Features of the diet of domestic ducks
Not every farmer knows how to feed ducks at home in order to quickly build up meat on a bird or increase its egg production by 2-3 times. The question of what the duck eats and what to feed the ducks in the winter is becoming acute for people with a large number of livestock. Increasing the number of young animals at home, high quality fluff ensures proper and balanced nutrition. What do ducks like to eat and how not to go wrong with cheap food?
How to feed ducks at home
Ducks on the farm
A duck is a domesticated feathered individual that is unpretentious to care for, which is bred for various purposes. Who will benefit from nimble birds? Ducks are bred by farmers for:
- high-quality meat stocks in the house;
- valuable down;
- for the eggs;
- for sale.
Food for ducks determines their well-being and the health of the future brood. Can ducks be fed bread? There are many myths among the people about what can and cannot be added to a poultry feeder. Feeding depends on the ability of the farmer. Why ducks cannot be fed with bread, only poultry farmers who have learned by experience know that they have faced the undesirable consequences of improper feeding of birds. There is only one rule of a successful household: what ducks eat in nature, so they can eat properly at home.
Green complementary foods are the most satisfying, healthy and environmentally friendly, but what to do in winter or during epidemics? It is impossible to feed pets with anything at all, and the quality of its fluff and meat depends on what the feathered representative eats. Feeding only grains, oats, or pumpkin seeds to ducks is harmful to the stomach of pets. Only a caring farmer will be able to breed a large herd at home. How much feed is needed for adult ducks and young animals?
The duck eats several times a day, and she also drinks a large amount of purified water.
Features of care are only in vitamin supplements. This is exactly what young ducks need in particular. Without nutrients, the duck quickly weakens and falls to its feet, while it cannot gain weight.
It is impractical to feed young animals with low-quality food, only waste or dry feed is impractical, because this species will take much more time to grow. Equipping aviaries and cages for duck groups, organizing their feeders and drinking bowls is a simple matter, but making a diet for all poultry is not as easy as it might seem from the outside.
Only an attentive and patient farmer will be able to acquire a large flock of ducks at home. Ducklings need to be handled even more carefully, because their stomachs are too weak to withstand excessive stress. What is given to pets that need to gain a lot of weight or in the future sit in a nest for incubating offspring? It is unreasonable and dangerous to feed the entire household of birds with the same food: as a result of rash actions, both young and adult birds can suffer.
What kinds of food are there?
How to feed ducks in winter and what to put in a trough in summer? The diet of domesticated poultry changes several times a year.With a change in temperature and humidity of the external environment, the behavior of birds changes. You must be especially careful with ducks during cold weather, then the birds are most weakened and unprotected from various diseases. How to properly feed ducks at home? Complementary foods, both basic and additional, should be varied. Not only will pets get bored with the same food, it will not allow them to get the required amount of nutrients and vitamins.
In the summer it is not difficult to feed a duck flock, and at home, in just one season, a successful farmer can increase the number of ducks by 2-3 times. Ducks are easy to handle if you know a few features of their life. What does the diet depend on? Feeding can vary depending on several factors:
- breeding poultry for meat (in order for the birds to gain excess weight, carbohydrates and proteins must be present in their area);
- increasing egg production for a large number of offspring for sale (special attention is paid to the nutrition of layers);
- to obtain high-quality fluff (supplements consist of many vitamin complexes with a high calcium content).
For himself, the farmer determines the main function of the ducks in the farm, and then schedules the feeding and care of the flock. Dieting is easy when you know what supplements to include in your daily diet. Regardless of human plans, all birds, without exception, should receive nutrients and green supplements every day.
Main types of feed
For domestic birds, only high-quality products are selected that were prepared independently or purchased in specialized stores. Taking risks with food for birds means harming your own profit or health. In order for the birds to gain weight faster, their diet should in no case be combined with a sedentary lifestyle, and tight cages will not benefit the plumage, with such ducks the farm will quickly become unprofitable.
