Do I feed my female duck differently than my male ducks?

[jennytg3]

Hi! My 4.5 month old female duck is displaying mating behavior and is now mating with her brothers. I started adding free choice oyster shell and have been feeding them a maintenance ration of Albers waterfowl food with 16% protein.

Do I need to feed the female a layer feed or something different than maintenance? Or just feed her other protein sources like minnows or good quality cat food?

Also, is now the time I should make sure they have 14 hours of light, or should I wait a couple of weeks?

Thank you!

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
The maintenance ration with oyster Shell should do it. Why do you want them to have 14 hours of light are they confined indoors where natural light can't reach them? Check a decent weather source which will give sunrise and sunset times and start the 14 hours about the day that the natural light will fall to that.

 

[jennytg3]

Thank you so much for the info, I appreciate it! No, they are free range in my back yard. I just never paid attention to how long the daylight was. I will start!