What feed do you prefer?

[Richb353]

Thanks for the heads up. Fortunately, 23 ducks make short work of their 5' plastic kiddie pool. I plan on building a pond and filter system in the near future, but until then the morning routine includes a dump, rinse, and fill cycle!

 

[rebcart1905]

I guess I have a question now about ponds, we have 3 ponds on our property, one is in the horse pasture which was a "practice" one that didn't turn out quite the way my father in law intended, so he scrapped that project and moved to the others, the others are "natural" ponds that are stocked with walleye/crappie/blue gills, aerated etc... but no filtration system....im assuming since its a natural pond we will be OK and not worry about that sort of thing, correct???? Now the one im assuming my ducks will be using the most is the one in the horse pasture, which is still a "natural" pond just not aerated, it has grasses/cat tails growing, has a rocky sloped shore on one side and a level grass shore on the other where the horses like to graze/enter...should I be worrying about anything with the ducks using these as their primary "day" ponds as they free range??? I do plan to have a small one set up in their coop at night time too of course...but was planning on havin them use the others..

 

[DuckDodgers]

My girls love dandelion leaves and clover. I'm quite happy to pick those out of my grass and feed them to them.

Really? interesting I will have to give some to mine and see how they like it!

 

[Learningstill]

I guess I have a question now about ponds, we have 3 ponds on our property, one is in the horse pasture which was a "practice" one that didn't turn out quite the way my father in law intended, so he scrapped that project and moved to the others, the others are "natural" ponds that are stocked with walleye/crappie/blue gills, aerated etc... but no filtration system....im assuming since its a natural pond we will be OK and not worry about that sort of thing, correct???? Now the one im assuming my ducks will be using the most is the one in the horse pasture, which is still a "natural" pond just not aerated, it has grasses/cat tails growing, has a rocky sloped shore on one side and a level grass shore on the other where the horses like to graze/enter...should I be worrying about anything with the ducks using these as their primary "day" ponds as they free range??? I do plan to have a small one set up in their coop at night time too of course...but was planning on havin them use the others..

The live plants help the water have healthy components, but if the water is stagnant and you are concerned you can have the water tested. I think you can buy kits to do it at home too. I would test periodically to make sure the water is not becoming too polluted. Others on here will have more advice, so maybe start a new thread or look for one which has had many responses and read through and add anymore questions you may have. Best wishes!

 

[Learningstill]

We use duck pellets, whole oats, cracked corn (in winter only-when they are not laying), black sun flower seeds, oysters shell, egg shells and cracked eggs, fruit, veggies; and when in season we give grass, dandelions, clovers and many weeds. We mix feed, oats, cracked corn, sunflower seeds, shells in a big trash can and give this to them. We do not give cracked corn when ducks are laying, because it does not have nutritional value and it makes the ducks too heavy.

I think that is it!

Oh I forgot to add, we are starting two worm farms and will be using these too. Meal worms and some other type we can use for fishing and my gardens.

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

I'm about to have my second go at ducklings. We currently have four 6-week old runners, and they eat Nutrena Unmedicated Chick Starter (18% crumbles). Some of them started getting shaky legs when they were younger (which may be a sign of vitamin b deficiency) so now I add brewer's yeast to their food and occasionally add vitamins and electrolytes to their water when I see the shaky legs coming back.

It would be nice to have a feed that is more complete for the next round of ducklings. I read that Purena Flock Raiser is pretty complete for ducklings and I believe our feed store carries it. Does anyone have experience with or opinions about Purena Flock Raiser?

Thank you!

 

[NEduckgirl]

I purchase organic feed from eFowl.com. My girls have been doing well on it.

When I got my first round of ducklings, I did this, but found their pricing to be outrageous. $100+ for 50 lbs? No way. So, I found a local farmer who grinds and mixes his own feed from local organic and non-GMO corn and oats, mixed with a vitamin supplement. $20 for a 50 lb bag, and the girls love it.

 

[laughingdog]

My scovys which I've had no trouble with for almost a year now, and new khaki campbell ducklings, got really weak and disabled and ducklings deformed legs and bodies, after having on "flockraiser", but a store employee did warn me. purina did have a rep call and say they were looking into, and would send free coupons for feed for trouble. meanwhile i having these six ducklings for pets mostly now have slow development from feed issues and have spent a bit of money on whole project now on new feed, extra vits mins ect and time and trauma having to administer. just shortened to facts pertaining to conversation.. but over all a problematic company that's not too concerned about quality control checks to stop problems that keep happening I'm finding. a large name brand should be trustworthy for consistency and not need more than one line of feed for each species, breed, life stage, and energy ect level. sorry long winded and seems crazy flame rant, butso much trouble and trauma could be avoided just not buying inconsistent feeds purina keeps pumping out just for more money seemingly.

two KC ducklings did much better than rest, same as some scovy, those were ones that snatched up flies with consistency.

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

My scovy which I've had no trouble with for almost a year now, and new khaki campbell ducklings, got really weak and disabled and ducklings deformed legs and bodies, after having on "flockraiser". i know bought off endorsements by big breeders, but no good has come from purina since they started changing things when i was a child. even working for a vet for over three years, we were even advised about trouble by our rep and not to feed to our dogs and cats (bha in new feed lines of purina one were found to contain fish sourses loaded with mercury and lead, leading to blindness birth defects siezures and brain damage, and they kept selling it as was acceptable loss statistics until breeders complained and boycotted . i figured they couldn't screw up bird feed though and it had been yearsand could find duck type feed for scovies already had, but a store employee did warn me (then finding shaking ect wasn't from cold of scovys, after KC ducklings went down hill).

Thanks for sharing your insights into Purena. It doesn't sound like a reliable brand from what you are saying.

A few more questions just to be clear--So you started your ducks on Flock Raiser when they were younger, and they became weak and disabled? Then you switched, and they are healthy now as adults?

What feed do you use for your ducks now (and what feed did you feed them as ducklings after you got bad results from Flock Raiser)?

Thank you, laughingdog!

 

[laughingdog]

started with dumar chick 24% starter/grower (before store started carrying chick/duckling 20% starter grower feed), for my scovy ducklings penned with their mother on bare pea gravel for first couple days maybe week at most, then cause of smell/messy masses of poop switched to co-op chick start for two. weeks to months, then started letting free range (so affects of feed vary at that point and are offset). they grew great even in pretty chilly late fall days and cold to freezing nights, which mother didn't let them near her at all as she was first time mum pipping nipping and trampling them in frantic attempt at escaping babies at first in big three sided pen, them piling together staying oddly warm. they grew great and actually at five months were already as and maybe bigger than her for females (she seems danty). i penned the females and one male together for breeding, deciding to try flock raiser, free rangers of flocks of scovy talked about. had scovy on for some time and thought maybe getting heavy and not enough exercise, as some probs started.

I got six KC ducklings from TSC that had them on and one employee told me to use dumor chick/duckling starter/grower 20% that they were told to use, and not to specifically flock raiser for ducks or ducklings. i had already gotten before few bags, and bag said for ducks from zero weeks to laying, so thought good to go already. started having trouble in one or two in days i think, maybe about a week, but by about a couple weeks all but two (the two that can catch flies in air), were crippling and deforming, going from runner straight upright to turtle arched and hobbling like. did everything else right vet ect even rep from purina said, but did this time listen eventually to those and vet saying was feed deficiency of on or all of:vit B niacin and/or magnesium. used poultry drench on worst one and it perked up some.
I bought "dumor" chick/duckling starter/grower 20%, and magically seeming the troubles in all my ducks slowed, stopped, and now slowly getting better. my scovy have finally started laying also..