What Do Baby Ducks Eat Feeding Your Ducklings The Right Food

Ducklings are known as one of the most beautiful and adorable waterfowl.It is natural that a lot of people attempt to raise ducklings. However, a proper guide for what they should be eating and avoiding is mandatory in order to ensure there are no road bumps.Ducklings are particularly easy to take care of after the first couple of weeks of their lives have been spent in the safety, protection, and heat of a brooder. Once this crucial time has passed, you can expect the beautiful waterfowl to be wandering about the garden and picking at the ground for a worm or two.Understandably, there are a few dos and don’ts of raising waterfowl. Keep reading to know what you should be feeding your ducklings and what they should be staying away from!If you enjoy this article, why not also check out what do ducks like and what do snakes eat here at Kidadl!How To Make Baby Duck FoodIf you have been thinking of raising your own poultry, you must have come across the knowledge somewhere that ducks are particularly easy to raise and take care of. Raising ducks is easy since they require very limited amounts of care and hence, you will only have to worry a little about what to feed ducklings.Once the babies have grown a little and have become fully feathered, it will only take a little care in making sure that the diet of your pet is fully satisfying. If you happen to have a few baby ducks in the backyard and are looking for ways in which you can be feeding the little animal, it would be best to steer clear of feeding the young ducklings any homemade food. This is because they have complex dietary requirements when young and hence, the nutrients thus required would be difficult to fit into any meal that you decide on making. When the baby ducks are too young to feed on any fruits or vegetables that you have in the refrigerator, it would be best if you could stick to giving them some starter feed. The meal is available under many names such as duck starter feed or maybe waterfowl starter feed, depending upon the feed store where you choose to buy it from. The starter feed is ideally what baby ducks eat after hatching since it contains a potent medley of all the nutrients that your dearest ducklings require in order to grow up to become beautiful and healthy adult ducks. If the duck starter feed is not available, you can also feed ducklings some chick starter feed. Evidently, chick feed is the meal that baby chickens have when they are young.Yes, ducklings feed on chick starter feed as well, but it would be extremely necessary to make sure that you do not buy the medicated kind. The medicated chick starter feed often has some nutrients that harm your ducklings.Once the meal has been acquired and you are ready to give some food to your ducklings, make sure to mix some brewer’s yeast through the meal. This ensures that the food has adequate amounts of niacin and vitamin B2, which is essential for ducklings when they are less than two weeks old.An inadequacy of nutrients in a duckling’s diet can lead to many issues in the animal, such as underdeveloped feathers and weak legs. To avoid any such unfortunate turn of events, make sure that the dietary requirements are met adequately.Ducklings grow up very fast, hence, once your baby ducks have become around two or three weeks old, you can start feeding them the same food as adult ducks. However, it would still be great to make sure that each baby duck has access to enough water throughout the day and that a heat lamp is installed in the brooder. Young ducks cannot handle the cold. Since they love being toasty, make sure to keep the ducklings warm especially for a week or two after they have hatched, and do not allow them to get cold, since it can be very harmful to the tiny chicks.High protein food is not the only aspect that you need to place near the box where your baby ducks live. Ducklings love water, much like adult ducks. If there is insufficient water near the brooder, chances are that your ducklings will start showing signs of distress. Give the ducklings water in a shallow dish and make sure that it is regularly filled. There even are some water founts that are specifically meant for ducks, and hence, if you want to splurge a little on your pet ducks, you could always consider investing in one such fancy item!Suitable Food For Baby DucksBaby ducks can be very easy to raise if their diet is taken proper care of at a rather early age.It is best to feed ducklings duck starter feed for the first two weeks of their lives since such a meal is likely to meet all the needs of your tiny pet. It would also be a good idea to give it an extra push and by make the meal extra nutritious and healthy. You can do so by adding some extra vitamin B2 to the meal by mixing it with some brewer’s yeast. This low-effort method easily beats any homemade baby duck food, due to the mere richness of the product. Through some brewer’s yeast, you will also be giving each duckling some much-needed niacin. This nutrient helps in making sure that the young ducks grow up to have strong joints. There are several cases where, in spite of adequate care, food, and water, ducks grow up to have very weak legs. This is usually caused due to a deficit of niacin in the diet when the waterfowl was a couple of weeks old.If you have been convinced about mixing brewer’s yeast in the food that your pet ducks eat and are wondering the proportions in which ducklings eat brewers feed in order to become healthy adult ducks, it is best to mix only two cups of this product in every 10 lb (4.5 kg) of starter feed.A week-old duckling is also likely to keep nibbling at food throughout the day, and hence, it would be best to have a