My feed and grit woes.....

[carcar80]

I found a non-medicated starter/grower @ TSC that actually has the word AND a picture of a duck ON it. Can you believe it!? It's made by DuMor as well but they almost hide it on the shelves I swear. They want that medicated starter front and center!

Not sure how fine of a texture you're looking for but my 1-to-4 day olds are doing fine with it. It has a little more protein than you had in mind (20%) but does have niacin. It's what I raised my ducklings on last year and they did great.

 

[RubberDuckee]

I must also note, Amiga, that I became completely freaked out one day after I saw my "heart" swallow an acorn whole.... like... you could see it go down..... if you know what I mean.... Like.... the "lump" went down..... HA! I freaked and ran her to a vet. So, I completely see the need to oversee the acorn intake.

 

[carcar80]

And I'll go ahead and admit I haven't read every reply here.. I hope I didn't repeat another, or beat a horse that was already dead.

 

[RubberDuckee]

Nah.... Just remember the ol' saying from when you get hurt as a kid... "Just rub some dirt on it." Haha... duckies LOVE MUD!!!! And mud feels good, and is good for you too. LOL

 

[Olamina]

LOL you guys all rock and it's nice to see I'm not the only one who is a lil duck nuts! So I skipped the acorns because a) I have none and b) they seemed an awfully large thing to feed the ducklings at this time They did however love they're lil mud treat and it was awesome watching them splash about. My neighbor has a lot between our two properties that's all gravel n rocks n stuff. So I scooped some from the corner by his lot and it was full of little tiny rocks n sand n bugs n stuff! They went bonkers for it. Thanks for all the great advice and I will see if TSC has some chick starter hidden away.

 

[bigtrout]

as far as grit goes...any fine sand, stone or rock will do as long as it has no chemicals...fine natural gravel from an aquarium store perhaps...or the aquarium section in walmart.

i woukd skip the layer feed for now, you can get away with using it up when they reach about 12 weeks old. yes it has extra calcium but one bag wont hurt, when i integrate 12 week old ducklings into my flock i put them together during the day when i can watch and of course the new ducklings always eat my layers food as they wander around. So when they are older the food wont go to waste. buy that 27 percent gamebird food and cut it with oats to get you correct percentage of protein...gamebird food has better vitamins for ducks than chicken feed anyways.

 

[ChristineR]

My Mazuri starter feed didn't come in on time for my last hatch, so I used Purina Flock Raiser in a pinch. I think it has enough niacin in it for ducklings.

Honestly, I've never fed my ducklings grit, but mine only eat the little Mazuri pellets. I suppose if you're adding in greens and other feed that isn't already ground, you would need some source of grit.

I've noticed it's very common for feed stores to not carry duckling supplies. I think the feed manufacturers tell them that the chicken feed works for ducks, too (which it can, but it's really not ideally formulated for ducks and geese). I've called my local organic feed mill to ask if they carry duck food and they informed me that all their foods are for chickens and ducks. I'm sure they tell the same thing to their dealers.

 

[minihorse927]

I've fed all of my ducks flock raiser from the day I first got the first set of ducks. They have done wonderfully on it and I've never lost the first duckling on it. It's got the OK in my book. It's about the only thing around here that you can get that's designed for ducks. Most people around here just feed layer feed and you can't tell them any different.

 

[rubberduckies]

Yes, Amiga Rocks!!! 

Who knew there was a "Rubberduckee" and a "Rubberduckies" ha

Lol. I think there's a Rubberducky too.

That's weird about the no return policy. I've never had to return anything to TSC but I have return something to Orscheln's.

 

[Olamina]

Ya it is weird about the no return policy but it's a local feed store and not a chain so maybe that's why you aren't able to. I got FlockRaiser yesterday from TSC so I can stop worrying about this finally. I think I can safely say my 5 mystery yellow ducklings are definitely Pekins so Im excited about that too!