What to feed a duck? Raising ducks

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Ducks were one of the first birds to be domesticated. Not too whimsical in care and nutrition, these winged ones, whose progenitors are wild mallards, are quite popular in the farmstead. A significant weight gain in a short time is one of the important advantages of such a sought-after bird.

Duck in the backyard: benefits

Growing ducks at home is primarily aimed at getting meat soon. Different from the usual chicken, it has a rich taste; slightly greasy, with pronounced large fibers.

Egg is also a noisy pet product. True, it is not used for food due to its peculiar taste, but it is successfully used in baking and cooking various dishes (for example, mayonnaise). Also, eggs are used for incubation in order to reproduce the feathered herd.

A by-product of keeping ducks is down - a sought-after raw material for stuffing blankets and pillows, and duck droppings are a valuable organic fertilizer.

Basic duck diet

Keeping such poultry is not particularly difficult even for a beginner, the main thing is to know how to feed domestic ducks. The main share of nutrition in the diet of "quacking" is made up of cereals, which contain a large amount of carbohydrates, which provide the bird with a stable weight gain and growth. The digestibility coefficient of cereals is about 80%, which is significantly higher than that of chickens. The most nutritious food for ducks is corn, which contains a small percentage of fiber, due to which it is easily digested. In the total share of the daily diet, it can be half of it.

Wheat, rich in vitamins B and E, ranks second in nutritional value, but ahead of corn in protein content. You can use wheat flour, but the grinding should be coarse, otherwise its small particles can clog the bird's nasal passages, which will lead to undesirable consequences.

The grain mixture can be enriched with barley, which should be contained in a total amount of no more than 30%, because this grain is difficult to digest. Therefore, it is recommended to feed the adult livestock with sprouted barley, and the young stock with grain in a milled state. It is also recommended that ducks be fed oats and legumes, which contain a high percentage of protein and protein.

What to feed a duck besides grain?

However, grain alone is not enough to feed ducks. What to feed a duck, except for cereals? You can diversify the diet with the help of bran, cake and meal. Bran is a waste of grain production, is its ownkind of economical option: they can be added to wet mash, which the duck (bird) eats with pleasure.

Cake (peanut, rapeseed, soybean, sunflower) is rich in fat content, because it is a product of processing (pressing) oil-containing seeds. It contains enough potassium and phosphorus - elements required for the bird's bone system.

What to feed a duck besides cereals? You can feed ducks pre-soaked dry bread, which they eat with pleasure.

Feeding ducks in summer

The above feeds are suitable for keeping ducks in the cold season, and feeding at this time should be carried out 3-4 times a day (2 times - wet mash, 2 times - dry food). During the summer period, raising ducks is low-cost, since they can be released to water bodies and nearby pastures, where the birds independently seek food for themselves. It is in the summer, when there is an abundance of green grass in the meadows, that you should least think about how to feed the duck. During this period, the bird can be fed twice a day.

What does a duck eat in nature? It is interesting to know that her favorite food is duckweed; adults can be fed 0.5 kg per day per head, babies - depending on age, but at a lower dosage. Chopped mixtures of green herbs (clover, peas, young nettles, alfalfa), combined with wet mash, will help you gain enough weight in a short time. You need to cook mash in the amount that will be eaten in onereception, otherwise the food will spoil quickly due to warm weather.

For quality growth and optimal egg production, ducks are recommended to add meat and bone and fish meal (rich in phosphorus, calcium, B vitamins and proteins) to the main food, you can also feed dairy products (for example, low-fat cottage cheese, which is especially useful for ducklings) and small fish.

Mineral additives (chalk, shell, eggshell) must be present in the diet of ducks, which facilitate the process of digestion of food and contribute to the full formation of eggs in the body. Grinding hard grains in the stomach requires adding gravel or coarse sand to the food.

What to feed a laying hen

Laying ducks should use a different feeding method that requires more protein and concentrated feeds and less succulent and roughage. This is due to the need to increase the content of calcium and other minerals.

When growing ducks for meat, the duration of which is on average 2.5 months, fattening should start from the moment of birth. In the early days, babies are given boiled chopped eggs and low-fat cottage cheese, which should always be fresh. You can give special food with a high content of minerals and vitamins.

Two weeks before the expected slaughter, fattening is aimed at increasing protein foods in the diet, which leads to accelerated growth of muscle mass. One week beforeWhen offspring appear, more feed should be given, the action of which is aimed at the formation of fat (boiled potatoes, mash, etc.), and fishmeal and fish should be excluded from the diet. During this period, it is recommended to minimize the physical activity of hen ducks.

Clean and fresh water is the main condition for keeping ducks

At any time of the day, the bird should be provided with fresh clean water, this is especially true if there are no water bodies nearby. Drinking bowls should be equipped in such a way that ducks can rinse their noses in them, but not swim, otherwise the water will have to be changed constantly.

So what does a duck eat anyway? Domestic ducks are omnivorous birds, practically sweeping away any food in their path. Unpretentiousness to the conditions of detention, rapid weight gain, resistance to diseases - these are exactly the advantages for which it is worth keeping ducks in the backyard.