My Halloween Pumpkin Guts Started Fermenting

[Duckworth]

Can I still safely offer them to my ducks? I carved fresh pumpkins on Tuesday evening and put all the guts and seeds into a container, thinking that I would get to separating the seeds for baking the next day. But something came up, so I put a lid on, to avoid attracting fruit flies and separated, rinsed, boiled and baked the seeds this morning. The pulp is slightly fermented. Just a little alcohol smell, not "pumpkin vodka."

I also have four jack o lanterns on the porch that can either go to the compost pile or stop first in the duck pen. Is there such a thing as too much pumpkin for four ducks? They have layer feed, oyster shell, some Swiss chard that I cut right before the freeze, and because I saw other people adding cracked corn when the weather went below freezing, some cracked corn. I don't think the ducks are that into the cracked corn, but that will probably change when the temperatures stay low for the winter.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I personally am over cautious, but generally I find my birds won't eat stuff that has gone bad. I haven't seen my ducks interested in pumpkin either. I might skip feeding the insides and just feed them the pumpkins.

As far as the corn, my ducks prefer whole corn to cracked as it's easier to eat, so maybe try that.

 

[chickens really]

When in doubt, throw it out...
My Ducks will not touch pumpkins...My Chickens like it.
I microwave spaghetti squash once in awhile for my Ducks and Chickens..Poke holes in it with a knife and cook 12 minutes..I cut it in half, let cool and give it to my Birds...They love it...

 

[Duckworth]

I put the pumpkin pulp in the compost pile and put in one of the jack o lanterns, along with a small watermelon that froze when the temps dropped here. They are eating the watermelon quickly, but haven't shown interest in the pumpkin, so I'll take it out. They did pick through a pile of Swiss chard leaves and ate all but the stalks. I just cover those with fresh straw to compost with my other deep litter. But I'm still pretty new at this, so always hoping to learn.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

When in doubt, throw it out...

"That is safe practice in the Restaurant Industry".
I believe in that rule of thumb..