Duck/Chicken Feed for People With Celiac and NCGS?

[sierraforest]

Does anyone know of farms/companies on the West Coast that sell duck feed without wheat, rye, or barley, or soy? I know of New Country Organics and Reedy Fork Organic Farm, but both of those eastern suppliers charge an arm and a leg for shipping (I'm in Oregon). We put a mix together ourselves but are losing access to one supplier of one ingredient and would love to make life a little easier by buying something already finished.

 

[Ratchnick]

If there is a feed mill in your area they can do a custom feed.

 

[sierraforest]

If there is a feed mill in your area they can do a custom feed.

We've gone down this route and unfortunately, there are no mills with dedicated GF equipment that are willing to do a mix for us. It's a good suggestion though.

 

[416bigbore]

Does anyone know of farms/companies on the West Coast that sell duck feed without wheat, rye, or barley, or soy? I know of New Country Organics and Reedy Fork Organic Farm, but both of those eastern suppliers charge an arm and a leg for shipping (I'm in Oregon). We put a mix together ourselves but are losing access to one supplier of one ingredient and would love to make life a little easier by buying something already finished.

Would you be willing to share your mix recipe that you use ? Why no wheat or barley in your mix? I mill my own feed and was just curious is all. Thank you

 

[sierraforest]

Would you be willing to share your mix recipe that you use ? Why no wheat or barley in your mix? I mill my own feed and was just curious is all. Thank you

Not at all, I'm pasting it down below. They ducks free range all day and we give them veggie and fruit scraps.

I have celiac disease and I have food and environmental allergies, plus a close relative has an autoimmune disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity (affected by gluten topically and internally), and I react poorly to eggs from chickens or ducks that ate gluten-containing grains. I also can't eat chicken meat (my personal preference is to avoid duck meat) if the chickens were fed gluten grains. There are plenty of folks who are quick to point out that there's no scientific evidence that gluten passes through into eggs or meat but more functional medicine doctors are realizing that for some reason, there are people (like me) who show physical reactions to one or both of those things if a bird's diet contained gluten. I've gone through years of a range of tests, including elimination diets, to determine the cause of my reactions and it's gluten. That's one of the biggest reasons why we started keeping a flock of ducks—we could control their diet, and I don't react to their eggs at all.

Primary food mix:
Audubon Park Nature's Blend Premium wild bird feed
Buckwheat seed
Gluten-free oats (which also must have been grown in a field where gluten grains are not)
Nutritional yeast
Flax seed
Kelp and/or fish meal
Herbs
Fresh and dried berries
Probios Dispersible Powder
Alfalfa meal
Diatomaceous earth

 

[416bigbore]

Not at all, I'm pasting it down below. They ducks free range all day and we give them veggie and fruit scraps.

I have celiac disease and I have food and environmental allergies, plus a close relative has an autoimmune disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity (affected by gluten topically and internally), and I react poorly to eggs from chickens or ducks that ate gluten-containing grains. I also can't eat chicken meat (my personal preference is to avoid duck meat) if the chickens were fed gluten grains. There are plenty of folks who are quick to point out that there's no scientific evidence that gluten passes through into eggs or meat but more functional medicine doctors are realizing that for some reason, there are people (like me) who show physical reactions to one or both of those things if a bird's diet contained gluten. I've gone through years of a range of tests, including elimination diets, to determine the cause of my reactions and it's gluten. That's one of the biggest reasons why we started keeping a flock of ducks—we could control their diet, and I don't react to their eggs at all.

Primary food mix:
Audubon Park Nature's Blend Premium wild bird feed
Buckwheat seed
Gluten-free oats (which also must have been grown in a field where gluten grains are not)
Nutritional yeast
Flax seed
Kelp and/or fish meal
Herbs
Fresh and dried berries
Probios Dispersible Powder
Alfalfa meal
Diatomaceous earth

Thanks for sharing. That's great news ! Have you heard of or do you know of others with your similar health condition and this is working for them also ?

 

[Ratchnick]

I think you will have to mix your own, or order a huge amount. Your feed mix sounds very expensive but i can see why you would do it. Is corn ok?

 

[sierraforest]

Thanks for sharing. That's great news ! Have you heard of or do you know of others with your similar health condition and this is working for them also ?

Happy to! I personally don't know anyone who mixes a feed that's gluten free (and soy and corn free) for their ducks or chickens, but I've read blogs by folks who do and of course there are the two companies in my original post who sell gluten and soy free (but not corn free) mixes. We sell our excess duck eggs to people who have the same issues with gluten and they've reported being totally fine on our eggs, whereas they can't eat eggs from birds fed gluten-containing grains.

 

[sierraforest]

I think you will have to mix your own, or order a huge amount. Your feed mix sounds very expensive but i can see why you would do it. Is corn ok?

I really should do a cost breakdown of making our own mix so I can say definitively whether or not it's more expensive than buying a feed...based on quick math in my head, I think it is, sadly. But I'd rather be able to eat eggs than not. Corn is interesting—it's fine in my particular situation, but the relative I mentioned earlier and a few friends can't tolerate it, which is why we don't feed that to the ducks either.

 

[Ratchnick]

Stories guide has some feed recipes in the back, none of the recipies are soy free but i think you can substitute meat meal to hit the protein requirement the most basic recipie is a holding ration which includes

Milo
Soy (sub for meat meal)
Alfalfa
Brewers yeaat
Oyster shell
Dicalcium phosphate
Salt