling Care and the Ancona Breed

• Keeping Muscovy Ducks
• Common Muscovy Health Problems
• Foot and Leg Problems in Waterfowl - Niacin Deficiency
• Ducks in the Garden
• The Process of Raising Waterfowl: Selection, Incubation, Brooding, and Sexing
• Waterfowl Housing – Coop & Run Designs & Plans For Ducks, Geese, Etc.

 

[3 Dozen a Week]

Hello
I'm not on here much, but I happened to see this and I could not resist answering...pardon me if I seem a bit defensive.
Do the ducks look healthy?
I think it might be best if you went over (assuming you are on good terms) and told them how much you truly enjoy watching the ducks
(if you really do...) and asked them out of genuine concern, not questioning or interrogating, about how they are caring for their ducks.
Assuming things is not a good idea. You might find out that they are doing more than it seems.

 

[buff goose guy]

@Melissa56 What part of the country are you in? if in the south where there are still lots of bugs and worms and greens stuff growing they maybe okay. But if you in the part like most of us where the ground is frozen and everything is dormant those poor ducks are suffering. Maybe you can kindly print out some info On how to care and feed ducks especially over winter months. Even if i lived where there was forage all year round for my ducks and flock I'd still put out feed for them since I feel my layers need the nutrition.

Bless you for caring and Welcome to BYC.. if you go to top of the page you'll see the learning center you might find some good info there.

• Introduction to Keeping Ducks
• How To Raise Ducks For Meat, Eggs, Companions
• Incubating & Hatching Muscovy Eggs
• Raising Ducklings To Ducks
• Duckling Care & Brooder Ideas
• Duckling Care and the Ancona Breed

• Keeping Muscovy Ducks
• Common Muscovy Health Problems
• Foot and Leg Problems in Waterfowl - Niacin Deficiency
• Ducks in the Garden
• The Process of Raising Waterfowl: Selection, Incubation, Brooding, and Sexing
• Waterfowl Housing – Coop & Run Designs & Plans For Ducks, Geese, Etc.

Lol,

nothing is growing, it's all dead just like your stuff, just not covered in snow. So bugs and mud are still a constant.

Literally yalls amount of snow is our amount of mud, after some heavy rain we have no more grass because its dead from the cold as well.

(yes we do have winter grass but its like little tiny talks that is much more of like a patch of moss (like height wise) until spring when it will grow then die in the summer.

)

~~~~~~~

Your neighbors ducks might be alright, but i would feed my ducks more than that.

 

[Pendergast]

This post seems a bit like trolling, but I'll bite. I have to agree with others that he may be doing more for those ducks than you know unless you're watching his yard 24/7. Forage is still good here (in blustery central Florida), though it is pretty muddy, and we go through a 50lb bag of layer feed in 3-4 weeks. They may really be getting what they need foraging, and your neighbor considers the peas a form of supplemental niacin.

 

[dotknott]

Based on time of posting and language used I was going to assume the poster was from the UK, not the U.S. I'm not sure that matters when it comes to how much a duck needs to eat, but it may make a difference when it comes to forage availability.