What to feed my Mallards?

[RubberDuckee]

As my ducks are pets and thus not intended for consumption, the vet recently mentioned switching my mallards' current food to a sustainer/maintainer. I am not sure what kind to buy though.

They are 3 and 1/2 months old and they have been on game bird grower/ender feed since they were roughly 5 weeks of age.

I have been looking on line to try to find a feed that is for maintenance. I found a website for Mazuri feed. Mazuri offers water fowl maintenance feed. Here is the link" http://www.mazuri.com/mazuriwaterfowlmaintenance.aspx

Can someone tell me if this is the correct food that I should order to begin feeding my mallard ducks? Thank you!

 

[Kevin565]

I would think they would still be on a starter but I'm don't use that brand. Celtic can probably answer this for you

 

[zooweemama]

Yes this is what I will be doing too. My ducks are 3 months old.

 

[RubberDuckee]

Yes this is what I will be doing too. My ducks are 3 months old.

Great! Thanks!
I will order some.

 

[duckmamma]

The mallards only need started feed for the first 10 weeks, then they go on Mazuri maintenance after that. When your hens enter breeding season (or better yet, a month before it), put the hens on Mazuri breeder pellets for the duration of breeding season, which runs from March thru June. Breeder pellets have calcium and perhaps a little more protein to support the hen's egg production.

 

[SJUDD]

Hi there. I have 3 Mallards and a Cayuga. They are now eating flock starter. They are about 5 1/2-6 weeks old (I have had them for about 5 weeks and the feed store said they were about a week old when I got them). How long should I keep them on the starter? Thank you!

 

[RubberDuckee]

I believe you can go ahead and transition off the starter to a grower or to a maintenance. I had read that the 5 week old mark was the point at which to transition off of the starter. I don't think a few weeks will make too much of a difference though. I still has a good bit of starter left in the bag when I transitioned mine to the grower. So, I would mix the 2 feeds together until I had used of all of the started left in the bag. I am about to put mine onto the maintenance now though. I will likely mix the grower in with the maintenance until the grower feed is all used up.

As for Cayuga, however, I am just not sure. I am only familiar with Mallards so I don't know if what is good for a "wild" breed is the same for a "domestic" breed... I just don't know enough about it...

Hopefully someone who has Cayugas will answer this part of your question.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Anytime you switch feeds always blend them to make it an easy switch. We love the Mazuri products and highly reccomend them. We have a page on our farms website dedicated to everything we use feed wise.

 

[SJUDD]

Thank you for your help. I haven't had ducks since I was a little girl and my Dad made all of these decisions back then. I appreciate the advice