Nutritional Yeast vs Brewer's Yeast

[gatrapper]

Would free ranging birds that have access to fresh pasture and grasses still need additional niacin supplements?

 

[Isaac 0]

Would free ranging birds that have access to fresh pasture and grasses still need additional niacin supplements?

What breeds are you raising?

 

[gatrapper]

What breeds are you raising?

Pekins

 

[Isaac 0]

Pekins

Pekins grow at such a fast rate you would still want to provide a niacin supplement even if they have active pasture to forage in.

 

[Laurasanchez89]

I just noticed that one of my ducks is having trouble walking so I'm hoping this will help the issue. I feel so bad I have 2 and one is fine. They're almost 6 weeks old so hopefully they're still young enough. I got a feed with niacin in it and going to mix the nutritional yeast with it. It shouldn't hurt the other one that's fine, will it?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Not at all.

 

[TwistedTayy]

Hey guys so I just wanted to add to this thread after having some problems and doing my own research. So to start off I had 4 pekin ducklings and 2 pilgrim goslings who were being fed Purina Flock Raiser and I was supplementing with free choice Braggs Nutritional yeast (because thats what I had in my pantry.. so awesome on popcorn). No issues but they went through it like crazy so I went on amazon and bought some stuff in a larger package and similar price point, Anthony's Fortified Nutritional yeast). Fast forward to moving them outside, I had some drama with continually finding maggots in my feeders. I know that doesn't hurt them but I hated it and they weren't eating them and the fly population absolutely EXPLODED. With some suggestions from some of you lovely people on BYC, I switched them onto Mazuri waterfowl starter pellets. No more fly issues. Also because they were outside (and because I worried that the nutritional yeast was contributing to the fly problem) I stopped adding nutritional yeast. Fast forward again, I had 15 WH inside in a brooder finishing off the last of the Flock Raiser. I had run out of NY when they were about a week old and since they require less niacin and FR is supposedly a sufficient niacin level, I didn't worry about picking up more. Hindsight 20/20, I should have at least done more research.

They are all now 3 weeks old and had outgrown their brooder. We moved them outside yesterday evening to a large run and this morning I noticed that at least half of them are wobbly legged and prefer to lay down. I assume I just didn't notice this before because they were in a smaller space and weren't moving around. Not an excuse though. Any ways I had been doing enough research on here and other places to know exactly what the problem was so I went to find the niacin levels of my different feeds. They are as follows:

Purina Flock Raiser: 55ppm
Mazuri Waterfowl starter: 162ppm

Bragg Nutritional Yeast: 35mg/ 2 tablespoons
Anthony's Fortified Nutritional Yeast: 56mg/ 2 tablespoons (they also have non-fortified, but that doesn't have the niacin content posted and thats not what I got)

I ordered some more Anthony's and will supplement when it comes and since the babies are outside now, they have already started getting the Mazuri feed. Hopefully I caught the niacin deficiency early enough that there won't be any long term effects. They were obviously getting some, just not enough. I'm going to roll the dice and say they can make it until the NY comes from amazon tomorrow since the Mazuri is so much higher anyways and they were started on it last night. I'd be curious to know when you guys think I should see an improvement by. I was surprised at the difference in amounts and also reading the levels of some of the things you guys have posted I thought Id share the amounts of these products. I was shocked that Mazuri had 3x the amount of niacin and Mazuri/Purina are the same parent company!

 

[Hossdog]

Hello,

I am new to this site, but thought I would throw my experience in here with nutritional yeast vs. brewer's yeast. I have raised now 6 ducklings using nutritional yeast, as my local stores only have that and not brewer's yeast. They seem to like the taste, and they are all turning out to have strong legs. I checked the niacin levels from brewer's yeast online vs. nutritional. They were comparable with the brand nutritional that I was buying, and also had other vitamins available in there too, which has not had a negative impact that I can tell. I will add that my ducklings were not free ranging in the back yard until 6-8 weeks old.

Thanks,
Austin

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[Saigey]

The place where I buy my Brewers yeast was out, so I got nutritional yeast. Overall they actually seem more energetic. Downey has been having dry feet all summer, but just flaky and dry, no cracking or bleeding or bumble suspicions (crossing fingers).