Ducks and cat-food

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Never noticed a fish smell from the salmon an Pea.

Thank you very much! I will buy some cat food for my "dabbling-cats" next time i'm in a store.

 

[Runner duck mom]

Does the fish content of the cat food changes the smell of the eggs?
I remember when the first "modern" supermarket in my home town opened decades ago (Aldi) my mom bought chicken eggs there instead on the farmers market and the boiled eggs had a fishy smell. We later learned that the battery chickens were fed with a diet made out of fish-meal.

I was worried about that too since we give away a lot of eggs but they seemed fine. We gave a handful a day over winter as a treat.

 

[chickens really]

Birds can suffer from fatty liver disease so treats should be given only a couple of days a week and regular feed and forage is the best for them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

http://www.poultryhub.org/health/disease/types-of-disease/fatty-liver-syndrome/

 

[happy duck]

My ducks love cat food. I give them whatever I give my cats.

 

[McChics]

On the meal worms...are you guys talking about the dried kind? My chickens love them - line up for them...beg for them. Ducks...don't care for them at all. So far, the ONLY thing they go nuts over is peas. We keep bags of them in the freezer where I can reload the bowl and go treat them when they come to the back door - I also use them to get them to go to bed at night. I've found on these summer days, they like them still slightly frozen the best. Must be like ice cream treats for them.

We recently got a huge bag of the fly larvae meal worms - they have more nutrients than standard meal worms (they are dried out too). Again, ducks come over and pick up one or two, then spit them out. This is actually good, because it keeps the chickens and ducks from competing for the same treats (for now).

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Birds can suffer from fatty liver disease so treats should be given only a couple of days a week and regular feed and forage is the best for them.

Thank you very much for the advice, that's a good point!
I don't think my ducks are in danger of developing any kind of over-eating diseases. They have ~500m² (~5400sqft) of fenced in area to roam and forage, partially steep hill and they use every spot. Plus the girls are laying or starting to lay eggs, so they need every bit of energy they can get.
They have to work really hard for their living here, hunting all those pesky ticks, flies and grashoppers, fertilizing the potatoes and probing the ground for gemstones.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

So i went to Aldi yesterday and bought a trial bag of this for just 3½ Benjamins:

So far my feather-cats are not so impressed with the taste, maybe they need to get used to it…

 

[chickens really]

So i went to Aldi yesterday and bought a trial bag of this for just 3½ Benjamins:

So far my feather-cats are not so impressed with the taste, maybe they need to get used to it…

Not all Ducks eat cat food..Plus it's not needed.

 

[casportpony]

So far my feather-cats are not so impressed with the taste, maybe they need to get used to it…