Ducks and Pine Shavings

[jennyman]

Hello All. My ducks have moved into their house. Should I be offering them water at night? They nose around in the pine shavings not sure how much they are eating or not. We are not giving them food during the night but wasnt sure if they are eating pine shavings and if I should give them water. They are sharing a coop with chickens.

 

[chickenlittle21]

You should give them food and water at night

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Miss Lydia, I believe does not, others do. Seems the big deal is to keep it fresh, which is a challenge. Myself I clean more often and provide both. My water can drain to daylight which helps but they poop a lot.

 

[CoriM]

Ducks absolutely need water whenever you are offering them food! They take a bit of food and then need water to swallow it. How old are your ducks? By the time my ducks were 6 months or so I was letting them spend the night - about 9-11 hours, depending on the season - without food or water.

 

[CoriM]

But I live in WA state where we never get extreme heat. Maybe it's different for those in warmer climates.

 

[LT71689]

I wouldn't take their water away at night, they use it for more than their food. They need to be able to wash their nostrils out after theyve been preening or rooting around in bedding. I'm constantly catching my two with feather boogers sticking out of their noses.

If you're worried about the mess in the coop with the chickens, you can put something under their water dish to catch the splashes. My two use a big plastic water jug with a hole cut out of the side so they can get their whole heads in easy but not the rest of them. I have it sitting on one of these https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/nordic...IlN5nyVhtHSp7Vs4WocaAsukEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds the rack sits inside of it securely, I pack the bedding around the rim so they dont trip over the edge. The jug I use slides a little bit so I ziptied the handle of it to the fence (theyre in an indoor pen right now with chickenwire sides)

 

[3bird]

I'm unclear as to how old they are. Our ducks have 24/7 access to the run where there is free choice food, oyster shells and water. When they were younger and we were locking them in at night, however, we did not offer food or water in the house. Our guys are on pine shavings with straw.