The conventional wisdom about what to feed pet or backyard ducks may be causing preventable health problems or even deaths in your flock. In this article, we’ll detail an avian vet-approved feeding regimen you can use to promote the long-term health of your ducks.
When we first got Welsh Harlequin ducks over a decade ago, we didn’t know much about duck nutrition or have any experience to draw on. Thus, we sought out formulas/regimens from experienced duck experts that we could use to provide our ducks with the nutrition they needed.
The traditional wisdom as to what to feed backyard ducks goes something like this:
- On or before the day your mature female ducks start laying eggs, switch them off of maintainer feed and start giving them layer feed. Layer feed is higher in protein, calcium, and other nutrients which provides your ducks with the extra nutrition they need to produce eggs.
- Once your ducks stop laying eggs, switch them back over to maintainer feed.
- Repeat.
This is the duck feeding formula we started with. However, it’s no longer the regimen we use today.