Hello all
We are very new to the whole poultry game so I apologise in advance for my newby questions! We have owned chickens for about 18 months and we seem to be doing well there, but now we've just purchased some ducklings. They are Indian Runners and they are 3.5 weeks old at the moment.
Currently we have them in the bathroom (they are contained in a shower area with a box on it's side for them to sleep in at night. We have puppy pee pads on the shower floor and as 'bedding' so they don't slip around too much. We bought duck starter food for them, they have a water bowl and we give them a bath in the bath tub twice a day. We just have a heater on low setting in the bathroom and they don't seem to be cold at all.
My main question (other than if I'm doing something glaringly wrong already - please tell me!!) is about grit. I understand what it is used for, but I still don't quite understand exactly what it is or what I should be giving them. The lady we bought them from said that she only gives grit while they are confined inside and she uses tiny pieces of gravel about 2mm big. I read that you don't need grit if you're only feeding commercial food, but yesterday I decided to give them some tiny chopped up bits of herbs and grass in some water. I put some tiny bits of gravel in the bottom of that water bowl and after they'd finished devouring the plants I noticed the gravel was gone too. So, does this mean they actually eat it? I think I was picturing them using it to grind the food up in their mouth and then spitting them out - but now I think I kind of got the wrong end of the stick on that one! And is it ok they ingested them?? This morning it seemed there was less poop than they would usually do overnight (there was still quite a bit, but the entire shower wasn't full of it like it usually is when I get up!) so I have become completely paranoid that they've eaten these little rocks and they're all bunged up and I've ruined their life! Have I done something disastrous? What should I actually feed them as grit if that was wrong? And once they go outside in their pen that will have sand etc, do I need to feed grit? I've read everything I could and I'm still not 100% sure and I want to make sure I do the right thing!
Thanks!
Jen
We are very new to the whole poultry game so I apologise in advance for my newby questions! We have owned chickens for about 18 months and we seem to be doing well there, but now we've just purchased some ducklings. They are Indian Runners and they are 3.5 weeks old at the moment.
Currently we have them in the bathroom (they are contained in a shower area with a box on it's side for them to sleep in at night. We have puppy pee pads on the shower floor and as 'bedding' so they don't slip around too much. We bought duck starter food for them, they have a water bowl and we give them a bath in the bath tub twice a day. We just have a heater on low setting in the bathroom and they don't seem to be cold at all.
My main question (other than if I'm doing something glaringly wrong already - please tell me!!) is about grit. I understand what it is used for, but I still don't quite understand exactly what it is or what I should be giving them. The lady we bought them from said that she only gives grit while they are confined inside and she uses tiny pieces of gravel about 2mm big. I read that you don't need grit if you're only feeding commercial food, but yesterday I decided to give them some tiny chopped up bits of herbs and grass in some water. I put some tiny bits of gravel in the bottom of that water bowl and after they'd finished devouring the plants I noticed the gravel was gone too. So, does this mean they actually eat it? I think I was picturing them using it to grind the food up in their mouth and then spitting them out - but now I think I kind of got the wrong end of the stick on that one! And is it ok they ingested them?? This morning it seemed there was less poop than they would usually do overnight (there was still quite a bit, but the entire shower wasn't full of it like it usually is when I get up!) so I have become completely paranoid that they've eaten these little rocks and they're all bunged up and I've ruined their life! Have I done something disastrous? What should I actually feed them as grit if that was wrong? And once they go outside in their pen that will have sand etc, do I need to feed grit? I've read everything I could and I'm still not 100% sure and I want to make sure I do the right thing!
Thanks!
Jen
