Duck Food For Wild Ducks – In the world of backyard chicken, ducks hold a special place in many people’s hearts. They produce rich, delicious eggs and are – for the most part – known for their charming personalities. Ducks are by nature very hardy, mixing harmlessly with other farm animals. But to keep them healthy, it’s important to feed them a good quality diet, which is sometimes different than their frequent companion, backyard chickens.
“They eat healthy,” said Lisa Steele, author of Duck Eggs Daily: Raising Healthy Happy Ducks Naturally. Steele raises ducks and chickens on her farm in Maine. They really want to eat bugs, lettuce, greens, and things like that.
Duck Food For Wild Ducks
This may come as a surprise to people who grew up giving bread and biscuits to ducks in the park. And indeed, ducks will eat bread, but it’s not really good for them. In fact, in recent years, many wildlife organizations and educational publications have urged people to stop feeding ducks processed food, which fills birds’ stomachs without providing them with any of the nutrients they need.
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“Ducks are not designed to consume processed bread,” said Gavin Hitchener, MD, a veterinarian and veterinary anatomical pathologist at Cornell University’s Duck Research Laboratory. “There are a lot of problems.”
Domestic ducks also need a simple, nutrient-dense diet to stay healthy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with her.
As the basis of the diet of domestic ducks, farmers often use commercial feed designed specifically for poultry. It’s mostly in the form of pellets, but ducks will also consume it in the form of a wonderful mush, according to CJ Walton, owner of Black Duck Farm in Pickett, Massachusetts.
The Walton family raises rare and heritage ducks and sells their eggs to restaurants and grocery stores in their area. He said there are many options for feeding waterfowl, but he prefers a custom mix feed purchased from Stone House Grain in Hudson, New York.
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“We found that ducks need to be well seasoned,” Walton said. “They won’t eat whole corn. Everything needs to be cracked or ground properly.”
“It’s really hard to find duck or waterfowl feed,” said Steele, who owns a variety of ducks and chickens. “The easiest thing [if you have chickens] is to feed everyone chicken feed.”
Lisa Steele’s ducks of Decmont, Maine, eat chicken feed supplemented with brewer’s yeast and rolled oats. | Photo by Lisa Steele
To make chicken feed suitable for ducks, Steele adds brewer’s yeast, which contains niacin, a form of vitamin B3 essential for healthy duck growth. The vitamins also aid in digestion, promote bone health and support the immune system. It can be found naturally in yeast, meat, eggs, green vegetables, and cereal grains.
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Steele also adds rolled oats to chicken feed to lower the protein. She found that feeding ducks too much protein can cause them to grow too fast and become too heavy, putting more stress on their legs.
“Ducks always need access to water when they’re feeding,” Walton said. “They have trouble swallowing if they don’t.”
Walton said he’s heard firsthand of duck owners who don’t know how to provide water for their ducks, and whose ducks choke on their food.
Providing the ducklings with proper nutrition during the first few weeks of life is crucial for proper development and continued health into the future. It’s not hard to do, but it does require a little knowledge of what ducks need.
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Most farmers begin feeding ducklings with commercial chick starter, which is formulated to promote healthy development of the chicks. However, as Steele points out, ducks need niacin — which is important for ducks, too, so the forage needs a supplement. Chickens do not need these nutrients.
“In the wild, ducks are able to obtain large amounts of niacin, which they need for leg development,” Walton said. “And no chicken or chicken feed contains enough niacin for ducks.”
To solve this problem, Walton said you can mix brewer’s yeast into your perch starter, or you can add a niacin supplement to your water.
“When we buy ducks that are a few weeks old from other farms or sometimes people give us ducks, if they’re not taking niacin, we usually get some leg problems,” Walton said.
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In addition, Steele suggests monitoring the ducks’ weight and weaning them off starting chickens early in life to prevent them from growing too quickly. Starter chicks are usually fed for eight weeks. In contrast, she feeds ducklings chalk starter for only two weeks before switching to adult chicken feed mix.
But every farmer works differently. Walton starts the ducklings by feeding them a chalk starter that is 20 percent protein, then steps in to increase the protein percentages until they are 17 percent protein at 18 weeks of age. Then he turns it into chicken feed.
In general, ducks gain weight easily. This is fine for people who raise ducks for their meat, but it can also cause health problems. This is especially important to consider when raising rapidly growing ducks.
“[If it grows really fast], its legs stick out,” Hitchener said. “They’re not designed to carry that kind of weight and that puts a lot of pressure on their joints.”
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In some cases, Hitchener said, you may need to restrict their feeding. You can also provide them with less protein, and provide them with leafy greens instead. Providing plenty of room to roam and swim can also help maintain a healthy weight for your ducks.
Sometimes ducks need an extra source of calcium. Walton serves it as crushed oyster shell. It is also important to note that some commercial feeds for waterfowl and chicken contain more calcium than others.
In addition, ducks should always have access to pellets, which help them digest their food. Ducks don’t have teeth, so they use grit (sand or small stones) in their digestive tract to help break down larger food items, according to a fact sheet on duck digestion published by Ducks Unlimited, the world’s largest waterfowl conservation organization.
Dandelion greens are an excellent snack for domestic ducks, and for many people, this treat can be found for free in the yard. | Photo by Lisa Steele
Bread Is Off The Menu
Allowing your ducks to roam in the pasture or swim in the pond can provide them with natural food that enhances their health. Furthermore, allowing ducks to roam free will save you money on commercial feed.
“They love broadleaf weeds, like dandelions and clover, so I put a bird-heavy mix on them,” Walton said. “I would say that the herding ducks reduce their grain consumption by about a third.”
Walton likes to rotate his ducks among pastures throughout the summer to prevent his water area from becoming a mess.
“They’re much easier to do with landscaping and gardening than chickens,” Steele said. “They don’t really spoil things, but they will trample young plants and gnaw on the lower leaves.”
What Do Ducks Eat?
In addition to foraging for greens, ducks hunt mollusks, worms, and a wide variety of insects. And if they gain access to a pond, their diet may include fish, algae, and even small aquatic animals.
For treats or complementary foods, ducks enjoy a wide variety of plants and insects, Steele said, and these “healthy foods” provide the nutrients birds need to maintain good health.
“They love leafy greens,” Steele said. “I grow a lot of things for them in the summer — Swiss chard, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts.”
In addition, she frequently feeds her ducklings melons, cucumbers, berries, almonds, peas, and corn. Some of these snacks — like peas and corn — float, so ducks can eat them while swimming or drink from water bowls.
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“You know when you get to that time in the summer and realize you’ve planted a lot of zucchini?” Walton said. “We’ll break it down and feed it to the ducks.”
With hard vegetables, such as zucchini, it is important to break them into small pieces or the duck may choke. Walton often runs leftover vegetables through a food processor of the appropriate size.
It’s also important that the food is fresh, Hitchner said. Ducks get sick from aflatoxin, which is found in some types of mold. Ducks are also susceptible to food poisoning, caused by a toxin that can be picked up from decomposing organic matter and sometimes larvae.
Terry Fitzpatrick has been herding ducks twice a day along the Penobscot River in Brewer, Maine, for three years. He gives them a mixture of cracked corn and sunflower hearts, which are more nutritious than traditional breadcrumbs. | Photography by Caitlin Rogers
Facts About Ducks
Wild ducks often have plenty of natural food sources, so they don’t need any supplemental food from humans. However, for some people, feeding the ducks is a tradition and an activity that brings them joy. If this is the case for you, consider feeding them something nutritious and natural.
“If you want to feed a wild duck, bring it in