New Runner Ducks

[Amiga]

It is a little tough to know how much they are getting because of spillage, if I recall ducklinghood correctly.

Sounds like you are doing fine - if you are using chick starter and grower, you may want to add a tablespoon per cup of brewer's yeast (not baking yeast) to their food for a few weeks just to insure against B vitamin deficiency (some ducklings are sensitive to it, some not).

 

[julesv86]

Thank you Amiga. They are pretty good with not spilling their food... the water was a challenge but i believe to have figured it out ( w the help of many posts on BYC!)the list of ingredients for the duck grower that I have (which is "homemade" brand from the feed store) doesnt lists vitamin B at all! :-O could it be labled as something different?

 

[Amiga]

Yes, the B vitamins have different names. There's niacin, thiamine, and I cannot recall the whole list.

 

[springvalley123]

After multiple trips trying to find a suitable form/amount of niacin I asked hubby to call the food manufacturer and find out how much niacin is in the food. We fed Dumore (tractor supply) poultry starter grower, which is meant for chickens, waterfowl etc. They asked a number of coworkers, finally the chemist had or calculated the answer. Taat food has 90 ppm niacin, more than enough for ducklings. If the Dumore is a clone/similar formula to the Purina flock raiser starter grower you should get a same answer from that company. I've found over the years that the companies do know what/how much of various ingredients are in the food and will tell you. For example, they'll tell you how much sodium is in the dog food, etc. Anyway, my ducklings and goslings did fine on the mixed flock raiser type of food and are now switched over to the grower/finisher formula. Hope this helps!

 

[Amiga]

What I have read here on the Duck Forum leads me to believe that while the food manufacturers provide what they believe to be proper nutrition in all their products, we still end up with dozens and dozens of ducklings with leg issues and/or seizures that resolve after B vitamins are added to their diet.

The apparent variability in the nutritional needs of ducklings is something I do not think the academics have accounted for. I read one peer-reviewed paper that declared that chick starter has sufficient niacin for ducklings. And then I see the stories here on BYC. Even Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks states that some ducklings need more niacin than they are getting, when they have certain symptoms.