Ducklings and grit questions.

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

First I want to say hi and thanks in advance for any advice, my wife and I are new to birds (except the wild kind) and have lots of questions along the way. Also I have some guineas arriving in June, so that will be another interesting adventure.
We have some questions about grit, our ducklings are a little over a week old, maybe 2? We got them last Wednesday at TSC and they had just arrived. They are growing like weeds and we want to start feeding them some veggies, I bought a bag of chick grit without oyster shells, we have a round feeder with a jar full of food that spills down as food gets eaten, if I should be mixing into the food how much should I be mixing if I should be offering free choice how big a bowl? How much at a time? What is an alarming rate of consumption?
I have heard of rare instances of a duckling dying from gobbling grit, I don’t want that to happen but am afraid of providing too little if I mix with food. We were going to start with peas or lettuce, is this a safe plan? How long should I give grit before giving veggies? Any other advice for us newbies?


thanks
SMM

 

[Miss Lydia]

That's a very good question. To keep your ducklings from eating too much grit put it in a small bowl I use a custard bowl because it can't be turned over. They will use it as they need it, Its instinct and make sure you also give them a bowl deep enough they can dunk their heads in that is another very important part of Keeping waterfowl and eventually your going to have replace that small feeder too or their little bills will be too large to get the feed out properly.

If you sit the water container over a thrift store broiler pan then put a pee pads over that it really helps with the mess. Please share pics of your little ducklings.

 

[Isaac 0]

Welcome to BYC!

@Miss Lydia Gave you some great advice!

 

[DuckyDonna]

First I want to say hi and thanks in advance for any advice, my wife and I are new to birds (except the wild kind) and have lots of questions along the way. Also I have some guineas arriving in June, so that will be another interesting adventure.
We have some questions about grit, our ducklings are a little over a week old, maybe 2? We got them last Wednesday at TSC and they had just arrived. They are growing like weeds and we want to start feeding them some veggies, I bought a bag of chick grit without oyster shells, we have a round feeder with a jar full of food that spills down as food gets eaten, if I should be mixing into the food how much should I be mixing if I should be offering free choice how big a bowl? How much at a time? What is an alarming rate of consumption?
I have heard of rare instances of a duckling dying from gobbling grit, I don’t want that to happen but am afraid of providing too little if I mix with food. We were going to start with peas or lettuce, is this a safe plan? How long should I give grit before giving veggies? Any other advice for us newbies?


thanks
SMM

I would put the grit in a separate little bowl and not mix with the food. They seem to know when they need it and will eat when they do. They won't need any oyster shells until they start laying.

They will love peas, tomatoes, and watermelon cut up really tiny. Iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value but Romaine does so that would be fine. These foods should be just a treat.

Purina has a duck food now which has all the stuff ducks need in it and can be given their whole lives. The only thing you'll have to add is oyster shells when they start laying and those should be put in a separate bowl that they can eat out of when they need them. TSC should have some. It's called duck pellets.

While you are at TSC you should pick up some B-complex vitamins. This has a lot of niacin in it and is good for just about everything if they should start having problems of any kind.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This is what I mean by custard bowls

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Wow thank you all for your replies! The keeping clean of water dishes has been a constant battle, my wife is working from home so fortunately she keeps it changed routinely during the day but I will look into alternatives. As they aren’t sexed yet I really don’t know what we have, so for now they are just being called our “peeps”, we have a shortlist of names going, will try the grit today, the peas perhaps tonight, when we got back from the sugar house last night we swam them, but I didn’t get pictures as we were pretty beat. They do love the hair dryer though! I’ll give picture posting a shot, here goes...

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are adorable!! ❤

 

[DuckyDonna]

you might want to try this waterer.

 

[laurapea]

Hi everyone, I have no grit for my ducklings and they are due to hatch very soon. I have purchased some but due to Covid-19 the arrival of it may be delayed until as late as the 13th May. Most shops around us are closed too.

So my question is - my friend has some grit for her hens and she lives a short walk away from me. Obviously with social distancing measures in place, will this suffice until my fine grit arrives? She says it has shells in it. Am I better taking the shells out before giving it to the freshly hatched ducklings?

Thanks in advance, I’m a total beginner here.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just don’t feed them anything but their starter feed. That’s all they need for their first 2 weeks then you can begin to introduce treats but until then they don’t need grit. Sounds like the grit your friend is talking about might be oyster shell and it’s for layers. They can eat their feed with out grit!