How to feed Indo-girls in private households
How to feed the Indo-duck at home? This type of poultry is unpretentious and quickly gains weight with a small amount of feed. Muscovy duck gains weight on a par with Peking duck, but eats half as much, caring for it is easier. In summer, she can get her own food in ponds or in the yard. The popularity of the breed is constantly growing, as it is quiet, disease-resistant, and it is very profitable to raise such birds for meat.
How to feed an Indoor at home
Basic rules for feeding ducks
Keeping indoor dogs at home is a rather profitable activity. The weight of an adult drake of this breed reaches 6 kg, the average weight of females is 3-4 kg. By the age of three months, the ducklings are recovering to 2.4-2.6 kg. At the same time, the cost of feed is very small. The basis of the diet is made up of cereals with the addition of vegetables and green mass.
What do Indo-girls eat with ducklings? For fattening, you can use special feed or make up the menu yourself. Most private farms use the second option, and industrial farms use the first. The menu may differ depending on the season. In the summer, the emphasis is on vegetables, tops, green grass. In winter, cereals make up most of the diet.
Food should contain essential elements (proteins, fats and carbohydrates), vitamins and minerals. The main source of protein is wheat, oats, corn and legumes. Animal proteins are contained in meat and bone and fish meal, sour milk, skim milk. Carbohydrates are found in almost all foods, grains and fresh herbs. The main sources of fat are cake and oilseed meal.
In order for Indo-women with ducklings to receive enough vitamins, they need to be given vegetables, fresh herbs. In winter and spring, as well as during the period of intensive fattening, the ducks are given additional vitamins for breeding. Minerals are found in chalk, salt, eggshells. To prevent ducks from rushing prematurely and gaining weight well, these substances must be added to the diet. You can learn more about the basics of duck nutrition in the video.
Feeding ducks in summer
As mentioned, the feeding of the muscovy ducks differs at different times of the year. This is due to the availability of certain feeds. In summer, there is more greenery, birds can get their own food on their own. In winter, the diet is limited. Indo-ducks do not have a developed subcutaneous layer of fat, therefore, the content in cold weather can only be closed, ducks will not be able to look for food on their own.
So, the summer diet includes:
- Green food: any kind of grass, tops of plants.
- Root crops and vegetables: cabbage, carrots, zucchini, pumpkins, beets (root and tops).
- Cereals: wheat, corn, barley, oats.
- Legumes: lupine, vetch, peas, bean and pea tops.
In summer, an adult bird is able to perfectly get its own food on its own. Representatives of the genus eat snails, insects, worms. If there is a body of water nearby, Indo-girls can swim on it and feed on duckweed and other aquatic plants.
For the muscovy duck to gain weight, it is enough to feed it twice a day, preferably in the early morning and evening. Here is an example of a daily summer diet for a single muscovy duck:
- Wheat - 30 g.
- Barley - 30 g.
- Oats - 20 g.
- Mineral supplements - 8 g
As you can see, the consumption of feed at this time of the year is minimal, about 100 g, there is almost no need for vitamin supplements. The diet applies to those cases when the keeping of the birds is walking. It is imperative to provide the birds with water, 500 ml of water should be supplied to one individual per day. Intensive feeding looks a little different, we'll talk about that later.
Feeding ducks in winter
Many farmers prefer to keep Indo-Ducks seasonal. This simplifies bird care and reduces housekeeping costs. You can buy ducklings in spring and by autumn to get full-fledged adults ready for slaughter. But with self-breeding ducks, you have to keep the broodstock. A winter diet should be developed for him.
How to feed the Indo-duck at home in winter? In the cold season, it is impossible to get green fodder, because many owners make supplies of silage, hay, grass meal. The basis of the diet is cereals, bran meal, root crops. Sometimes muscovy ducks are transferred to ready-made feed, which contains all the components they need. If you do not feed the ducks with compound feed, but make the mash with your own hands, the nutritional norms for one individual will be as follows:
- Wheat - 30 g.
- Barley - 20 g.
- Oats - 20 g.
- Wheat bran - 20 g.
- Meat and bone flour - 10 g.
- Herbal flour - 20 g.
- Beets - 20 g.
- Potatoes - 30 g.
- Silo - 20 g.
- Minerals - 8 g.
- Salt - 1 g.
The total consumption of feed in winter for one musk duck is about 200 g. The menu can include kitchen expenses, peelings from potatoes and carrots, cabbage leaves, feed the birds with bread. This will reduce the cost of grain and vegetables. The ducks are given cake or sunflower meal. But it is impossible to overfeed Indo-dogs with such a product. With obesity, they have a drop in egg production and the percentage of egg fertilization. We must not forget about drinking: one individual per day needs 400-500 ml of water.
