how do you feed your duck if you use mash do you mix with water? or do you just give it (dry)? if you mix with water how many percent water do you put? 1/2water 1/2 food? or 3/4water 1/4 food? or 1/4water or 3/4 food? please give opinions and answers
Hi, Duck15, I feed my runners a couple of pounds of laying mash, with a handful of dry cat kibble. I put it in a four inch deep pan that is about 1 foot long by 1.5 feet wide. That's about an inch of dry food in the bottom. Then I add enough water to cover the dry food. Withing 15 minutes or so, the food absorbs the water. Sometimes I add more water later, since the ducks are more interested in wet food some days. This lasts my nine runners about eighteen hours but it varies day to day. I don't leave the dampened food out for more than 24 hours, and I always sniff it after 12 hours or so - if it starts to ferment, I compost it.
The amount of water varies by how dry the grain is. Rule of thumb, just enough water so the feed will form a loose ball if you press it together but you can't squeeze any water out of it. Wet food shouldn't be left out. In my opinion, 24 hours is much too long to leave wet grain out in hot weather. That would be OK in cold weather. If you can get pellets, your ducks will waste less. Sometimes pellets cost a bit more, but still cost less to feed because of the reduced waste. Dry mash is going to be difficult for ducks to eat. They will eat it if that's all that is available, but it is much better for them to have their mash dampened.
