The duck starter is running down so what comes next?

[Going Quackers]

The babies are 6wks today and have been on a duck starter almost from the beginning.. at first we had an unmedicated chick starter till i was able to locate duck starter... what do i buy next? a duck grower? what % of protein should i be looking for.

 

[Amiga]

Hi!

I started moving my ducklings into grower rations between two and three weeks, so I'd get some grower rations at this point and start mixing it in with the starter. When mine started acting out breeding behaviors, I added a bowl of free choice oyster shell.

My aim was about 18% protein, some folks aren't as concerned with keeping it low, but I followed Storey's Guide recommendations and it has worked out for us.

Have you been sprinkling a little chick-sized grit on their food yet? Are they getting greens? Bugs? Just wondering.

 

[gofasterstripe]

TC sells 18% grower/finisher. I have my babies on that by week 2 to 3.

 

[Going Quackers]

Quote:

I'll look for some grower. Hmm no grit? there outside in a run daily... there is some sand(play sand ie; stole from the outgrown kid sandboxes lol) under the ramp, is that equivalent? .. as for bugs since there outside during the day there catching whatever happens to be in there... and for now it's a grass bottom.. of coarse that is slowly turning to mud

I give them peas each night after we move them inside as sort of a combined bonding/eating moment.. they have to come to me to eat it out of the bowl.

I can certainly get more greens into there diet though, i have the list from the forum here on what and when.. to refer to.

 

[Going Quackers]

Quote:
Sorry i don't know what TC is? i'm not in the US so i have a different and sometime more limited choice for feeds. Thanks though.

 

[DurhamDuck]

My ducks and geese went on Grower Cal pellets (from Blue Seal) at about 5 weeks, but they also do a lot of free range foraging every day.

 

[Amiga]

Sometimes indoor ducklings have trouble digesting real food (as opposed to crumbles or pellets) if they've had no grit. But if they're outside on the soil, they are probably ingesting plenty of sand and small gravel sized soil particles that will work as grit. Good news!

I've done a couple of different things with their feed since they were about four months old, partly due to availability. I have continued to feed them a grower/maintenance ration with free choice oyster shell (all girls, all laying most of the year) and a handful of dry cat kibble to pop the protein up a tad. We tried going to a commercial layer feed, but they didn't eat much of that. So, back to g/m plus oyster shell.

I started switching about six weeks ago to an organic poultry laying mash. Now, possibly unrelated, one of my ducks is having difficulty with low calcium, in spite of my including oyster shell in their feed pan as I switched over (slowly replacing the former feed with the new feed over the six week time frame).

I feel that a good base complete ration with added variety of fresh and foraged foods is good for the ducks. In our flock, I've found that some tweaking needs to be done for individual ducks (not always easy) to keep everyone healthy.

 

[Going Quackers]

Quote:
Thanks for your input. yeah, i'll have to see what i can get to. I actually got my duck starter from a different feed mill than i get my horse grains as they had no duck specific feeds, we found they did better being on a duck vs a chick starter. Unfortunately, i also deal with less choices, many brands don't bring there full line to my country.

At this point i have no clue what i have, although one has all of a sudden just shot up size wise.. so i am fairly certain it's a drake but whether the others are hens(they are smaller) eludes me