Niacin Deficiency in Waterfowl

[Galaxyfalcon]

I realised the ducks had niacin deficiency -- with the pekin having acute, severe niacin deficiency. I had started a new sack of purina duck pellets on the Wednesday before the weekend when the first symptoms arose. It's my opinion that the sack of Purina duck pellets is deficient in niacin. I have never had niacin deficiency in my flock nor in my son's laying flock of pekins. [The layers get brewer's yeast on their pellets every day].

Has anyone else had niacin deficiency develop in their adult ducks after starting a new supply of purina duck pellets? I bought my sack at Waldorf Maryland Tractor Supply last Tuesday.

We've definitely had issues with Purina pellet niacin, but we also have heavier birds (Jumbo Pekin and his mixed babies). We have to add brewers yeast and a poultry multi vitamin, and occasionally the heavier birds (usually the Jumbo) get an extra boost with some b-complex. I've considered switching to something else for food, but we would have to special order it as none of the local shops in a 50 mile radius carry anything else.

edit: we've also had problems with TSC food being contaminated with grain mites in the past. Grain mites will basically eat all the nutrients out of the food before you even open it, so it could be food that has been filled with mites at some point. I have a hard time finding pictures of the mites, but they're extremely small. They basically look like dust and it can be easy to miss if there aren't many of them. In large masses, they look like moving/flowing sawdust.

Here's just one thread as an example

 

[Misshera]

Hello

I got 3 ducklings late April, and had a steep learning curve with ducks. love them and they are a happy little flock Living their best life

When they were about 4/5 weeks old, I noticed one of them struggling to move like the other two. After reading a lot on this forum, I concluded with niacin deficiency. I started giving nutritional yeast, but quickly advanced to niacin capsules, because I was afraid the nutritional yeast wasn't potent enough, and my little duckling didn't seem to improve, and also now the other pekin was getting a bit weak in her body. They were growing incredibly fast. The third, a cayuga mix, seemed very strong and healthy.
Slowly, but surely, the two pekins did get better, and now at 14 weeks you wouldn't guess they had had a niacin deficiency. I'm so grateful to this forum, all you wonderful people sharing of your precious knowledge and time.

Now I'm wondering if they need this supplement all their life?

Happy Tuesday to you all

 

[fowltemptress]

Hello

I got 3 ducklings late April, and had a steep learning curve with ducks. love them and they are a happy little flock Living their best life

When they were about 4/5 weeks old, I noticed one of them struggling to move like the other two. After reading a lot on this forum, I concluded with niacin deficiency. I started giving nutritional yeast, but quickly advanced to niacin capsules, because I was afraid the nutritional yeast wasn't potent enough, and my little duckling didn't seem to improve, and also now the other pekin was getting a bit weak in her body. They were growing incredibly fast. The third, a cayuga mix, seemed very strong and healthy.
Slowly, but surely, the two pekins did get better, and now at 14 weeks you wouldn't guess they had had a niacin deficiency. I'm so grateful to this forum, all you wonderful people sharing of your precious knowledge and time.

Now I'm wondering if they need this supplement all their life?

Happy Tuesday to you all

Personally, I've been using Metzer's chart to help work out if I should probably supplement, and how much. I had to contact the companies in order to get the niacin content of their feed, and based on what they sent back I decided I'll be supplementing a little bit for the rest of my birds' lives. I don't worry about it as much during warmer months when they free range and have more opportunities to get niacin through natural sources.

 

[Misshera]

Personally, I've been using Metzer's chart to help work out if I should probably supplement, and how much. I had to contact the companies in order to get the niacin content of their feed, and based on what they sent back I decided I'll be supplementing a little bit for the rest of my birds' lives. I don't worry about it as much during warmer months when they free range and have more opportunities to get niacin through natural sources.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I feel stupid now, but I forgot to mention that I live in Norway.. here's no duck feed available. We have to give chicken feed or pig feed.

 

[CoriM]

If you're using chicken feed you should continue to add the nutritional yeast.

 

[fowltemptress]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I feel stupid now, but I forgot to mention that I live in Norway.. here's no duck feed available. We have to give chicken feed or pig feed.

I don't have waterfowl feed, either, which is why I used Metzer's nutritional requirements chart and contacted the feed companies of the feed I have available to me to ask them for a more comprehensive list of their ingredients. I compared the information they gave me to the chart and went with the feed that matched best. For me, the best match also happened to have the lowest niacin content, but since niacin is easy to supplement i went with it, anyway. I'd ask whoever bags your chicken/pig feed about the niacin content of the feed if it isn't on the nutrition label already, and figure supplementation out from there.

 

[Misshera]

I don't have waterfowl feed, either, which is why I used Metzer's nutritional requirements chart and contacted the feed companies of the feed I have available to me to ask them for a more comprehensive list of their ingredients. I compared the information they gave me to the chart and went with the feed that matched best. For me, the best match also happened to have the lowest niacin content, but since niacin is easy to supplement i went with it, anyway. I'd ask whoever bags your chicken/pig feed about the niacin content of the feed if it isn't on the nutrition label already, and figure supplementation out from there.

Thank you!!!

 

[Sic]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I feel stupid now, but I forgot to mention that I live in Norway.. here's no duck feed available. We have to give chicken feed or pig feed.

For information purposes, if you don't mind foraging for your your animals...I supplement niacin, manganese, and vitamin A with wild harvest of Fireweed leaves - Chamaenerion Augustifolium - not sure what you call it in Norway. Fireweed leaves are excellent source of niacin as well as manganese, and vit. A. It contains approximately 4.7mg of niacin per 100g fresh leaves (I harvest leaves in the summer and dry/crush and have ample supply year round. I don't recall what 100g of leaves equates to dry, so you'll need to weigh before and after drying to know how much to use.
100g fresh fireweed leaves also contains
protein 5g
fiber 10g
carbohydrates 19g
calcium 429mg
iron 2.4mg
magnesium 156mg
potassium 429mg
manganese 6.7mg
copper .32mg
zinc 2.7mg
phosphorus 108mg
vitamin a 3598iu
vitamin b6 .63mg
vitamin b5 1.4mg
vitamin b2 .14mg
vitamin b1 .03mg
vitamin c 2.2mg
also some folate, selenium, and 3g fat