Ducklings Won't Eat Outside...HELP!!

[Duckmamaof4]

My 6 week old Mallards will not eat their food when they are outside, they will eat treats (mealworms, oats, etc) but no food or water (unless they're in their pool), but when I bring them back in they eat like they are starved! I'm trying to transfer them to start staying outside, but my only fear is they will not eat or drink. Is this normal? Thanks!

 

[Isaac 0]

Hmm, strange, are you offering it any differently then you are inside the house?

 

[Duckmamaof4]

Hmm, strange, are you offering it any differently then you are inside the house?

No, not at all, same container & all. I do have a larger feed & water container, but I haven't started using that, I'm using the same ones I've used inside. I did finally get them to eat & drink some last night. I put their brood (an XL plastic tub) out there on its side with some pine shavings and put their food and water in it and they went right to it

 

[Dees ducks]

Hi, my ducklings did the same thing. They were eating all of their food in the brooder at night and hardly touching their food when let out during the daytime. However, this slowly changed for me at about 6 weeks of age. Now they eat mostly outside during the daytime but are still eating a fair amount overnight too! They are just greedy little devils!

 

[Isaac 0]

Hi, there!

Just checking in to see how your bird is doing. Updates to these type of threads are quite useful for people in the future experiencing the same problem.