It is important to take into account the living conditions of the flock if the farmer is focused on serious work. It is in the interests of the person who eats these foods to take care of pets that provide eggs and meat. The duck eats everything that is put in the feeder, because it cannot get food on its own. With ducklings, things are even more complicated: they are completely dependent on a person. Provide birds with safe food of this type:
- cereals (literally any cereal crop);
- waste;
- root vegetables (green grass);
- flour from other animals;
- mineral complexes in the form of additives;
- vitamin compound feed.
Feed is given alternately, sometimes they are mixed, depending on the time of year and the age of the bird. Do not forget about water, the duck loves it very much. Birds, which are given a balanced compound feed, feel better than their relatives and endure epidemics.
What can not be fed to ducks and what foods are not tolerated by adult ducks and ducklings?
Waste feed
In order for the birds to gain weight (fat or a layer of meat), special care is needed for the ducks. How much do ducks eat? The amount of feed additives depends on their quality. Only dry complementary foods are not suitable for ducklings, while for adult ducks, mixed fodder can be substituted for grass in winter.
Can ducks be fed corn? In fact, ducks can be fed with any food that other poultry eats, but in limited quantities. Bran and cake are considered waste from enterprises. They are added to the bird feeder. Bran is well tolerated by ducklings.
Is it possible to feed young ducks with cake only? The percentage of feed additives from which young animals or adults will not feel bad is as follows:
- Soybean or rapeseed meal. Waste from cotton or sunflower processing is suitable for feeding poultry. The proportion of healthy fats in such foods is very high - up to 5%. The bran is rich in phosphorus and potassium, which are considered the most important additives in duckling care.Up to 40% of raw materials (average rate) remain from the production of oil-containing products, and it is unprofitable to throw it away. Why feed the ducks with bread when you have a few bags of bran on hand? Birds living in an artificial reservoir love such complementary foods, they make up for the lack of phosphorus and calcium in the body.
- Waste from potatoes. Such complementary foods are obtained in the production of alcohol. They are added on the tenth day of the chick's life, which is very useful and nutritious for the young organism of the duckling.
- Beet cake. Sugar production is not complete without generating large amounts of waste. The favorite food for ducks is cake, it allows you to feed even large flocks (nutritious product due to the carbohydrate content). It is allowed to mix from 1 g of oilcake to young animals after 20 days of life. Birds that live in the reservoir are content with nutritious cake up to 2 times a day. Small chicks do not use oil cake, for them it is too heavy food.
- Beans. The high protein content makes legumes indispensable for ducks. The duck group eats peas and beans, but in small amounts. You cannot add a lot of beans.
Birds that frequent a body of water (open or artificial) or pond need to be provided with clean water. The wild duck representative rarely eats corn or bread, therefore, poultry will be able to do without such a product. Warm food can also be added to bird feeders, but hot mixtures must not be left. Little ducklings are susceptible to any changes in the diet, therefore it is necessary to add waste gradually. Overfeeding chicks with corn or beans is not recommended. You can add a little flour or feed with bread, but do not get carried away with the abrupt change of food, to which the ducks are accustomed.
Green food for duck
What greens should a farmer choose? Poultry should not be limited in green complementary foods, especially in summer. You can change the supplements, but the grass, which is considered the basis of proper nutrition, should not be completely removed. Eats greens and young growth, and a laying hen, and a drake (green food is especially important for adult birds). The video on duck breeding shows how much the birds like to eat grass.
By their nature, ducks are wild, freedom-loving birds that live near rivers or ponds. The herb they consume is easy to find. The flock is able to eat not only greens, but also fish (by their nature, drakes are hunters). The bird can be domesticated, but it will not change its habits. If an adult female eats grass, then the young also eat it. In the farm, fish can be abandoned, but healthy green feed is not.
The food that the flock eats is used by birds as energy with which they can continue to rush or build up mass. Feeding is a special process. You should think about it as soon as a person decides to start his own household. Good feeding ensures a healthy brood and active hens.