Feeding oatmeal to ducks?

[JoyAnna]

My three Ancona ducks live off of Scratch & Peck organic/GMO-free feed, vegetable treats, and free range in the yard. I have managed to accumulate quite a bit of human rolled oats and wonder if this can be added to their regular feed. I will never eat this much myself, so thought it might work as an extender for their feed (which is getting more and more expensive).

Also, I have been getting the layer, higher-protein (20%) but now that I have added the drake for the two girls, wonder if I should change this. They have a side dish of oyster shell along with digging all over the yard. They are laying good strong eggs, but seem to be molting now. I adopted them out of terrible conditions just before they started laying. One of the girls has never had good feathers. I thought her feathers would have improved by now, but she still looks so ragged. They are all happy and vigorous.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You mean post 12 out of the 4 pages? Not much science in it. Also, reference was free-ranging with oats.....I'd trust the birds to find a balanced diet if they have enough space. Funny, how you ask about the one post that supports your view with hear-say evidence.

Clint

I'm sorry but I did not ask you what you thought about post 12 because it supports my view. I haven't a "view" I am trying to learn what is the best diet for my flock and was under the assumption that what I was feeding was since I see healthy birds here. I have recommended Niacin many times to people when their ducklings have leg problems mainly because I read on Metzers web site that lack of adequate niacin can cause leg problems. I've never heard of CM.

 

[Shikoba70]

Capture myopathy is also known as white muscle disease. When the muscle is used its metabolism changes from using oxygen to using stored energy in the muscle. This leads to a build up of lactic acid which goes into the bloodstream where it changes the pH of the body and affects the heart output. If the heart doesn’t pump correct oxygen to the muscle, the muscle starts to die. Over the next week or so, the product produced by the muscle’s death damages the kidney and affects other organs.

Miss Lydia you have probably never heard of capture myopathy because it normally only occurs in wild animals. In wildlife it can kill animals in either a few minutes or a few weeks. I have bottle raised a wallaby and one of the common causes for them not surviving is through CM. It is due to excessive stress. As a vet nurse of 25 years I have never seen it in anything other than wild animals, my ducks are brought up to be used to differrent situations and have certainly never been this stressed, as I am sure yours have not. It could occur after a predator attack but have not known it otherwise.

 

[Peeko]

Can you share with us what you use to make a balanced duck food? and the link won't work.

Sorry, that was the link from my email. Here is the static link for the recall.

I don't make a balanced food, I provide extra food on top of what the ducks choose for themselves. I like feeding them live fish in the pool, and so do they. At night I gather slugs, snails and sow bugs. We also raise worms in compost bins for them. We offer various leafy greens; in winter they like reddish greens but not so much in summer. They love kale. I chop up celery, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, and sometimes bell pepper flesh in the food processor and they love sucking that up in a watery soup. I also mix up some grains: red and white wheat, millet, rice, buckwheat, corn meal, barley, and whole oats. I add some granulated kelp and diatomaceous earth to the grains. The grain is offered with water sparingly in summer, a lot more in winter but where I am the winters are mild, the grass gets greener and we can grow some veggies up til December. I also have pink salt sitting out for them to nibble when the mood strikes.

I try to discourage them eating at a bowl exclusively. There are lots of native plants in the yard, grasses, dandelion and clover that they like to graze and places where bugs can be found. I love bringing in a new plant I think they will like and finding out what they do with it or turning over stones and soil and watching them try to find the bugs first. Our daddy duck likes eating flowers in spring. When the rains come I plant watercress for them but have to section it off so they don't eat it all before it gets a chance to grow. Can't forget dirt and rocks. I make sure they get enough access to those.

There are a lot of errors in this.....commercial feeds usually have corn and soy as a bas e to provide the base energy content, and the supplements are to balance the amino acis and mineral rations....last I knew, manganese and amino acids were not petroleum based non-food resources that aren't digestible. I also would like to know what feeds regularly include antibiotics....it makes feed much more expensive....non of the feeds I use list antibiotics in the ingredients....


You make you own food, good for you....hope you have done the research to provide a balanced diet. Fortunately, domestic ducks are VERY forgiving to mismanagement. Wonder how many fewer "problems", like weak legs, egg-binding, and many other ailments that are listed daily.....quite possibly from people reading posts that suggest they can feed sub-quality foods to save money.

Clint

Nice to meet you Clint Yes, I've done my research, boy have I done my research.

