How long do I feed Non-medicated starter to ducklings?

[Jayare's Chicks]

I forgot how long I need to feed non-medicated starter to my little ducklings. They were hatched the 10th,11th & 12th of last month and the feed bag is running low and I will need to buy another bag for them in the next day or two but if they are old enough for regular chick starter now then I don't need to buy one since I have a bag and a half of that on hand that I am feeding my little chickies.

Can any duck experts help me out with this question please?

Thanks,
Jayare

 

[jvls1942]

I always thought that you never feed medicated starter to any duck
at any age..

 

[conny63malies]

From what i remember never feed it. Ducks eat too much of the food and OD/poison themselfs with the meds. Mine never got it and are perfectly happy duckers.

 

[MissPrissy]

4 - 6 weeks on non-medicated gamebird starter, then you can switch them over to non-medicated purina flock raiser and add some brewers yeast to it.

I always wait until they are 6 weeks old. I think 4 weeks is too early for the flock raiser pellets.

Also make sure they get chopped lettuce, spinach, grass and other greens floated on water.

I also give my ducklings and goslings a spinach and yogurt puree/shake daily the first 4 weeks. Ducks are meat eaters so some worms and bugs is good too.

 

[DuckLady]

I usually feed gamebird for 2 to 3 weeks and switch to an all purpose feed until point of lay for ducks at which point I have oystershell available at all times. Drakes of course won't touch the oystershell.

That is not to say anyone here is wrong, that is just what I do.

 

[MissPrissy]

Terrie, I don't give oystershell till 25+ weeks. Do you offer it before that?

 

[DuckLady]

Now that I have all adult ducks I always have oyster shell out and if I bring in a duckling and it lives with the adults, they usually don't eat it until their body tells them to. But if I had all ducklings, their mad mob curiosity would have them eating it, which would be ok as a one or two time sampling, but bad in the long run ingestion. So if I have just ducklings, I put the feeder of oystershell out at about 25 weeks.

 

[vfem]

Ok, my ducklings are 3 weeks old, I have them on non-medicated starter right now. My feed store now carries Waterfowl feed (funny they just started offering it the week my ducks hatched?!) so when should I switch them to waterfowl feed? My starter feed says at 18 weeks, is this too early, too late? These guys are growing so fast they have their new feathers coming in already. Much faster maturing then my chickens!

I was told to stay away from medicated, and I feel better going that route.

 

[greyfields]

Yes. Medicated feed will kill your waterfowl.

Chick starter and waterfowl feed are both 20%+ protein feeds. You can switch at any time as they are largely equivelant. You shouldn't need the brewer's yeast if you have a minimum of 20 mg niacin in the waterfowl feed. It can be as high as 65 mg as well which will cause no harm.