feeding ducklings treats?

[bigdawg]

i have 7 ducklings that are 3 weeks old today. i want to give them some treats. what can i give them. shreded lettuce, peas, ect. what is safe to give them.

 

[slightlyscrambled]

check here https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=242460 just about an answer to every question you could ask!

 

[kw]

My duckies love cheerios, crackers, bread, corn and hard boiled eggs. They won't touch peas! Silly ducks.

 

[lovesduckies]

Quote:
mine either! they hate them. i tell them it's okay babies i wouldn't eat them either!

 

[jennytg3]

Hi! My runner ducklings are almost two weeks old, and I've been feeding them duck starter. I read the link about all the things you should and should not feed ducks, and just had a few questions:

1. At what age do you start putting grit in their food, and how much grit to how much food?
2. Same question for oyster shells.
3. I noticed something on the list called gro-gel - a vitamin. Do my ducks need vitamins? If so, how much and when?
4. At what age do they start eating duck pellets?

Thank you!

Also, I noticed the list said something about ducks choking. If that ever happened, what do you do? Is there a duck hemlich maneuver? I just wanted to know ahead of time what to do in case it ever happened. I've fallen in love with my three ducklings and couldn't stand it if anything happened to them.

Jenny

 

[Amiga]

Hi, Jenny,

I started with a sprinkle (probably a teaspoon) of chick grit in each 6 inch round shallow bowl right from the first. I had crumbles, and they pretty much dissolve in water, but a little grit to start worked out fine. That was per Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. If you can get the book, or borrow it, I recommend it.

I think the gro-gel is for their first week. I also have vitamin electrolytes plus mix, which I give them in a ricotta cheese tub with a round hole cut out of the lid, free choice, about once a week. I started when one of mine was looking puny, then decided a boost once a week might be a good idea, at least for their first month.

Oyster shells are not needed yet. Too much calcium may be more of a problem than a help. Your ration should have all the calcium they need at this stage. The grit I use, by the way, is granite. Oyster shell is not a substitute. (I say that because every now and then some get confused about that.)

At the beginning of their third week I began to mix grower pellets (which are fairly small) in with the crumbles. I like to change diet gradually, and I wanted to be sure everyone could manage the pellets. I confess, the first few bowls I ground the pellets down a little smaller, then ground half of them down, then just added straight pellets to a decreasing amount of crumbles.

I also have been adding one part rolled oats (the flattened kind - not instant) to five parts starter because the protein in the latter is 26%, a bit higher than the 20% recommended in Storey's Guide. As with the pellets, at first I ground the oatmeal a bit. Another option would have been to moisten the oatmeal before adding it to the crumbles, but then I would have needed to remove the food more frequently (wet food leads to mold which can be deadly to ducklings).

The grower pellets I most recently bought have the proper protein percentage, so as I change over (adding more of the newer food and less of the other until it's all new food) I can stop adding oatmeal.

For treats, I waited until the middle of their second week, and offer them very very finely chopped greens - (and here, I confess, I splurge for a number of reasons) spring mix, dandelions, chard, watercress. This week we started giving them (eleven of them) about a third of a cup of petit peas, fresh frozen which I thaw before giving to the ducklings.

I give them probably about two cups of chopped greens a day. It seems to be their favorite thing! I give it to them in a two foot long trough, in which I also put about a half inch of water.

Hope this helps.

 

[jennytg3]

Thank you! I haven't given them chick grit yet but will go buy some right now! They're almost two weeks old - have I screwed them up by not giving them grit?
I got Storey's book from the library but had to return it and I must not have recorded everything correctly. Will go out and buy one now.

 

[Amiga]

If they have been on crumbles without much else yet, they are probably fine. I would just add a few sprinkles to their food at this point. Sometimes, silly ducklings will fill up on grit if you offer it free choice (in its own bowl). Then they don't have room for real food!

But as their diet changes to pellets and begins to include fresh greens and such, they need something to chew with, and grit is the equivalent of teeth for them. If they will spend time outdoors munching on bugs, they need grit.

Consider vitamins, electrolytes with probiotics. Those are recommended as occasional supplements especially for ducklings and any bird that is stressed (change of routine, travel, illness, and so forth).

Enjoy those ducklings!