Need help with duckling diet! What do you feed your ducks?

[bellah1]

I have two 4week old rouens and i am getting 2week old runners on friday hopefully. I was feeding them a non medicated chicken starter (because thats what the feed store told me i needed). I am really upset because my boy started to develope angel wing (which we were able to correct. I did some research and found out that it happened because of the high protein. do i need to get game bird pellets? What else do you feed your ducks? Mine love tomato, greens and of course worms. I know people give chickens meal worms but can you feed them to ducks? Any advice on duckling and duck diet would be a big help.

 

[NovaAman]

Armada brand has duck feed. I pick mine up at Family Farm and Home.

If you can't get that, then I'd suggest multi-flock raiser. Its pretty fit for them all. The chick starter, make sure it says on the bag that you get that it is for chicks, ducks, turkey,...etc...

Mine love tomatoes, corn kernel, melon (just cut the melon, leave the rind on, and set it in rind side down like a little bowl, they'll do the rest. Give the seeds to your chickens if you have them), peas area BIG FAVORITE, its like crack for ducks, spinach, as long as they are not laying eggs, so only in the off season, and grapes, cut in half. Want a real treat, go to the tackle and bait shop and get a back of feeder/bait minnow/goldfish. Put them in their water dish or pool and watch em go at it. THAT is a normal thing they'd eat if they lived in stocked ponds. Oh... and frog/toads. When my girls could, (before I found them a new home) they'd catch a frog or a toad... and well, YUCK to me, but HMMM HMMMM good for them.

 

[bellah1]

mine love watermelon & thats a really good idea about the rind. we gave them goldfish for the first time recently put them in their pool and just watched them dive, it was hilarious. Thanks for the tips i appriciate it. also when is a good age to switch from starter to pellets?

 

[zooweemama]

At 3 weeks I moved the ducks to Flock Raiser. I get it Tractor Supply. None of the mom and pop feed stores seem to carry it for some reason. But I used Game Bird/Waterfowl starter (first 3 weeks) and could only get THAT at the mom and pop feed stores. lol. So far, so good. My flock of 14 are 5 weeks and 8 weeks old now. My ducks are addicted to peas and we have a pea feeding frenzy every night. They know pea time is around 830pm and that they go night night to their coop afterwards. Sometimes we chop up collards, mustards, dandelion greens or any other dark leafy greens we happen to have here avoiding any of the soggy mildewy looking pieces. We don't use spinach (my bearded dragon cannot eat it either so we just keep the same foods on hand since the ducks and my lizard eat the same thing for veggies).

We have not offered fruit and probably won't very often since we are a bigger family and I already spend a ginormous amount on produce- we cannot afford that added expense. And we know ducks do not 'need' fruit so I am ok with letting them foraging daily, nightly pea treats and the occasional pool salad we offer. Once bigger we might offer the fish once a week as another treat to keep their diet varied.

 

[Blondiega1]

I do Purnia flock raiser also with some cracked corn thrown in and fresh corn and peas.

 

[jessiduck]

Try this link! It's been amazingly helpful to me and my ducks!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/242460/the-ultimate-list-of-duck-treats-and-supplements

 

[Tahai]

, Bellah!

I'm in the NorthEast USA, and I feed Blue Seal products. I started them on Chick and Game Bird Grower Crumbles (20-22% protein), Then at 3.5 weeks, started transitioning them to Grower Cal pellets (16% protein), by 5 weeks, they were completely on the pellets. I noticed at about 4 weeks that their little legs were shaking and weak. I contacted Blue Seal to find out the level of Niacin in the feed, and it is slightly above what Metzer's recommends.

Despite that fact, some of my ducks were niacin deficient. I guess it has to do with the gut flora that converts niacin to tryptophan. Some ducks have less of it than others, which is why some ducks need supplements (which I got for them). I gave them supplements in their feed every morning until they were 6 weeks old and I put them out to pasture for the whole day. Now, with the bugs and greens, they don't need the extra niacin.

Sorry, don't know how I got on the niacin kick.

 

[pekinduck<3er]

I have been feeding all of my Ducks since they were ducklings, regualr Checken Feed. Fine as Day I tell you What!

 

[bellah1]

Thanx everyone for your advice its been a big help! This website is awesome.