Wild and Domestic Ducks are inherently different, and must be fed appropriately.
You’re the proud caretaker of a new duck, and you face one of the most basic questions of pet ownership. What exactly do you feed a duck?
We’ve summarized the types of food available in Amazon. You can get the food just by clicking on the name. This is a compilation of the knowledge of various avian veterinarians, wildlife caretakers, breeders, and all around experts.
Make sure your ducks have access to water while they eat. They don’t have teeth and use water to soften food.
One of the key things to avoid when feeding your pet duck is any food that is medicated, always use non-medicated foods. Poultry farms and commercial operations will use medicated foods to prevent communicable diseases in waterfowl. This works for large scale operations, but not for personal pets.
A solid diet should consist of a solid staple food with some vegetable or fruit trimmings to provide complementary nutrition. Here are some ideas for each of those food categories.
Staples –
- Non-Medicated Duck Starter for ducklings and growing birds
- Non-Medicated Pellets for adults
- Cracked Corn
Trimmings –
- Fresh Vegetables like shredded carrots
- Chopped, Hard-Broiled Eggs
- Tomatoes
- Cottage Cheese
- Garden Snails (only if you do not use pesticides or snail bait)
- Worms of all sorts
Ducks need a nutrition packed staple in their diet, like Non-Medicated Pelleted Duck Mash
Protein Levels – Striving to feed your duck an optimum level of protein is important. At different stages of life, they need different levels. Too much or too little may cause feathering problems.
- Duckings (0 – 3 weeks old) – 20-22% protein, easily obtained from Duck/Chick Starter
- Adolescents (4 weeks – fully grown) – 16% protein
- Adults (fully grown) – 14-16 % protein
- Laying Hens (fully grown) – 16-18%, easily obtained from store bought Laying Rations or Mash
Where do I get duck specific foods? A local farm supply or pet store is usually the optimum choice. Amazon is also a great option to get cheap, good and fast food.
What NOT to feed ducks –
- Bread – it’s NOT okay for wild ducks and it’s NOT okay for domestic ones
- Seeds and Nuts – these are too difficult to digest
- Fatty, Salty or Sweet Foods
- Chocolate
- Popcorn
- Anything that will fill up your duck without offering nutritional value
Bread is NOT okay for wild ducks in the park or domestic ducks, as it will make them fat and lazy.
I can’t say enough about Mazuri Waterfowl diet. My duck is much happier and healthier since we switched.
I just ordered a duck and wanted a website to get me a summarization on the whole owning a duck thing, and this website helped! thank you
Hood information, I just need to figure out where to buy food?
this rocks!
good information on what to feed your ducks, just what i was looking for, thanks.
That’s a skillful awsner to a difficult question
Awesome.
we have 5 mallard ducks anyone know how offen or amount we should feed them seems they want to always eat.
thanks a whole bunch 111 lots of help to understand how to care for pet ducks… thanks again; i’m sure i’ll be back. have bookmarked your website.. 🙂
tHANKS JUST GOT TWO DUCKLINGS FOR MY KIDS, THIS WAS A GRAET HELP :]
i still dont know what to feed my duck
Gt
Thanks for an informative site…is feeding of weetbix cereal safe for domestic pet ducks as a treat? I have a Pekin and a Muscovy.
Thank but my duck is really weak and the whole one side of her body looks weak she was fine yesterday but she went down today but shes always had a limp what should I do
Hi. Awesome article. I am a former pet duck owner, of a sweet little drake by the name of 23.
I am working on an online article about 23 and how to care for an indoor pet duck.
I would like to ask your permission to use one of your pictures for my article.
I have absolutely no problem with linking your site to my page as the source of the picture. The one that I like is the close up of the pellet food.
If this is ok with you, please contact me by email [email protected] or by comment on one of my pages. (If you would like to see some of the quality of my recent articles, here is my link.) http://aplethora23.hubpages.com/
This will be the first time that I have ever asked anyone for a picture to use on my page, so please let me know if this is not the right way to go about doing so.
I am passionate about proper animal care. When I rescued 23, he was so tiny and I knew absolutely nothing about duck care. I have learned so much about ducks and how to care for them via information that I found on internet searches. I hope to return that favor for someone in the near future. I no longer have 23, therefore, I no longer have the crumbles and pellets to take pictures of. Your photo is very detailed and I would love to use it.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
– Aplethora23
my duck Nigel eats softened puppy chow and he likes worms. never could get him to eat the stuff from the farm stores. he is a healthy 2 yr. old. and more than anything he wants to eat my dog.
My duck wants to eat the cats
I’d like to fihd out more? I’d want to find
out more details.
Very helpful! !!
please add avocados, tomatoes, and potatoes to the “Do not feed” list. All three are awful for ducks for a variety of reasons.
I raised 2 Indian runner ducks gave them leftovers mash meat veg every now an again but fed them weet a bit every day they outlived there life span died at 15
I raised 2 Indian runner ducks fed them leftovers mash meat veg mixed together fed them weetabix every day they outlived there life span died at 15
im feeding my duck healthy things and it doesnt eat. why
What kind of feed are you using? You should be feeding it an adult gamebird or waterfowl feed. Mizuri makes a high quality feed for ducks.
Just eat the duck
my pekin is showing a strong interest in cooked ground beef and dry dog food . he will eat a little scratch and fowl pellets but not with the gusto he shows in the gb and df . is this all right ? ty
My pekin also like cat food, she wont eat duck/hen feed at all. She loves cucumber and pasta though.
I dont think the fish based catfood is a bad thing to back up grazing and pellets if your duck will eat them. Catfood seems to be basically corn /wheat based with protein provided by fish meal possibly better than dog food. But ducks eat a lot of animal protein when grazing. Hope this helps