Food/Brand Suggestions?

[johnsonhillfarm]

I have four 3 week old Silver Appleyard ducklings and have been feeding them

Manna Pro Starter and Grower​

And they are doing really well with it, but they are going through it fast. I am already on the 3rd bag and they are like $18 a bag. I want to give them high quality food, but wondered if there was a less expensive option because I know they are going to go through it faster with each passing day! I have heard different advice on how long they stay on the starter/grower as well. Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

I have four 3 week old Silver Appleyard ducklings and have been feeding them

Manna Pro Starter and Grower​

And they are doing really well with it, but they are going through it fast. I am already on the 3rd bag and they are like $18 a bag. I want to give them high quality food, but wondered if there was a less expensive option because I know they are going to go through it faster with each passing day! I have heard different advice on how long they stay on the starter/grower as well. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Do you have a local feed store? It might be cheaper there if you do. Ours sells 50 lb bags of a good quality feed for around $17. Because of advice from members of this site, I kept my ducks on 18% starter until they were laying and they did fine on it.

 

[johnsonhillfarm]

Do you have a local feed store? It might be cheaper there if you do. Ours sells 50 lb bags of a good quality feed for around $17. Because of advice from members of this site, I kept my ducks on 18% starter until they were laying and they did fine on it.

Thank you! I checked with local feed store and they have chicken starter and game starter for about $22 for 50lbs, just was unsure if I should give that to them. I noticed for adult ducks they have pellet food, is that what they eat as adults or is that an option? I am new to all of this!

 

[indianaducks]

The Manna Pro Duckling/Gosling Starter/Grower is my favorite for ducklings. All the ducklings I've raised on that have done great. One batch of clearance ducklings from last August, I raised on something else because I couldn't get the manna pro, and I didn't like how they did nearly as much. If at all possible, I raise all my ducklings on the manna pro for at least a few weeks then switch over to purina duck pellets or something. I know others like mazuri feeds but that's over my budget.

 

[johnsonhillfarm]

The Manna Pro Duckling/Gosling Starter/Grower is my favorite for ducklings. All the ducklings I've raised on that have done great. One batch of clearance ducklings from last August, I raised on something else because I couldn't get the manna pro, and I didn't like how they did nearly as much. If at all possible, I raise all my ducklings on the manna pro for at least a few weeks then switch over to purina duck pellets or something. I know others like mazuri feeds but that's over my budget.

Perfect! That was my plan so far to keep them on this and then needing something less expensive long term and I had found the Purina Pellets at Tractor Supply afforable. Thank you!

 

[indianaducks]

Perfect! That was my plan so far to keep them on this and then needing something less expensive long term and I had found the Purina Pellets at Tractor Supply afforable. Thank you!

No problem! I ended up ordering the manna pro on amazon which was a small fortune. But I couldn't find it locally and so far I haven't found a lot of other duckling starter options so have just stuck with it at least with young ducklings.

 

[907poultry]

I use Alaska Mill and Feed, so I might not be much help. I have heard others using Manna pro, I’ve only seen the 18% protein chick starter though.
I always supplement with bragg’s nutritional yeast or brewer’s yeast even with waterfowl starter.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I really like the Purina duck too. Mine have been on it for almost two years and done really well. It can be used for ducklings as well according to the label. I raised a batch on it last year and they did well.