This is made by a local feed mill, and marketed as "Poultry and Duck Starter" - I was thrilled to see that it is not medicated; however, it seems the protein is too high - thoughts?
24% is high, reading Storeys guide to Raising ducks it's mentioned that ducklings need20-22% protein for the first 2 weeks, so if you use this brand you should cut the protein somehow. by adding greens in the form of romaine lettuce and crushed up peas may help cut the protein. Be sure to offer grit though if you feed anything other than starter. and they don't give the niacin percentage either, so you don't know if you should give extra niacin or not. Might want to contact the represenative of the feed company and ask the questions.
ditto Miss Lydia. My only choice at first was a turkey/waterfowl starter crumble, at 27%, so, since I began giving chick grit (maybe a teaspoon on their crumbles once a day) right away, I also added one part chopped up dry rolled oats (not instant) to four parts crumble to cut it to 20%. Nice that you have a local feed source!!
I do have steam-rolled oats (I have horses and feed it to them - I also give it to my adult chickens as a treat on occasion) and I can easily throw some into a blender & chop it up to the same consistency as the starter. If I chop fine enough, I wouldn't need to give grit, I assume? I'll check on the Niacin to find out what the rate of that is. I wonder why they make the percentage so high? At any rate, it should be really easy to cut the protein, I'm only expecting four ducklings so it's not like they're going to be going through 10# a day or anything. A Metzer representative called yesterday to let me know their Swedish hatch didn't go well and they are going to need to delay shipment of my ducklings until 4/09. Darnit!
I cannot say you would not be better off without giving any grit (how many negatives can I fit into a sentence?). I did, so there was no question about adding oats or anything else to the ducklings' diet. The oats do, I believe, have more fiber than the crumbles.
Well, it sure won't hurt anything to add grit, so I guess I'll get some chick grit. I'm sure adult grit will be too big. I see little pieces of corn (at least that's what I THINK I see) in the starter, so I thought if I put the oats in my food processor to chop them up some it would be okay. But, no worries - I'll just mix some chick grit into the container of feed. Easy! Thanks, Amiga! Thanks, Miss Lydia!
