Need recommendation on which Niacin.

[Heather3000]

Hi, I have 2 Pekin duckings, 5 weeks old. Both eating and drinking well. Both lively and appears well. However, one ducking has some difficulty in walking due to one of her feet turning inward. She does manage but sometimes a bit clumsy. I have been feeling them on small holders pellets and peas and occasional mealworms. I would like recommendation for pure Niacin to add to food or water? Also could someone please explain how much niacin per ducking. I find it really confusing how much niacin per quantity of food. Please help.

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

Someone here may know more , but to my knowledge the only source of pure niacin is in pill form. I have always used a vitamin B complex liquid or poly-vi-sol infant vitamins (iron free). Both can be bought at Walmart if you have one nearby.
I have never used any scientific dosing as my understanding is that it won't hurt them. I do 3 drops 3 times daily until I start to see improvement, then back off a little at a time for the next week or so until they are completely better.

 

[ruthhope]

Someone here may know more , but to my knowledge the only source of pure niacin is in pill form. I have always used a vitamin B complex liquid or poly-vi-sol infant vitamins (iron free). Both can be bought at Walmart if you have one nearby.
I have never used any scientific dosing as my understanding is that it won't hurt them. I do 3 drops 3 times daily until I start to see improvement, then back off a little at a time for the next week or so until they are completely better.

I use nutritional yeast added to the crumbles of all ducklings: 1 tablespoon per cup of crumbles, as a preventative supplement. The cheapest source of nutritional yeast that I have found is Walmart own brand. I change to brewers yeast for laying females as I can buy it in bulk from Josh's Frogs on line. It would be incredibly expensive to supplement a flock of laying females with nutritional yeast.

If a duckling has developed symptoms like yours has, I treat with Durvet High Level Vit B Compound bought from Tractor Supply or other feed store, or from Amazon. The dose is 1ml per day orally for a 2 week old duckling. We recommend soaking it in a treat (mealworms) or a few crumbles and watching the duckling eat it. But it's difficult to be sure it's all eaten. I tend to give the full dose twice a day to be sure the duckling gets the 1ml dose.

I currently have 2 rescued jumbo pekin ducklings that collapsed with severe acute niacin deficiency on the second day I had them, despite getting nutritional yeast in their crumbles from when I got them. I gave them each 1ml Durvet soaked into mealworms twice a day for 3 or 4 days, but from then forwards added 5mls Durvet to half a gallon of water and used that in their water tub. They are each drinking half a gallon of water a day (they are 5 weeks old and huge, having doubled in size the first week I had them which was from their 2nd to 3rd week of life. As they drink so much I can be sure they have had their daily dose when the first half gallon is drunk, and they have plain water for the rest of the day.

I have no experience of using "pure niacin" although I have had to buy human Vit B mixture from Walmart pharmacy when Tractor Supply didn't have Durvet. The 1 ml of Durvet equivalent of Niacin, was in 50ml of the human mixture. Fortunately, I got Durvet from Amazon Prime the next day

 

[Heather3000]

Someone here may know more , but to my knowledge the only source of pure niacin is in pill form. I have always used a vitamin B complex liquid or poly-vi-sol infant vitamins (iron free). Both can be bought at Walmart if you have one nearby.
I have never used any scientific dosing as my understanding is that it won't hurt them. I do 3 drops 3 times daily until I start to see improvement, then back off a little at a time for the next week or so until they are completely better.

Thank you for your reply. I am new to keeping ducks so to know that I don't have to measure the amount of niacin/vitamin b is greatly helpful.
I am in uk and we don't have a Walmart unfortunately. Thanks again.

 

[ruthhope]

Thank you for your reply. I am new to keeping ducks so to know that I don't have to measure the amount of niacin/vitamin b is greatly helpful.
I am in uk and we don't have a Walmart unfortunately. Thanks again.

Aa you are in the UK, try Asda, Tesco or Sainsbury pharmacy. I think you should be aware that people say you can't give too much niacin because it is water soluble and excreted by the kidneys. But you can overload tge kidneys. So beware and try and give the right dose with extra to cover losses as ducks are messy eaters and drinkers.