How much do ducks eat?

[cheepcheep3]

My ducks are about 4 weeks old and eat soooo much! I was just wondering if ducks needed to have constant food (what mine have now) or do you just feed them once or twice a day?

 

[cluckcluckluke]

I love your ducks by the way ( your DP ) they are gorgeous.

I personally only have one duck at the moment and she is a Runner like yours, I find she doesn't eat a lot at all. I have her in with my chickens and they get fed as much as they want in the morning, then get a few scoops at lunch time then get fed as much as they want at night. My duck tends to eat more at late morning and late afternoon.

 

[cheepcheep3]

Oh those aren't mine in the pic (I wish!! lol) But I have 10 ducks ( 6 runners and 4 silver welsh harlequins) and 3 guineas and I fill up a pretty decent sized feeder about once every two days. I just didn't know if they needed to have that or if I was going to have some pretty plump animals on my hands soon! lol

 

[Going Quackers]

I free feed all my birds, ducklings should have feed/water 24/7 for a few weeks for sure... i think my last batch were 8-9wks when i started removing it at night, usually i don't do this but the stall was a mess and they were not able to get the space they needed.

My 5wk calls still have access 24/7.. almost all my adult birds have access to feed/water in the main barn, with the exception of one mature drake and the four 11wk olds, as i said these are all housed in stalls more difficult to provide in those. The main part of the barn is easier to maintain feed/water...

Anyways, they all free range(Muscovy) none are overweight... i fill feeders in the morning, the one in the barn is never empty by morning and i don't have it anywhere filled to capacity(25lbs), there are 9 ducks in that area.

 

[ducklover87]

I have 19 ducks that free range during the day. I fill their bowl in the morning and evening a few hours before they get put up for the night. Their bowl holds 8 pounds of food when filled to the top so I probably feed them about 8 pounds of food a day. But 100 pounds of food lasts me 2 weeks or more. They don't get food at night but they get water.

 

[michaeleric]

How much do ducks eat?
example: 10 duck eat 10 units of feed per day = 1 unit of feed per day

The question was " How much do ducks eat?". No one answered the question.

 

[Bills vs Beaks]

The question in the original post was answered....
There is no set number, ducks of different sizes and ages and laying stages eat different amounts. Plus, are you gonna go weigh the feed? Just feed with good sense, if they are hungry feed more, if they leave stuff that gets old and wasted feed less, and learn how much your flock eats.

 

[lomine]

Growing ducks will eat a lot so don't be worried about that. Ducks will also eat more when in lay and when it gets really cold and they use more energy to stay warm. How much they eat will depend on a lot of different factors such as age, breed, situations mentioned above, if they get to free range, etc.

Ducks won't generally over-eat and won't get fat on regular feed. You might have a problem if you give them a lot of high fat/calorie treats like bread or mealworms. Generally speaking, you'll be fine if you give them regular feed free choice.