Feeding Pekins on a budget?

[ruthhope]

Mine eat way more than the rest of my ducks too. I don't know if they are regular or jumbo pekins, but mine are fairly useless in terms of foraging. It drives me bonkers. But they are cute. I just buy duck and layer food at tractor supply.

My sons 3 Pekins eat pellets voraciously. We too get through 40/50lb sacks from tractor supplies way too often. My son uses organic layer feed when he can get it but when that is unavailable he uses any organic poultry food and makes up with Niacin and calcium. Plus they get mealworms every day. It is expensive but we don't begrudge the two females who are still laying in mid December.

My own ducks are muscovies. They don't seem to forage more than the pekins, but they are far less interested in pellets. One is a very big male and another is a good sized male. My third is a pekin drake, but he is a rescue who was attacked by a raccoon and has a damaged bill. He does eat voraciously ploughing the pellets all over the place in his attempts to get some inside!! I had put his voracious tendencies --he insists on feeding first before the muscovies--down to his difficulty feeding, but perhaps it's just because he is a pekin!! My female muscovy is tiny. She is a good foragers and can catch flies in the air. I have to hand feed her as the big drakes are meanie and don't let her eat until last. I know how little she eats from the hand feeding.

I don't know how you can feed your flock on a reduced budget Strix-Aliana, as they need to eat!! However, you might measure one cup of pellets for each duck morning and evening and not give more in between. Maybe your next ducks should be muscovies!

 

[lost-duckling]

Man I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I took in some pekin ducks! They can freaking EAT!! To be honest, they’re eating me out of house and home and that’s WITH a pond plus 5 acres to forage!! How on earth people afford to keep ducks in a run or cage is beyond me.

Maybe it’s partly because I refuse to feed them cheap feed. But still. Do any of you manage to feed your pekins on a small budget? Seems like I spend $70 a week for 5 pekins.

i have feed my ducks scratch grain layer/chick(depending on weather or not there were ducklings / chicks in the flock) starter mix for almost ten years. However 1 bag of 22% protien meatbird feed or other high protien feed mixed with 12% all stock sweet feed gives you a protien content that contends with most maintenace diets and is only slightly lower in ca than layer feed so assuming you offer oyster shells to laying birds, then this works out to ony 15.5 bucks a 50# bag for maintenace feed instead of 19 for a 40# bag. The only potetial issies with this is that the above feeds do not contain the right amounts of trace minerals for ducks or birds in general. This should however be countered almost if not entirely by the fact that they have a pond and so much space for forage.

you can mix it 1:2 if you want to also.

I have never had any leg deformaties in my ducks despite having only offered niacin supplements thrice since i have had ducks and that was only whe i had to put some young duckling in a pen for a while. I acredit this to the fact that any growimg birds are kept completly cage free in almost any situation. My birds have no pond but do have an acre or two to forage and that makes up for whatever trace minerals and what not their diet is missing.

also here is a link to the cheapest high protien 50# bags ive sen so far and the sweet feed.
https://www.chewy.com/hudson-feeds-23-multi-flock-grower/dp/254429
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/producers-pride-all-stock-sweet-12-animal-feed-50-lb


If any one sees in holes in my logic please point them out.

 

[Strix-Aliana]

Pekins are a breed of duck that shouldn't be free fed as they are originally a meat bird and can get very overweight. Get a measuring cup and start measuring out their food. You can also include veggies and some fruits as healthy snacks (occasionally) to keep their hunger at bay.

Hope this helps and update us on how it goes!

I actually don’t free feed them. I give them a little feed first thing in the morning and then dinner at evening. All day long they have to fend for themselves and they’re still costing me so much.

 

[ruthhope]

I actually don’t free feed them. I give them a little feed first thing in the morning and then dinner at evening. All day long they have to fend for themselves and they’re still costing me so much.

The measuring cup is important: one cup morning and one cup evening per duck, max, for pekins. If you are strict about measuring, your bills might go down. My son's pekins feed voraciously morning and evening and fend for themselves all day. I was much happier when we started measuring the food so that I knew they got enough even if they did eat as if they hadn't been fed for a month morning and evening! [My muscovies only eat half of that amount and don't seem as if they are starving!]

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

I actually don’t free feed them. I give them a little feed first thing in the morning and then dinner at evening. All day long they have to fend for themselves and they’re still costing me so much.

I am not sure how you are going through so much feed, i have chipmunks helping me and I don’t use that type of volume. My last round of feed buying, i think it was around $17/50lbs i use Nutrina all flock. I have a flock of 10 birds, 3 of them are Pekin i go through 40 ish lbs a week or 4/5 of a bag. They have open area to forage but pickings get slim i think. One thing I find that helps is to keep the water apart from the food. Not too far because they need it to eat, but far enough to discourage gorging. They will eat until it is gone if it is side by side. I have a rubber dish, perhaps 2 quart size, in summer time about 6 ish at night they are just cleaning it up. In winter it slows down, they don’t move around as much and they aren’t laying eggs. I do reward them too much with peas and mealworms.
Still i don't spend nearly that kind of money with twice as many ducks.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

What feed are you buying? Unless you are going through 100 pounds a week it must be crazy expensive even for organic.

 

[lost-duckling]

i have probavly ~50 birds chickens(probably 10 max) and mostly ducks and they eat 150lbs a week and thats not free feed. i give them 2 paint buckets full twice a day and the rest is forage. also one small goat about the size of a large duck.