What do you feed your ducks?

[wildpeas]

Do you guys prefer pellets or crumbles for your ducks?

I'm still feeding crumbles. I don't know if I will switch to pellets as mine aren't making to bad of a mess with the crumbles.

 

[MallardDuckling]

Pellets are less mess but my small ducks can't seem to eat them easily so I just feed Crumbles

I wondered if pellets would be harder for the smaller ducks and ducklings.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I don't think pellets would be the way to go for ducklings, I have always feed pellets but when i have young chicks and ducklings I switch to crumbles.

 

[MallardDuckling]

I don't think pellets would be the way to go for ducklings, I have always feed pellets but when i have young chicks and ducklings I switch to crumbles.

I have crumbles now, back when I had my duckling. I read that you can get pellets, but haven't found them yet in a store available to me. I wasn't planning on using them because I didn't know how big the pellets were and I didn't want to take the chance on the duckling eating them.

I'll stick with crumbles, unless when they are adults and they get messy with their food. Which will most likely happen.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have crumbles now, back when I had my duckling. I read that you can get pellets, but haven't found them yet in a store available to me. I wasn't planning on using them because I didn't know how big the pellets were and I didn't want to take the chance on the duckling eating them.

I'll stick with crumbles, unless when they are adults and they get messy with their food. Which will most likely happen.

I have switched completely to crumbles from Pellets my flock like them better and since i changed their feeders to goat troughs from TSC they don't spill as much either, plus keeping their water buckets further away keeps the food drier. They eat and have to walk to their waterer but it's no big deal.

 

[MallardDuckling]

I have switched completely to crumbles from Pellets my flock like them better and since i changed their feeders to goat troughs from TSC they don't spill as much either, plus keeping their water buckets further away keeps the food drier. They eat and have to walk to their waterer but it's no big deal.

I was thinking of getting an original creep feeder at TSC, but I like the goat feeder idea better, plus it's cheaper.
I like the idea of having the ducks walk to the waterer.

 

[DougW]

My ducks love peas and cut green beans. They will kill for a hard boiled egg. I nearly lost a finger a few minutes ago when I sat in the yard with one in my hand. I started them on a 24% protein duck crumble and switched to 16% duck grower pellets when I had them for 3 weeks. I've had them one month today.

That was about the time I moved them out of the shop in my pole barn to living out doors all day and locked in their duck house at night. Too many coyotes, fox, bears, possum come into the yard at night for them to stay out. They run free all day long as I live on an island in the middle of a small lake, had me worried when a bald eagle swooped down for a fish last week. They eat what they can find on the lake and in the yard. They pick dandelion flowers and clover besides munching on grass and the occassional flower.

 

[MallardDuckling]

Very cute DougW.

Your ducks look like they're happy

 

[jacklinz]

a starter grower mix is what is recommended by the poultry houses. they told me not to feed anything with antibiotics in them (medicated) to ducks. ducks are basically healthy and do not have issues like chickens. Tractor supply or farm stores carry it.

this feed is high in protein and aids in their healthy rapid growth and boy do they grow fast. they like clover and grass and worms. i saw someone actually grew meal worms for their chickens. that would be great.

our ducks - the grown ones free range and eat bugs, and worms and anything that moves. or not, they like mud.

the ducklings would like the greens also. i grab handfuls and toss it into where i am keeping the ducklings and they all love the new thing to pick at.

i am not sure what to feed after the starter grower. i think the information on the bag says there is an intermediate food to feed but the store i shop at does not carry this. when they are old enough to start laying you can feed the egg layers. i suppliment my grown ducks with a good 5 grain scratch. it has millet, corn, lots of the stuff you see in regular bird feed but larger grains. the ducks love it. so to the other birds that live in the area.

geese cannot eat the high protein food for the starter grower too long. they will get warped wings from the excess protein. but if you do not have geese then that would not be a problem. i don't think ducks get the "angel wing"

hope this helps. Murray Mcmurray hatchery website has lots of good information on raising poultry. they did tell me that ducks and chickens should not be raised together.