Food and bedding questions for a new duck owner!

[annbee]

Hello! Had a few questions about ducklings. My boyfriend and I got two runner ducks, a swedish and a mallard who are now two weeks (and a day!) old. This coupled with week old chicks (4!) which unexpectedly hatched (we apparently are really, really bad at the candle test!) and it's kind of chaotic! We're very experienced with chickens so ducks are definitely new territory and any help is greatly appreciated.

For the past week I've been using paper towels and puppy pee pads in their container. This solution worked really well for about four days until suddenly in the mornings they like to mess with their water container and blow water everywhere! Searching through the forums (and websites! and books!) there seems to be mixed thoughts on bedding. What would you all recommend for bedding in their housing? Right now they're in a large tote under a heat lamp. The feed store recommended white wood shavings and I read some people use those coupled with the pee pads underneath (or over!) while others say they'll eat them and die. It's all really confusing so any recommendations would be very helpful!

As to feed they're just over two weeks old which I read is the time to switch them over to grower food. We have left-over grower food (unmedicated) from our last set of chicks we raised up so would this work to feed the ducks? I'm skeptical about this point but the feed store said it would be okay... wanted to check before I switched them over.

Thank you so much for any help! Loving having these ducklings and want to figure out what works best!

 

[jdywntr]

I use pine shavings and in the past when I had them inside pee pads underneath. Now, outside, I use pine shavings and mix in some horse stall pine pellets, they really suck up water and smell nice.
You can limit (slightly) the mess with the water by putting their waterer in a larger container to catch all (some) of the splashing. Think something like a 13X9 baking dish size (depending on your waterer)
Check the protein on the feed, ducks will do okay on less protein than chicks should be 16-17% now (best case senario). I raised my last ones on 20% Flockraiser through adulthood.
Also, since the feed is leftover (don't know how old) make sure it is not old/buggy/moldy. These things can be deadly.

Good luck and

also post pics when you can

 

[annbee]

thanks for the help! Yeah the chick grower is from about 2 months ago and was securely stored so should be good to go! I'll check the protein levels and see if it's good.

And THANK YOU for the recommendation with the baking sheet! Very clever!

Will definitely post pictures soon!