fruits and veggies for indian runners

[pammy g]

Remember your ducks will poop what they eat. If it's liquidity food. It will be liquidity poo. Here is my question..Runners cannot fly right? Can Magpies fly? They have both got all their feathers and sure love to flap them wings!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

we are new to this, have had them less than a week...I'm not sure how often and how much fruits and veggies I should be feeding to them..we have 4 of them...I have been giving them zucchini, watermelon, bananas, grapes, romaine, peaches, and pears. I have cut them into small bites. they didn't care for the grapes. they have stopped eating the fruits and veggies for the most part. and they now have the runs.

You sound like a new mom who is going overboard to give neat, tasty things and destined to be a great mom!

You didn't say how old the ducks are, but even adult ducks need good duck feed as their primary nutrition, but treats in moderation once per day are fine. Most of the things you're feeding have a high water content, and that can cause what you're seeing. Rest assured that's not permanent. Just give the treats sparingly so they have a good amount of more solid food lower in water content. Treats are also great for training, and you're going to lose the benefit of using treats for training if you're giving them all the time every day.

You're gonna do great!

 

[allison94]

no..runners can't fly..I'm not sure about Magpies pammy g

 

[pammy g]

She flaps her wings like crazy while stopming her feet. Its so cute. Magpie does the same thing

 

[allison94]

update..my runners have gotten longer wings and can fly very short distances in the pen pammy g! don't know how high they could actually go though or how far... my dogs would kill them if I were to let them out to see!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

update..my runners have gotten longer wings and can fly very short distances in the pen pammy g! don't know how high they could actually go though or how far... my dogs would kill them if I were to let them out to see!

@Amiga , can you take a look at this about flying Runners to give some advice? I knew they could fly a bit like most other ducks, but how high would your fence need to be to keep them from clearing the fence?

 

[Amiga]

Four feet seems to keep all my Runners in. Three feet keeps most of them in. Happy Runners keeps them from trying to scale the fence. So that means mulch piles, edible vegetation, pea parties, swim pans, etc.

 

[allison94]

@Amiga what types of edible vegetation are you talking about?

 

[Amiga]

I sometimes start cabbage and radish seeds in a pot, let that grow a couple of inches, then place the pot in the pen. I let comfrey and smartweed grow along the edges of the pen so the ducks can reach through and eat leaves. When I pull violets or dandelions, I toss them into the duck pen. They like chickweed, too.

I have heard of someone setting up a Japanese beetle trap but replacing the bag with a bucket of water underneath so their chickens could just eat the beetles off the top of the water.