Brewers Yeast or Niacin for duckling

[LeslieDJoyce]

Here is the link to another page about niacin and ducks ... it recommends a different amount of niacin per duck per day than what I was told by the poultry nutritionist I spoke with before ...

http://metzerfarms.blogspot.com/2011/03/are-my-ducklings-leg-problems-due-to.html

The Metzer farms website has a lot of info about the care and feeding of ducks, but I haven't found the information there to be quite complete enough for me ...

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

The Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks, 2nd Edition states:

Ducklings must be fed a diet providing 35 mg of available niacin per pound (0.5 kg) of feed from zero to two weeks of age and 30 mg from two to ten weeks of age. If regular chick starter is used, add niacin in the drinking water at the rate of 100 to 150 mg per gallon from zero to ten weeks of age. When allowed to forage in areas with an abundant supply of insects, ducklings seldom experience a niacin deficiency.

The same section of the book states that "Most chick starters are deficient in niacin, but broiler starters typically have an adequate amount of niacin for ducklings."

There are other threads here at BYC that discuss what types of human niacin supplements to buy if you would like to use those ...

 

[Speceider]

Chick starters have less bioavailable niacin because ducks (and turkeys) have high levels of the enzyme picolinic acid carboxylase which converts tryptophan the CO2 and water. Chicks convert tryptophan to niacin.

Clint

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Here is a link to an Australian site that lists the mg of niacin to kg of feed for ducks of various life stages ...

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/poultry/feeding/nutritional-requirements-ducks

It has other useful information about duck nutrition.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Chick starters have less bioavailable niacin because ducks (and turkeys) have high levels of the enzyme picolinic acid carboxylase which converts tryptophan the CO2 and water. Chicks convert tryptophan to niacin.

Clint

Again, huh?

 

[winteree]

so how much brewers yeast per cup of food?

 

[Amiga]

Here is my best guess on brewer's yeast, trying to come up with an equivalent to the Storey's Guide recommended amounts of niacin.

Okay, two tablespoons of brewer's yeast contains 10 mg of niacin, based on this page http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/custom/1323569/2

The guesswork is in how much water a duckling actually ingests in a day. If a duckling actually drinks a half a cup of water a day, it would be getting (16 cups in a gallon, 32 half cups in a gallon . . . . 150 divided by 30, more or less) 5 mg of niacin from water with 150 mg niacin per gallon. Which would be about a tablespoon of brewer's yeast.

 

[winteree]

Here is my best guess on brewer's yeast, trying to come up with an equivalent to the Storey's Guide recommended amounts of niacin.

Okay, two tablespoons of brewer's yeast contains 10 mg of niacin, based on this page http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/custom/1323569/2

The guesswork is in how much water a duckling actually ingests in a day. If a duckling actually drinks a half a cup of water a day, it would be getting (16 cups in a gallon, 32 half cups in a gallon . . . . 150 divided by 30, more or less) 5 mg of niacin from water with 150 mg niacin per gallon. Which would be about a tablespoon of brewer's yeast.

OK one per cup i can do that i hope i caught the "rocking heel dance" as my grams would call it Early enough so their won't be any damage

 

[castiel]

I just bought my first duck its 2 weeks old and was wondering where to get supplements for it as its only 2 weeks.. and any tips ?

 

[Amiga]

Poultry vitamins are generally found at feed stores. Sav-a-chick is handy to have, and is sold at feedstores, too.

B vitamins and brewer's yeast can be found wherever human vitamin supplements are sold.

I would call ahead.