How much egg can they have?

[CountryFried]

My little boy wanted to give the duckies and geese a treat after their field trip this afternoon (they had a blast!), so he chopped up a boiled egg. They polished it off in about an hour (we sprinkled it with chick grit and brewer's yeast). How much boiled egg can they have? We're visiting grandma tomorrow and she's got tons of eggs from her chickens, so we can get several dozen.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Treats should make up no more than 5-10% of their diet. Egg is nutritious, so more like 10% is fine, especially if it's only occasionally.

 

[Lynxfire]

My husband cooked up our Pekin eggs and tried to give it to them and they did not appreciate it. They gave him dirty looks and went away lol.

 

[PaulX]

I don't buy the '10% treats' idea. Ducks in nature ain't supposed to have access to feed.
Small scale homesteaders around here don't rely on feed since it's not economical. They feed ducks mainly kitchen scraps.
I could afford more feed, my ducks are pets, it's less work on my part, but the feed store is very far, they don't deliver, and I don't drive. My ducks also prefer fresh food over feed.

I feed my 3 months old ducks like 75% treats and 25% feed (by volume).
My 3 weeks old are currently having like 40% treats and 60% feed.
The 3 months old have free roam of the yard, but we're in the city so there isn't anything for them to free-range on. 98% of what they eat comes from what I give them.

By treats I mean chopped up veggies, sometimes a little fruits, and for the babies some protein. I don't feed bread or something junky like white rice at all. If they do get carb-heavy treats they get a small portion, and get things like microwaved pumpkin or bananas, very very occasionally mixed grains, and of course peas.

My ducks love protein, eggs or chicken meat, (also love red veggies and fruits), but I also try to not give them too much protein, they don't need that much of it, it makes their poop smelly they say, and it could cause angel wing they say.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Feed is a replacement for the more or less balanced diet that ducks eat in nature. That's how animal feeds work. You give your ducks duck feed instead of going out into nature to pick up water plants, insects, small fish, and everything else they'd normally eat.

If what you're using as treats is highly nutritious, then it becomes part of their normal diet, and doesn't really fit into the "treats" category. Some people feed a processed feed as most if not all of the diet, some people use feed as a part of the diet and also give other things. If you're giving over 50% "treats" and the ducks are healthy, that's only treats in a sense of the ducks enjoying it. If that makes any sense.

I'd be wary of spreading the idea that you can feed any animal mostly on kitchen scraps, though. It depends a lot on what the household eats, and you have to watch closely for any deficiencies. All animals need a balanced diet, and some households wouldn't put out balanced scraps.

To rephrase, when people say 5-10% treats, they mean 5-10% foods that are especially tasty but may not have the most nutritional value, or may be badly unbalanced. Egg is a great treat, but if you feed a duck 75% egg and 25% feed, you are not gonna have a happy duck. For the purposes of the above, by "treat", I mean one of those tasty-but-not-nutritious foods. It's also possible to keep some animals healthy on a diet containing a lot of what they would consider treats, but with a lot of nutrition.

(I'm up way too late, hopefully this is coherent. Basically, it depends on the treats.)