dish of food near the brooder at all times. If you plan on raising many baby ducks throughout the next few years, investing in a duckling feeder would be a great idea as well. This would ensure that your ducklings have food without you having to supervise the bowl and fill it every few hours. A feeder also ensures that the food that you feed a baby duck at home is thoroughly safe and does not gather any bacterial infestation.Once the ducklings have grown a little and have started to grow some feathers, you can start giving them some treats once in a while. They would also now start feeding on the same produce as an adult duck, and hence, some leafy greens and vegetables would always gain you some appreciation from your dearest poultry!To make sure that each duckling has enough protein in its diet, consider giving your pets some scrambled eggs once in a while. Ducks love each sweet treat, hence, an occasional piece of fruit would also make you their absolute favorite. Ducks need their share of the food that they would typically eat in their natural habitat as well, hence, consider letting your pets roam about freely and feed on some natural greens such as mowed grass. Vegetables such as broccoli and fruits such as apples and berries are also great when in small quantities and prepared in the right way. Ducks need their food to be chopped into small, bite-sized pieces so that no choking hazard is invited.What Not To Feed Baby DucksDucks love vegetables and fruits, however, there are quite a few things that you should be mindful of when feeding your pets. Ducks only eat fruits that have been de-seeded and pitted. The pits and seeds of fruit would create a choking hazard and serious damage to your pet’s body.There are certain vegetables that you shouldn’t be feeding your ducks. Such vegetables would include potatoes and their leaves, peppers, eggplant leaves, and onion. Citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, and grapefruit should also be avoided. Such fruits inhibit the synthesis of calcium inside the body of ducks and hence cause weak bones, among many other possible issues.If you have been considering letting your baby ducks eat some chicken food, make sure that you steer clear from any medicated feed. The medicines and artificial additives in such feed can cause serious health issues and buy you a visit to the vet. Since baby ducks have substantially weaker immune systems, it would also become very difficult for the tiny animal to recover from any medical conditions.Sugary foods should be avoided when feeding and raising ducks. While you may notice that all the ducklings are rather happy when there is a sugary treat in the brooder, there are a lot of medical conditions in ducks that can be directly related to too much sugar in their diet. Hence, always be mindful that the fruits are only used as treats and do not become an essential part of your pet’s diet. Greens and protein in the form of eggs should constitute the most part of your mother duck and her chicks.How To Feed A Baby DuckWhen raising and taking care of the first batch of baby ducks, the first thing to make sure would be that they have a heat lamp in the brooder to keep them warm for at least a couple of weeks after they hatch. The heat from the lamp should mimic the heat that the mother duck would give her children. Once these preliminary steps are taken care of, the next thing to do would be to get a duck feeder tool for the brooder. These tools make sure that you are not constantly worrying about filling the food bowl, since they are self-replenishing. At the same time, such feeder tools also ensure that the food and treats that you give to your dearest baby ducks are safe and not affected by bacterial growth. Healthy food would help your baby ducks in growing into fully feathered, healthy adult ducks that can swim freely in the kiddie pool on a sunny afternoon!Once the baby ducks have grown a little and do not need constant heat from a lamp, they can start moving around. At this stage, feel free to leave small protein-rich foods on the ground for the tiny animals to find as they roam around. This would not only ensure that each duckling is safe and healthy, but also enable them to maintain a healthy relationship with their natural habitat.Along with feeding baby ducks, giving them proper amounts of water is also necessary. While there are tools that can help you in giving them water, you can always stick to the age-old method of leaving a water bowl. While ducklings eat their food without creating a hassle, they might need an extra push when it comes to making the habit of drinking water. One of the most useful tricks to use that would make a duckling reach out for the water bowl more often is to add some sugar to it. The sugary water can be given to a duckling when it is a week old, and continued till the new hatch understands that this is a useful and nice habit to have in life!Feel free to give your ducks some eggs to avoid any protein deficit-related health problems. You can either feed your baby duck some scrambled eggs, or some boiled eggs. In either case, make sure to focus on only feeding the yolk portion so that maximum protein content is delivered to the poultry. However, if a little egg white slips into the dish, your baby duck wouldn’t mind at all! Cracked corn and tomatoes are also something that ducklings love eating. Scatter them on the ground to let your pets find them as treats while they scour through the garden and peck at the ground like chickens.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for what do baby ducks eat, then why not take a look at what do insects eat, or diving duck facts?

Ducklings are known as one of the most beautiful and adorable waterfowl.