Duckies Favorite Treats?!

[Miss Lydia]

Mines favorite of all is dried mealworms, next would be romaine lettuce, dry dog food [salmon and pea] tomatoes homegrown.

 

[KaleIAm]

My ducks are also obsessed with tomatoes and mealworms. Also anything creepy crawly, worms, slugs, rolly pollies, spiders, and shiny black beetles. All bugs that aren't fuzzy are awesome. They also like "floating salads." With all snack foods I keep it to a minimum so they are mostly foraging or eating pellets.

I got 3 of my ducks as incredibly scared adults. It only took a couple months before they were running to me for food, and one even hops into my lap. I made sure they never had a negative (scary) experience with me. I made sure every experience was positive, by throwing them mealworms closer and closer to me until they would eay from my hand/lap. And I spent tons of time with them being still, reading/knitting/ect.

The biggest thing for me was to pay attention to what my ducks didn't like, what scared them, and stop doing it. My ducks didn't like being stared at, so I looked next to them instead. My ducks didn't like being walked directly at, so I walked in big circles around them. My ducks are afraid of ladders, ok - throw mealworms in the barn and close the door if you need to use a ladder, ect.

Good luck!

 

[DuckDuckPromise]

I have one muscovy that loves water melon, the other ducks not so much; they all like defrosted frozen peas; most like cherry tomatoes. My ducks will take off my arm if I am slow to give out mealworms once the ducks have seen/heard/smelt the mealworms! I am going to buy some live mealworms next time I see them at the pet store and see if they like them. So far, I have just given them dried mealworms.

Thank you!! I moved an old dog crate the other day that was close to our Cayugas, and there were at least 50 “grub worms?” I don’t really know what they were... but they looked like pre-dried meal worms! (As gross as that is! ) Anyways, when I moved the crate and walked away, within minutes they cleared up every single “bug” that was wiggling around out there! Maybe yours will do the same to live mealworms!!!

 

[DuckDuckPromise]

Mines favorite of all is dried mealworms, next would be romaine lettuce, dry dog food [salmon and pea] tomatoes homegrown.

Oh cool, I’ve never heard of the dog food! That’s a new one!!

 

[DuckDuckPromise]

My ducks are also obsessed with tomatoes and mealworms. Also anything creepy crawly, worms, slugs, rolly pollies, spiders, and shiny black beetles. All bugs that aren't fuzzy are awesome. They also like "floating salads." With all snack foods I keep it to a minimum so they are mostly foraging or eating pellets.

I got 3 of my ducks as incredibly scared adults. It only took a couple months before they were running to me for food, and one even hops into my lap. I made sure they never had a negative (scary) experience with me. I made sure every experience was positive, by throwing them mealworms closer and closer to me until they would eay from my hand/lap. And I spent tons of time with them being still, reading/knitting/ect.

The biggest thing for me was to pay attention to what my ducks didn't like, what scared them, and stop doing it. My ducks didn't like being stared at, so I looked next to them instead. My ducks didn't like being walked directly at, so I walked in big circles around them. My ducks are afraid of ladders, ok - throw mealworms in the barn and close the door if you need to use a ladder, ect.

Good luck!

That is such good information; I was beginning to wonder if it was possible to have adult duckies love you back! There is hope!!! I will try to pay attention to what they want and what they don’t want! I don’t know how to knit, but I’m sure there’s something I could do to quietly spend time with them! Perhaps learning how to knit...
Thank you for your reply, I will try to learn their likes/dislikes!!!

 

[JenInNev]

Dried meal worms is my little darlings absolute favorite. Now that mother natures wheel has turned, foraging has little or no nutrition. Love this thread as it gave me some ideas beyond peas and meal worms.