How Do You Feed Your Ducks?

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i'm wondering what and how people feed their ducks on a daily basis. i'm fairly new to ducks and trying to get things to an easily managed routine. It is so not easy right now.

When the ducks were younger i fed them a dry flockraiser/meat bird crumble. i would put it in a quart feeder and they would manage to get the whole thing mucked up with water, ruining at least half the feed. Then i switched them to Mazuri Waterfowl. They wouldn't eat it dry, so i started mixing it in plastic bowls with some warm water to soften it up. They love it, but it makes a huge mess and then i'm carting bowls of food out to them six times a day. i'm almost thinking they need some kind of trough feeder so they don't all walk in it and knock it all over.

i have one adult duck and eleven seven-week-old kids. Once the kids are big enough i'll let them free-range in the backyard when i'm home. With all the cats in the neighborhood, it's just not safe now. Anyhow, any advice from the knowledgeable duck folk on this board as to how to maintain a somewhat tidy feeding area would be most appreciated.

 

[katharinad]

I use large dog bowls for their feed. The key is to keep the water more then 3 feet away so they don't make such a mess. I feed mine twice per day, but they do free range. This forces them to eat all the food and don't leave to much one the ground, which will attract rats etc. The 7 week old ones will be fine with being fed twice per day.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Actually, large dog bowls sound like a great idea. i use a dog bowl that's wider at the bottom for my turkeys so they can't tip it over. But i don't know if i can get away with feeding just two times a day. Tried to put them to bed last night and they all stood up way tall, quacking as loud as they could until i fed them one more time (the 5th time that day).

 

[pascopol]

Just give them something to eat like I assume you do with other birds.

 

[Olive Hill]

Your first mistake was wetting the feed when they "wouldn't" eat it dry. When they get hungry enough, they'll eat it. Mine use the same feeders as the rest of the flock. I use a hole saw to cut 1" (or thereabout) holes around the bottom of a five gallon bucket, bolt a metal feed pan to the bottom of the bucket and then hang the whole thing from a feed station I made out of an old swing set my kids no longer use. They also eat the same feed -- a custom mix from the local mill, ground, dry. Some people use potting trays for the bottom of the homemade bucket feeders, but I like the feed pans because they're deeper and have nice, vertical side walls that prevent the birds -- especially the water fowl who like to scoop -- from spilling too much.

 

[gofasterstripe]

I bought something that looks like a cake tin from the dog isle in Walmart. Its about ...erm i dunno, 1ft to 1 1/2 foot round and about 2 inches deep.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I have the chickens and the ducks together- I feed them in a cake pan type dish and then a large trough and a small trough as well as a container that in a former life was a veg tray. They get dry food and then I water them outside in rubber dishes (I just switched to the rubber dishes). With the ducks they go through 7 + gal of water in a day and that is just for their drinking water.

When they are in the duck hospital or chicken hospital- I may treat them to mush and I guess I did that when they were ducklings but not since they were deemed adults.

 

[chikky]

Mine get Purina Duck chow in a rubber tub (about 4" tall and 12" across). I let them eat as much as they want. That's all they'll eat, other than free range. Occasionally I put a little scratch grain in the tub too, but they seem to not care if they have it.

I do cut them up leaf lettuce in the winter for breakfast, so they get some fresh greens every day. (yes, they're a little on the fat side, but not too bad so far. If they do get too fat, I'll probably just put less in the tub and when they're out, that's it for the day).

The water tub is a foot or so away- I really don't have a mess with any spilled food or anything.

 

[K4zn4v3]

I use to have the same problem and my ducks use to fill their water buckets with food. First off I would switch to a using a hanging feeder. Here is a link to one of the types I use. http://www.tractorsupply.com/livestock/livestock-equipment/chicken-equipment/poultry-feeder-chick-hanging-30-lbs-2167141

I would also recommend you switch them to pelleted food. If they dont eat it at first you can just mix pellets with crumble, adding a little more of pellet everyday. Pellets tend to be a little bit cleaner and there is less waste.

 

[HottentotTeal]

I use a dog dish bowl.

I used to feed the food to them dry, by placing the food in a small ceramic bowl inside the dog food bowl, which was filled with water, but i recently started just pouring the food directly into the bowl and then filling it up with water.

I seem to get better results, not a whole lot, but they seem to generally eat more of it.


A few people suggested the water dish to help keep the ants out, which has worked perfectly, ever since i started doing that.


I also place a little plastic mat below that, so any food and poop get on that, instead of the rocks and ground around the bowl.

Makes clean up a lot easier.



Here is an example of my current setup: