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To answer your question (regardless of the why) I add oatmeal in to cut the protein down.
As an aside, my ducks love it when oats are added !
Cheap oats from the supermarket you would use for porridge - if the grain size is large I either grind it down (my OH coffee bean grinder comes in super handy) or I make sure they have grit.
Either way, they go loony for it.
Also a useful back pocket tip for if your food ordering goes pips up.
I go roughly one third oats to the crumb - and never throw the food away, thats stuffs spendy !
I did this a few months ago, worked well. I used quaker oats from costco.
Question.
So the goal of adding oats is to lower the protein correct? But, at the same time, you are 'diluting" the nutrients in the feed?
I guess I have a hard time wrapping my head around, that numerous people here feed their duck's Gamebird feed that's around 26/28% protein, and never have any case's of Angel Wing., and there have been numerous cases of angel wing with people that fed their ducks a low 16% diet.
Am always up for a sharing of views !
My challenge is I suppose what did ducks do before we got here with our optimised nutritional nibbles ?
Is your perspective that you are trying to encourage the best diet possible Isaac ? And if so, how would that be measured ?
Marketing in our diets as well as our animals has got a lot to answer for imo - my feeling with all my animals and birds is that there is a wider range of diet that is perfectly fine.
Again, i'm all for noodling out how we measure that.
For whats its worth, I think the founding members of my flock are in great health - but I am no vet or duck expert !
They are happy, sociable, not over or under weight, naughty and still great layers at nearly five years old when they arent on strike.
With all our animals we adjust their diet according to how they present to us and what they need.
As an example, we've just adopted a Cane Corso who at 18 months weighs 42kg and I can see his ribs.
We feed the rest of our dogs raw - he really isn't sure and although he eats some, he doesnt eat enough to maintain his weight let alone continue growing. So we are currently working out what he will eat - and it turns out its not the stuff thats good for him.
So do we feed him what he will eat because he needs the calories and get as much good stuff down him as possible. Or just feed him the good stuff and watch his weight drop further because, well, its good for him ?
And finally ! For me, cost comes into it sometimes - a bag of 20kg feed can range between 15 and 40 euros depending on where I can get it at any given time. Sometimes I cannot get it at all. Cutting it with something cheaper and easier to get that they like is not something I will ever feel bad about. We supplement consistently with niacin.
Hope that helps - happy to take questions!
I understand - my input was outside of the AW discussion and relates to diet in general.Yes, I understand your point of view however what I like to take into consideration is that are ducks wild generation, for the most part, ate a high protein diet that consisted of frogs, fish, insects, vegetation, etc, and do we see wild mallards with Angel Wing that have not been around humans, not really.
In my opinion, the significant difference is one, these birds are much lighter then the breeds we have now, tend to grow slower overall because they weren't bred to, they also spend a great deal of time using energy to find food. I'm not a always go off the book, no matter what person, especially with topics like this that aren't completely understood, and that change throughout the year, I rather use my experience, many others, common sense, and if possible studies, to make a concise decision on what we might be talking about.
IMO, instead of worrying about cutting the protein so much, we should be more worrying about the environmental factors involved with the sudden onset of AW in ducks, to be specific lack of exercise.
I understand - my input was outside of the AW discussion and relates to diet in general.
Yes it isI see. I'm going back to the original topic of this thread, which was do I need to lower protein. Nice to have a friendly discussion, with someone.