Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Hi, I am new to the world of ducks. I have 2 muskovies, born in mid September 2015. They have decided that they like flying into one of my chicken pens and now they kind of live there. The pen has laying hens so they are on laying mash. Is that safe for the ducks long term? Should I try putting a roof over the pen so they can't fly in and feeding them something else (game bird pellets perhaps?) that has more protein? I heard of giving them cat food and meal worms. They don't like cat food. They kind of eat the meal worms but I'd have to leave them there for a bit and the hens would clean them up lickedy split! :lunch:
Oh and I still have no idea if they are male or female as they are the same size and I have nothing to compare them to.

I feed my waterfowl (3 geese and 3 call ducks) the same as the chickens. most of my birds all run together so I dont worry about it much. they will figure it out... sounds thats like thats exactly what your ducks are doing. I feed laymash mixed with whole corn and black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS).

Muscovy ducks are the "fly catchers" of the barn. They'll eat slugs and love minnows in water. I once was digging in the garden and shoveled open a nest of moles. A duck swallowed them and she followed me forever after in the garden. I used to sit on a pail and toss bread and the ducks would catch the bread in mid air. Otherwise feed as chickens. Do not feed medicated feed to ducks, it'll kill them.

My Muscovys ate chicken feed but I supplemented with extra greens, Brewers yeast and those crazy ducks love peas and scrambled eggs!!!

thegawd wrote:I feed my waterfowl (3 geese and 3 call ducks) the same as the chickens. most of my birds all run together so I dont worry about it much. they will figure it out... sounds thats like thats exactly what your ducks are doing. I feed laymash mixed with whole corn and black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS).

Is that the same as those bags of small black sunflower seeds that we feed to the chickadees?
Why the extra corn?

SandyM wrote:My Muscovys ate chicken feed but I supplemented with extra greens, Brewers yeast and those crazy ducks love peas and scrambled eggs!!!

Did you get the brewers yeast at the feed store? Is it pellets or powder? Do you free feed it?

Thank you to all who took the time to answer my questions. :)

yes BOSS is the black sunflower seeds commonly fed to wild birds... Feed store carrys 50 lb bags and some one on here sells it for for an incredible deal... Well I add the extra whole corn only in the winter or when finishing birds for processing because of its high fat content which helps keeps them warmer in the winter. also whole corn wont easily spoil like cracked corn.

I used to feed mine corn and game bird pellets, in the Summer they loved to forage for the good stuff!

Aurora wrote:

SandyM wrote:My Muscovys ate chicken feed but I supplemented with extra greens, Brewers yeast and those crazy ducks love peas and scrambled eggs!!!

Did you get the brewers yeast at the feed store? Is it pellets or powder? Do you free feed it?

Brewers Yeast I got at my local health food store, but if you have a make your own beer or beer supply store I'm sure they'd have it as well. Worst case you can get a niacin supplement - just make sure it isn't a time release one. I added it to their feed ... But niacin would dissolve in their water. I don't recall doses ..its been a while since I've had ducks. My apologies.

for treats I would get them about 70-75 feeder gold fish and release in their little kiddie pool. Chaos!! Even the chickens wanted in on that sweet deal and a few chickens figured out how to get them. They also loved crickets!!

Good luck and pictures are always welcome