Spoiled. Now what?

[Cherib603]

My ducks are 6 weeks old. Starting 2 weeks ago I introduced veggies and fruits as well as hard boiled eggs. They have had mealworms since 2 weeks old and have always finished their crumbles as well.
But now it seems my spoiled babies only want "the good stuff". I have 5 ducks and each morning I fill their food and water and toss around a portion of chopped people food that fills your average paper plate. I doubt that is enough food to satisfy 5 growing duckies. But they seem like they'd rather starve than eat that "peasant food". Is this common?? Do I stop the good stuff? Give less? More??
I just want to be sure they are eating enough.

 

[Welshies]

My ducks are 6 weeks old. Starting 2 weeks ago I introduced veggies and fruits as well as hard boiled eggs. They have had mealworms since 2 weeks old and have always finished their crumbles as well.
But now it seems my spoiled babies only want "the good stuff". I have 5 ducks and each morning I fill their food and water and toss around a portion of chopped people food that fills your average paper plate. I doubt that is enough food to satisfy 5 growing duckies. But they seem like they'd rather starve than eat that "peasant food". Is this common?? Do I stop the good stuff? Give less? More??
I just want to be sure they are eating enough.

You shouldn't be feeding that many treats every day all the time. It can be bad for them, and can cause nutrition imbalances. Tone down on the treats- a lot. Give the treats only 1 or 2 times a week. Mine have only ever had treats once, and they are 13 weeks (I will be spoiling my Scovies, though!)

 

[Cherib603]

Aaaah.... I assumed veggies daily was ok.

 

[Welshies]

Aaaah.... I assumed veggies daily was ok.

They are okay, but not good. The ideal treat schedule would be every few days, so they still enjoy their "peasant" food. I'm not saying treats are bad; just use them in moderation.

 

[Cherib603]

Ok, well, I'll tell the gang the bad news in the morning.
If I don't post on here again, they killed me.

 

[Welshies]

Ok, well, I'll tell the gang the bad news in the morning.
If I don't post on here again, they killed me.

 

[gal5150]

Ha! We'll send out a search party @Cherib603! Daily greens are ok, especially if they're not foraging or have minimal forage but once they start refusing base feed....the battle of wills begins! I promise you that they will not let themselves starve so no goodies until they're back on basic feed. After that you might try giving them a pool full of greens at a specific time of day so it's part of their routine and they know that's all they're getting. Late I the day is good bc they will have stored up on feed from the morning on.

 

[Cherib603]

Gotcha

 

[Cherib603]

Ok.... Used a new tactic this morning. Filled a brand new bowl, never before seen by the ducks, filled it with crumbles and sprinkled only 10 peas on top. As soon as I put the bowl down they ran for it and dug in. They were hungry so they kept eating even after the few peas were gone. So yay!

 

[tmorgan46]

One of the few times, but I actually laughed out loud on your comment about the ducks killing you. If it were geese.... then completely different story. Just sayin.
There's an important aspect to this that was touched on but never went to closure - do you let your ducks forage naturally? If yes, then the needs for greens is far less and could be considered treats. But if no, then greens on a daily basis will never hurt, but I would do like Welshies suggested and give them later in the day, at about the same time, with regular food so its more of a meal time than treat time.