duck food recommendations & advice needed

[Puddingtheamericana]

i’ve got two almost 9 week old ducks meaning i’ll be moving them outside and switching them over to a 13-14% protein feed since their adolescent now. I can’t find any good duck feed online so if anyone have any recommendations that’d be nice, preferably something i can order online.

another issue i’m having is that our ducks are going to be housed in the same run with our chickens, and my chickens are pigs. not to mention duck feed has a lot more niacin in it than chicken feed and i’m worried the chickens are going to eat the duck food and consume too much niacin. i’ve seen chickens and ducks housed together before, so i know it’s possible. any advice on how i can house both animals together with their required food?

 

[ruthhope]

I don't want to chime in on duck food on line as I buy mine at a local feed store. But I can answer your question about chickens and niacin.

Niacin is water soluble and chickens' [and ducks' for that matter] kidneys will flush out an intake greater than their requirements. So you need not worry about your chickens eating the duck food

 

[fatty and friends]

kalmbach duck and goose or mazuri waterfowl maintence are the best feeds for ducks

one of my girls will not eat mazuri but if yours will it may be easier since it floats? that way you can feed it in water so that the chickens do not get it

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I'm a big Mazuri fan and you can buy online

 

[Puddingtheamericana]

I don't want to chime in on duck food on line as I buy mine at a local feed store. But I can answer your question about chickens and niacin.

Niacin is water soluble and chickens' [and ducks' for that matter] kidneys will flush out an intake greater than their requirements. So you need not worry about your chickens eating the duck food

we have a local feed store real close to us but they don’t sell duck food only chicken and horse stuff. if i can’t find any duck feed online i might just get some chicken feed and brewers yeast

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Do you have Tractor Supply? They carry Purina duck.pellets.

 

[ruthhope]

we have a local feed store real close to us but they don’t sell duck food only chicken and horse stuff. if i can’t find any duck feed online i might just get some chicken feed and brewers yeast

I was unable to get duck food a couple of months ago and so bought a sack of flock raiser. The ducks liked it. I always add extra brewers' yeast even when I can get duck food, as pekin's have high need for niacin, and I just added more when they were on flock raiser. Mine are now back on duck feed.

However, my son has laying ducks -- mainly Pekins but his muscovy started laying a month ago. As we eat the eggs, he feeds his ducks organic duck food. That has not been available this year at our Tractor Supply, and so he is feeding his ducks organic layer feed -- formulated for chickens. His ducks too are now on added brewer's yeast.

I get brewer's yeast from Amazon in 5lb bags that we burn through remarkably quickly:

https://smile.amazon.com/Brewers-Ye...eac3a&pd_rd_wg=Brzit&pd_rd_i=B00JJV3DA0&psc=1

Without brewer's yeast, one of my son's pekin females gets mental issues: she stays in the coop shouting as if she can't get out. She will follow the other ducks to the door, and then turn back and start shouting [she's a very noisy little duck at the best of times]. The other ducks will come back into the coop and then expect her to follow them out -- but she doesn't go. The others eventually get fed up and get on with their ducky business. This behavior resolves quickly when she is getting added niacin, but came back when my son dropped off giving brewer's yeast. So now his ducks are on permanent added brewer's yeast whether on duck food or chicken food

 

[Yardmom]

Purina flock raiser (I get it at TSC) has a reasonable amount of niacin in it. It can be fed to both chickens and ducks. I feed it along with free ranging. Even my Pekins were fine without extra niacin added as ducklings (adults don't usually need as much as ducklings)

 

[ruthhope]

Purina flock raiser (I get it at TSC) has a reasonable amount of niacin in it. It can be fed to both chickens and ducks. I feed it along with free ranging. Even my Pekins were fine without extra niacin added as ducklings (adults don't usually need as much as ducklings)

That was my son's belief about his pekins until his pekin laying duck started with confusion.

Without brewer's yeast, one of my son's pekin females gets mental issues: she stays in the coop shouting as if she can't get out. She will follow the other ducks to the door, and then turn back and start shouting [she's a very noisy little duck at the best of times]. The other ducks will come back into the coop and then expect her to follow them out -- but she doesn't go. The others eventually get fed up and get on with their ducky business. This behavior resolves quickly when she is getting added niacin, but came back when my son dropped off giving brewer's yeast. So now his ducks are on permanent added brewer's yeast whether on duck food or chicken food

 

[HeatherKellyB]

My big ducks always ate Purina Flock Raiser until I was unable to find it in Pellets locally (the Crumbles started to make them cough anytime they'd eat but Pellets solve that problem). I switched them to Southern States Floating Waterfowl Feed and they really like it a lot. I purchase nutritional yeast and sprinkle it on their feed. My bantam ducks eat Purina Duck Pellets. All of my duck flocks have oyster shell and crushed egg shells available for extra calcium needs whenever they're laying.