Muscovy questions

[Rosecomb-Ryan]

To Ryan: Lol about you duck using a neighbors pool! I'm not sure my neighbors would be too thrilled about that...
As for selling them as meat, I could do with some extra income...

Yeah, nor were they, Wasnt my duck though lol... It is great, I get my feed money back by just selling meat birds, not counting the birds I sell as show birds. Thats why I dont have a huge desire to sell show birds.

 

[jdywntr]

Thank you, jdywntr. Trust me, I don't plan on keeping to many drakes.

As for duckling, I was wondering about that, too. I know they can't have laying mash, so (I plan on letting mama raise them) should I set out other feed more acceptable for ducklings?

I have switched to Purina Flockraiser for my ducks and chickens. There are no strictly duck or waterfowl feeds available around here. If you want you can just get an unmedicated chick starter for the first 8 weeks then switch to grower. There are many different brands available and mom can eat it too.
My Muscovy don't eat much. They "free range" in my back yard but I am in the suburbs and the yard they have is only about 60' X 30'. They are very good at eating bugs though. I would say free feed when young and once completely feathered you can see about cutting it back. Offer food in the AM, PM or both and pick it up after 15-30 minutes. You can gauge how much they need. Layer feed should only be fed once they start laying.
Good luck on your Muscovy adventure!

 

[Rosecomb-Ryan]

Layer feed should only be fed once they start laying.

How come?

I feed my birds, year around, Layer pellets and some 22% dog food....

 

[LaynaDon95]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But, if the mama duck is raising them, there is no guaranty they will eat separate feed from everyone... These are the questions that haunt me.[/FONT]

(Posted previously because I suck at editing posts quickly... This is like your first Facebook account. I hate figuring out new websites! )

Plus, I don't want to take everyone off of layers just because I have little ducklings...

 

[LaynaDon95]

Ya'll post too fast! Slow down I'm a newbie! lol

 

[Rosecomb-Ryan]

Personally, I wouldnt worry about it. Alot of people have their own ideas about feed. I have raised thousands of Muscovies and have never had a problem. 20% and free ranging they would probably be fine.

 

[LaynaDon95]

Fantastic! You just made my life sooo much more simple. These bird things take a lot of planning.

 

[kimb]

I got 4 Muscovies in the fall (juveniles) and I LOVE them ... They do fly (mine like to perch a-top the coop - but they've yet to "fly away" ... I won't clip wings - as they do free range and I'd prefer them to get away if they can.

They live with my assorted chickens, the most docile one actually sleeps in the tire nest with one of my LF cochins. 1 Drake - 3 Hens. They're also live quite well with my Call Ducks (who also live with the chickens. It's 2 coops connected with lots of room to perch in both sections. I deep litter - but I just add on top every couple of days, mix or flip the bedding when I can - and then a couple times a year I actually go through - pull out any sections that are really gross - flip it all up - lime & DE the floor - and spread it all back around.

In the summer - I do not keep water in the coop. They're out from about 6:30am - dark and have lots of fresh water available in all shapes and sizes to swim/spash and drink.

In the winter. I use a heated 9 Qt bucket and put that bucket inside a rubber ground feeder. So that the splashing and food dunking can stay contained - otherwise - they'l splash and forage until there's no water left. I also keep the food about 6' away from the water so that the ducks actually have to work to eat as opposed to just dunking all the food and then playing with it later.

So far - so good. Although It'll be interesting to see what happens if a Muscovy Hen goes broody. I have 1 LF Cochin that gets pretty ruthless when she's broody (and she likes to nest on the ground - hence the tire nest). I also have 3 little bantam hens that whoooped my cat something awful when he tried to investigate their babies. So I'm prepared to sepearate and contain some ladies come spring when I'm wrestling eggs out from under all the Broodies.

I was advise NOT to feed the muscovies chick starter or grower (at least Poulin brand) that doing so has caused Angel wing. For ducklings - they're forage and I'll provide layer crumbles.

I wouldn't feed mash to anyone except just hatched chicks (and they get chick starter ... ) it's really quite a pointless texture IMO.

I feed scratch here and there - as a treat - I scramble it around the yard for them ... they also get any fresh fruit & veggie scraps or leftovers I throw outside for all the birds ...

That's my 2 cents on it

 

[LaynaDon95]

Sounds like pretty much exactly what I'm going for! Thank you so much! Lots of good info. You make me feel much better about my plans.

 

[jdywntr]

The only problem with layer pellets is the amount of calcium in them. According to many experts, excess calcium is dangerous/deadly for growing ducklings. If you have a TSC in your area, they have Dumor (their brand) of starter and grower that is fine for ducklings. Purina has Flockraiser and Start and Grow. Many other brands have starter feed.

The main thing with ducklings vs. chicks is the amount of protein required.
Best case scenario ducklings would have:
protein calcium
weeks 1-2 21% 1%
weeks 3-9 17.5% .9%
9+ weeks 14% .8%
after first egg 17% 3%

This is from Metzer Farms info. It is difficult for many of us to get rations with these requirements.
And for instance, Purina Flockraiser has 20% protein and 0.8% calcium
Purina Layena (layer ration) has 16% protein and 3.25% calcium

I have never fed layer rations to my birds as I believe (and have read) that drakes do not need the excess calcium in layer rations. I used to provide oyster shell as a calcium supplement but I have had the same very small bag for over 1 year and never have a problem with egg shells.

I recently switched to Flockraiser from Nutrena All Flock (as I had a problem with the only feed store that I could get Nutrena from.) I still prefer the Nutrena as it was a small pellet and I can only get Flockraiser crumbles, though I am sure that it comes in a pellet.

I have now gone on and on and on

with way more info than you probably wanted. Regardless of what or how you decide to feed, as there are many opinions ( as you have seen

), enjoy your duckies when you get them. They are a blast!!!!!

Oh FYI. I clipped my muscovy's wings after finding my female at my front door. She "flew" over my 6' privacy fence. Down here muscovy are a nuisance species and many people would kill them if they found them so for their safety, the wings were clipped. Now they just plop around.