Let me be more clear: antibiotics are administered regularly in order to keep malnourished birds alive; birds that eat predominantly corn and soy. It is a very clever marketing scheme that created the common misconception of corn and soy being a good substitute for a natural diet for livestock. It is not healthy for birds to consume it regularly and in large amounts.

I know it's hard to believe, but yes, most supplements are synthetic, and many come from petroleum or coal tar. Check out these links to start you on your learning journey!

"However, most vitamin supplements contain petroleum derivatives and/or hydrogenated sugars. Even though they are often labeled as natural, most non-food vitamins are isolated substances and crystalline in structure.Vitamins found naturally in real food are not crystalline and never isolated."

"An example is vitamin B1. Coal tar is a widely used foundational substance for this vitamin — typically a crystalline yellow coal tar (yes, this means it’s from coal, a fossil fuel). Hydrochloric acid is often added to allow precipitation. Then fermentation, heating, cooling, and other steps are completed until a final synthetic vitamin is created. It’s then dried and tested for purity before being shipped to distributors."

"Vitamin ‘B5’ made from various things.

Synthetic amino acids

Synthetic manganese

Synthetic magnesium silicate

Vet Q & A Clip where he say's it's OK to use "vitamin petroleum supplement" on a cat. What do they teach in vet school these days? How to sell pharmaceuticals for pets.

This video is almost 50 minutes long, but a good place to start if you're interested in learning how supplements aren't turning out to be good for people either!

 

[Going Quackers]

Well how good or bad it is basically irrelevant since you cannot find it here, i only found the starter and not even where i live only online, that's the other problem with feeds, it is truly dependent on what is available to you, not everyone can get the same stuff, even more so if your from a different country. I will still (and likely always) stand behind you have to find what works for your flock, each person has variables which definitely includes feed availability.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My three Ancona ducks live off of Scratch & Peck organic/GMO-free feed, vegetable treats, and free range in the yard. I have managed to accumulate quite a bit of human rolled oats and wonder if this can be added to their regular feed. I will never eat this much myself, so thought it might work as an extender for their feed (which is getting more and more expensive).

Also, I have been getting the layer, higher-protein (20%) but now that I have added the drake for the two girls, wonder if I should change this. They have a side dish of oyster shell along with digging all over the yard. They are laying good strong eggs, but seem to be molting now. I adopted them out of terrible conditions just before they started laying. One of the girls has never had good feathers. I thought her feathers would have improved by now, but she still looks so ragged. They are all happy and vigorous.

I feed whole oats so I don't see any difference in feeding either one, I mix 50lbs of whole oats with 50lbs of Flock raiser and 50 lbs of 7wayscratch.Maybe once she has a full blown molt her feathers will come in nice and pretty. I feed an all flock feed since I have 4 drakes 1 gander and 2 roos, and just put out oyster shell for the layers.

 

[Speceider]

I am not certain why everyone seems to worry about protein % because they take a feed with known % and then try to mix their own....changes protein %, but also changes amino acid ratios (which are more important then total protein), and the Apparent Metabolizable Energy of the diet which affects how much they eat, and how much protein they get.

Clint

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am not certain why everyone seems to worry about protein % because they take a feed with known % and then try to mix their own....changes protein %, but also changes amino acid ratios (which are more important then total protein), and the Apparent Metabolizable Energy of the diet which affects how much they eat, and how much protein they get.

Clint

I don't feed other grains to lower protein I do it to keep my feed bill down a notch and still provide a wholesome diet.

 

[JoyAnna]

I don't feed other grains to lower protein I do it to keep my feed bill down a notch and still provide a wholesome diet.

That's my point also. I'm not trying to change the nutritional content. I am so pleased to have a local mill using local, organic, grains, but it is expensive and I have the extra oat meal. Just wanted to be sure they would be okay with adding a bit of the oats in with the good stuff. The two girls are giving me two eggs almost every day, and the drake is a most polite fellow who takes his job caring for them seriously. These are definitely not breeding stock (at least the girls), but I want them to be healthy. I hope that I can get set up by next spring to get some top breeding Anconas.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That's my point also. I'm not trying to change the nutritional content. I am so pleased to have a local mill using local, organic, grains, but it is expensive and I have the extra oat meal. Just wanted to be sure they would be okay with adding a bit of the oats in with the good stuff. The two girls are giving me two eggs almost every day, and the drake is a most polite fellow who takes his job caring for them seriously. These are definitely not breeding stock (at least the girls), but I want them to be healthy. I hope that I can get set up by next spring to get some top breeding Anconas.

Very sweet of you to take these girls in though. and to bring in a drake for protection and company.