Question about duckfood

[Loopeend]

Oh I found a local brand never seen before that sells duck food that is dry (the rest for ducks is often floating, especially for throwing in the water). I haven't tried it yet. What do you think;

Raw protein 16%, raw celmaterial 5,5%, raw fat 4%, starch + sugar 44%, Vitamine A 20000 IE, Vitamine E 50 milligram, Biotine 100 microgram, Vitamine D3 3000 IE

And will it grinded down to powder make a duckling feed. I suppose it's better then powder for chickens. But still; a lot of starch.

Floating waterfowl pellets:
Raw protein 20%, Raw celmaterial 2,2%. Raw fat 6,2%, Raw ashes 5,7%, Calcium 1,1%, Fosfor 0,7%, Natrium 0,2%, Lysine 1,1%, Methionine 0,5%, Vitamine A: 24.000 ie, Vitamine D3: 3.000 ie, Vitamine E: 125 ie, copper: 15 mg, Iron: 30 mg, Manganese: 100 mg, Zinc: 60 mg, Iodine: 2 mg, Selenium: 0,2 mg

 

[casportpony]

I haven't tried it yet. What do you think;

Call or email and ask about the niacin content. Should be at least 55 ppm niacin.

 

[Conan]

I use a whole seed feed for my birds. The ducklings eat the same thing, just a little bit more ground up. The main protein sources are peas and triticale.
Lots of other good stuff and added niacin. I still mix nutritional yeast flakes in with their food.

Crude protein: min 20%
Lysine: min 1%
Methionine: min .2%
Crude Fat: min 3.2%
Crude Fiber: min 8.5%
Calcium: min .6% - max 1%
Phosphorus: min .5%
Salt: min 0.25% - max .75%

 

[casportpony]

Methionine: min .3%

Is this amount okay for ducklings?

 

[Conan]

Is this amount okay for ducklings?

Slip of the ol fingers there! Mistype. I will edit my og post.
Methionine is listed as .2%
I have never had an issue with the feed or ever lost a duckling. In addition to their feed, I chop up cilantro and lettuce and feed it to them. Plus meal worms.

 

[casportpony]

Slip of the ol fingers there! Mistype. I will edit my og post.
Methionine is listed as .2%
I have never had an issue with the feed or ever lost a duckling. In addition to their feed, I chop up cilantro and lettuce and feed it to them. Plus meal worms.

I'm just curious because there is someone with a duck with possible perosis and I'm reading up a bunch on that. One of the things mentioned is a methionine deficiency and it dawned on me that I never looked at the requirements for the different species.

 

[Conan]

I'm just curious because there is someone with a duck with possible perosis and I'm reading up a bunch on that. One of the things mentioned is a methionine deficiency and it dawned on me that I never looked at the requirements for the different species.

I haven't read much on it myself, but there are definitely cases of methionine toxicity when levels are too high.
I went out and checked several feed bag tags and it looks like the feed I use sometimes has .3% and sometimes .2%.

Here is an interesting study (one that you've likely located yourself), but for those who may be interested, see below.
https://www.ajas.info/upload/pdf/ajas-15-0729.pdf

 

[Timothy Menezes]

I liked the ingredients in the floating food. Sounds like you did fine with your homemade stuff though. Use meatbird or broiler crumble with 22 percent protein. Broiler food has much more niacin than the 18 percent chick starter because broilers grow so fast. Once they are past the rabid growth stage then regular chicken layer feed is just fine for them. No need to worry about dietary differences once their body is not growing rapidly.

 

[Loopeend]

I liked the ingredients in the floating food. Sounds like you did fine with your homemade stuff though. Use meatbird or broiler crumble with 22 percent protein. Broiler food has much more niacin than the 18 percent chick starter because broilers grow so fast. Once they are past the rabid growth stage then regular chicken layer feed is just fine for them. No need to worry about dietary differences once their body is not growing rapidly.

I know wrote down for people that have a big yard where Ducks can find a lot of food themselves, chicken food is okay for some extra hunger. In small yards where they can´t find so much worms/insects/snails etc. the floating food. A lot of gardens here are 80 procent tile. And a lot of visitors probably have such a garden.

For the ducklings.. I never used floating food (and that broiler crumble I have never seen over here). Can you make a porridge from the floating for the wee ones? Easily? (The audience for my website are simple people that don't want too much hassle, I don't see them grinding stuff down... but maybe the floaters become a porridge with just some extra water added?

 

[Timothy Menezes]

Yes you can make the floating stuff into a porridge, but if that's too expensive you can probably use whatever you give your chickens over there. Just supplement some some Niacin (B vitamins) or foods rich in Niacin and your good to go. I think several of the things you gave your ducks are high in Niacin.