Food for ducklings

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Hi

My little call duck has been sat on her nest for 26 days now and there are signs of hatching under her. What do ducklings eat? How soon will it be before they come out of the nest and house? How long before they need/want/can swim on the pond? Do they need protection from the other ducks?
Lots of questions I know, sorry, but we have never had ducklings before.

Thanks
 
You can get feed from a feed merchant. I can't remember which brand we fed ours. But it was a crumb. They'll need it in a low, shallow, wider type of feeder as the way they eat with their beaks is different from chooks. Same with water.

Ducklings can get cold in water (or drown) if they can't easily get out. Until they get their full feathers they are at risk. Mum will probably decide when to take them to the pond. Just ensure they have clear access in and out, like a ramp or some such. If its steep sides and they are not able to get out they will get cold, weak and possibly drown.

I had one duckling got stuck in a large basin :roll: and had to rub him off, dry his down with the hairdryer and pop him by the woodburner to warm up for an hour or two before putting him back with his friends.
 
Hello, you need to feed them non medicated crumbs- not chick crumbs- get duck or goose crumb- no anti coccidiosis drugs in it. I wouldn't left them free range until a few weeks old- magpies, crows and hawks will take them - can you put them in a covered run with mum?I don't let mine out free until about two to three weeks old- Keep them seperate for a week or two- if hatched under a duck they will be waterproof- they get it from mums feathers so you can put in a shallow dish of water - they will love that- She will bring them off when she is ready- dont try to move her until she brings them off- but as i said watch out for the predators- good luck ,any questions please ask, regards, David :)
 
If you have chucks and don't want to buy special food then Allen and Page layers has no coccidiostat in - I have been feeding my ducks that for many years. The problem with medicated food is that while chucks peck at it, ducks shovel it up and so take in too much so overdose on it. It will kill them in time.
 
I use Mole Valley Farmers feed. It was medicated but they only sell un-medicated as standard now.
 
Many thanks for all your replies. I went to the feed merchant yesterday and their crumb is non medicated, so I got some of that. I also put a covered run in front of the shelter where the nest is and put in a low flat dish for water.Will mum still like a deeper bath if I stay and keep an eye on her? We now have 3 ducklings and I have managed to get a photo of one. I will try and post it soon for you all to see.
Once again many thanks.
 
If mum is in reasonable condition, I would not worry - as long as she can dip her head into some water.

An alternative is to get a watering can that only mum can reach into and let her dip her head into that.
 
I trying out marriages Duck & Goose Crumbs with my first ever hatch good luck with your duckings would love to see some photo's of them :)
 
Thanks. I have tried to put the photos on but keep getting the message that they are to large. I read all the instructions and tried what Tim suggested but still 'no can do'. Sorry. They are doing really well though. ;)
 
With the photos, there's a limit on the file size - digital cameras take much larger images often 3Mb or so in size so would take ages to download / display and be huge on the screen and need to be stored on the server too.

A photo that's up to about 500K or so should display and upload ok - there are lots of photo editing applications that allow you to shrink them down as well as sites online that do it for you like photobucket, flickr, picassa but a very easy application that I like is Microsoft Image Resizer for XP (Link is lower right hand side). This allows you to right click any image and go to a number of basic resize options and save as a different file before uploading to the web.

Here is a screenshot:

resizepictureswithrightclickcontextmenu.png

There is a clone for Windows 7 but I haven't tried it but you can find it in a search. Windows 7 does come with a much better version of paint that allows you to do these things easily though..
 
Family Photos and Alice 8th Birthday 134 (Small).jpg

Managed to do it now, I hope. Sadly we had a visit from the weasel last night and the ducklings are no more. :cry:
 
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