Minerals and vitamins in the diet
Minerals and vitamins in the diet are very important: they provide intensive growth, increase disease resistance, and affect fertility. Additionally, they are included in the diet of layers. Here are the main vitamins that birds need and foods containing them:
- A - affects local immunity, stimulates growth. Contained in fish oil, egg yolks. Its precursor, carotene, is found in plant foods (carrots, clover, green grass).
- D - ensures the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, affects the growth of bones, the formation of eggshell. Contained in fish oil, fish meal, yeast, which must be included in the feeding of ducks with ducklings.
- E - affects the fertility of ducks, increases immunity. Its content is increased in sprouted wheat, barley, oat grains, soybeans, milk, vegetable fat.
- K - affects blood clotting and metabolism in connective tissues. There is a vitamin in carrots, spinach, many herbs, clover, alfalfa, green peas.
- B1 - affects the body's resistance, nervous activity. It is found in oil cake, fermented milk products, yeast, bran, herbs.
- B2 - is necessary for the normal growth and development of ducklings. Contained in milk, herbs, yeast.
- B3 - normalizes the metabolism of proteins and lipids, neutralizes toxins. The intake of the vitamin will provide feeding of meat and bone meal, grass, cake.
- B4 - serves for the prevention of perosis. Enters the body with cereals, beans, beets, yeast.
- B5 - activates the digestive and nervous systems, heart. Its content is increased in cabbage, potatoes, green grass, carrots.
- B6 - affects the metabolism of proteins, normalizes hematopoiesis, improves skin condition. There is a lot of vitamin B5 in animal feed, oilcake, and grass meal.
- B12 - affects hematopoiesis, amino acid metabolism, stimulates growth. Contained in animal products, especially fishmeal.
- H or biotin - regulates the metabolism of fats, affects the skin. Contained in legumes.
- C - affects immunity, accelerates plumage change, wound healing. Indo-women synthesize it on their own, and also get it with fresh vegetables and herbs.
- Calcium and Phosphorus - are essential for normal growth and egg shell formation. Contained in meat and bone meal, chalk, eggshells, shells.
- Sodium is the main source of its table salt.
If any vitamin or trace element enters the body in a limited amount, it immediately affects the growth and health of the birds. Especially often, the deficiency is felt in the spring, because during this period it is recommended to include special additives such as Premix in the diet, regardless of what indocks eat with ducklings. This is necessary not only for muscovy ducks to fly well and gain weight at home, but also for their health.
Feeding ducklings
How are young animals fed and what should be their diet? Daily ducklings are fed with finely chopped egg yolk. Potassium permanganate is added to drinkers, which protects young animals from intestinal infections. Sometimes babies have to be taught to eat. They see only moving objects, so food is poured onto the backs of the ducklings, and they peck it off each other. Sometimes it is required to dip chicks in water with their beaks so that they learn to drink.
On the second day, oat or barley flour is added to the egg, 3-5 g of curd per individual. On the third day, you can add chopped nettles, quinoa or other herbs to the menu. From the fourth day, meat and bone or fish meal is introduced. Then little ducklings can be fed with a mixture of eggs, oatmeal or barley flour, cottage cheese with the addition of herbs, meat broth, and sour milk. From the 20th day, they begin to give boiled potatoes, which makes up 20% of all food. Ducklings begin to feed grain at 40 days. After 10 days, you can transfer the ducklings to a special compound feed intended for broiler chickens.
All feed should be crumbly: if the mixture is sticky, it can seal the beak and clog the duckling's airways. In the first 10 days, chicks are fed 6-8 times a day. Up to one month - 4-5 times a day. After a month, they switch to two or three meals a day. It is important to remember that ducklings drink a lot, and therefore access to fresh water should be around the clock. How to properly feed the little ducks, you can watch the video.
Intensive feeding of ducks
Ducklings are raised and fed until approximately 2 months of age. At this time, they gain weight 2.4-2.6 kg. In terms of profitability, this is the most optimal moment for slaughter. Feeding Indo-Ducks before slaughter has its own characteristics. It is aimed at a rapid gain in body weight, the formation of a fat layer. This breed has a tendency to enlarge the liver. In terms of its qualities, it is not much inferior to the goose. In order for the weight to come faster, the ducks are kept during this period without walking.
How much food should you spend in intensive feeding? For one month for a brood with ten ducklings you will need:
- Compound feed - 1.5 kg.
- Boiled waste with meat - 200 g.
- Boiled potatoes - 600 g.
- Grass, nettle, beet tops, alfalfa - chopped and unlimited.
- Finely crushed gravel, shells, eggshells - at least 8 g per head per day.
Be sure to add Premix or other vitamins to the menu for intensive fattening. It is important to know that at 60-65 days, Indo-women begin to shed their feathers. At this time, they begin to lose weight and are not suitable for slaughter. The new plumage sits more tightly in the skin and is difficult to pull out. This is another reason why two-month-old ducklings are sent for meat.