You’ll all have been blown away by the lovely photo of Molly and her babies last week. Well I’m glad to say they are thriving 🙂
She’s even taken them to the pond…. scared the living daylights out of me. There are cattle in the field too. She took on two of the cows who attempted to get close to babies…. and she won 🙂
Lifeguard on duty
When we had our chick born here last year I enquired locally about buying chick feed – the technical term is ‘chick crumb’ – the smallest bag I could get was huge! And was full of gm maize and corn so I resorted to making my own.
When it came to feeding the ducklings I didn’t even try to buy stuff, I just went on the old ‘google’ and did some research. Ducklings can tolerate a slightly different feed to chicks. So I will share the recipe I am using.
As an aside…. I am buying the seeds and dry fruits in our local Aldi store. I am sure when the high powered Buyers and Marketeers sat down and decided to introduce this new range of seeds…. Duck Feed was not on their list. I would love to know their reaction 🙂 It makes me giggle at the thought of them sitting there in their suits… thinking healthy breads and breakfasts! Not Duck Feed!
Seed mix for ducklings
Ingredients:
- 200 gr Rolled Barley
- 200 gr Porridge Oats
- 70 gr Sunflower Seeds
- 70 gr Pumpkin Seeds
- 70 gr Lentils
- 50 gr wheatgerm
- 50 gr sesame seeds
- 20 gr linseed/flax seeds
- Sprinkling of dried fruit
Method:
I know – I’m probably just being fussy – but I blitz down the first four ingredients…. the pumpkin seeds are the hardest to blitz. Then just add in the rest of the ingredients.
When I made the first batch it lasted almost the entire week. This week – there are 11 ducklings – I am making it every second day. So next week I may resort to making a bigger batch at a time.
Have you guessed that I am a little besotted with these ducklings?
A Year In Redwood 
Thank you, Margaret! I routinely feed wild ducks and geese at a nearby lake, and I will mix up a bag of this to take along the next time I go. I keep reading that bread is not good for them, but didn’t know what might be better. Your photo of the little family if beautiful!
Cynthia,
The adult ducks love bread here! I usually soak it and break it up quite small for them…. you see I am a big ‘softie’ 🙂
Margaret
Please keep in mind that you are actually killing the ducks by feeding them bread. They will develop Angel Wing
Love that you’re using all this stuff from Aldi! I miss all their organic stuff – it’s so dear here. Delighted to hear your ducklings are doing well.
June,
They are thriving… and I am spending (wasting) so much time watching them grow!
Margaret
Oh lovely, might try this for our chicks too, they would be old enough by now I think. Love the photo of molly and her babies! I am still planning to add ducks to my garden… this Summer for sure!?!
And we’ll probably have to sell off some of these babies much as I’d like to keep them all! 🙂
And the chicks (now 8 weeks old) still come running to me looking for sunflower seeds…. they just love sunflower seeds if you can get your hands on some 🙂
I’m all out but will have added them to the shopping list 😉 Thanks
I love reading your blog and would really appreciate it if you could quickly look at mine at:
http://www.freshertofarmer.com
Thank you,
Alicia x
Thanks a million Alicia…. just been reading your… you are busy!
Margaret
Hello! I will ba a new baby duckling owner in a few days and I’m honestly a little scared, he will be a house duck and will probably be spoiled 😉 ….. If you could please help me with raising him or at least get me started I’d appreciate it SO much! I’m sure he will too 🙂 and also…. What does Blitz mean?
Enjoy your duckling! Ducklings are so easy to rear, just need to be nice to them, that is all! Apologies by ‘blitz’ I mean put through a food processor, but in actual fact the ducklings grow so fast, you don’t really need to do that.
Margaret
[…] For three weeks nothing happened then yesterday we heard a squawk. Our boisterous puppy ran out to investigate and low and behold there was a chick, and another and another. Four little balls of fluff had hatched under their surrogate mother and were looking for food. Our pup was beside herself with excitement, mother hen was protective, all of them were hungry. With no chick food in the house I rang Oldfarm’s Margaret for advice, not realising she’d blogged the recipe. […]
Margaret, I picked up four baby ducks from my parents yard today. Their mother was no where to be seen and I worried they wouldn’t survive the night in the cold alone. I made them a smoothy in the blender with a few grapes, silverbeet 1/2 a beaten egg 1/2 a banana and some dry corn I’d blitzed in the grinder first. They gobbled it all up. My concern is that they will get wet and cold if I leave water in their bed box. Should I leave a shallow dish or just put more in in the morning when I feed them again.
Hi Yvette,
They are very lucky ducklings! I don’t tend to leave water in the duck house, as yes, they will most likely climb into a container. If you can get hold of a heat lamp for them it would be good. Otherwise a deep bed of straw in maybe an old tyre (the tyre will keep the heat within the central area). You might have to put a ramp so they can waddle up into the tyre! Or another option is a hot water bottle under them. I’ve used a hot water bottle wrapped in fleece in a basket as an emergency ‘ambulance’ to keep babies warm. People think that you don’t need to worry about ducklings getting wet but you do when they haven’t developed their ‘adult’ feathers. The baby down isn’t enough to keep them warm. At this time of year, you are correct, the most important thing is to keep them warm at night. Fingers crossed for you and them.
Margaret
Reblogged this on Manoharlal Swami.
Great post! Did you end up supplementing with niacin (I’ve read it can be a problem when feeding ducklings), or did your homemade feed cover that as well?
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Riley,
As they free range totally on our property and are out on grass for day one, they were fine. Hope this helps!
Margaret
Hi there. My cat has just brought me two unharmed ducklings. Now i have never taken care of ducklings and i am so scared to feed them the wrong food. I live in Zimbabwe, so my choices are very limited. Any advice? I’m too scared to let them out on the grass by themselves as i don’t want my dogs or cats to get hold of them.
HI Toni
What a lovely gift! Do you know what breed they are?
First thing they’ll want is water…they drink a lot. You can make up a feed using what is in your cupboard. I use porridge oats, seeds, dried fruit. Depending on how big or small they are I blitz the food in a processor and sometimes even cook the porridge.
Margaret
Does this recipe provide the ducklings with the additional niacin they need in their diet to prevent angel wing/twisted wing- from getting too much protein at early age? Just wondering because I did not notice brewers yeast in the ingredients. I do have a cold today tho So…,
Hi Kat,
To be honest, I can’t answer your question, other than to say that I’ve been making the feed every year, and we’ve never had a duckling with angel wing. So I guess that they are getting enough nutrients… we do allow them to free range. We had babies at the weekend, which is way too early!
Margaret
Can I use this recipe from when the ducks are hatched?
Yes, absolutely. I’ve found they don’t eat much in the first few days…. I guess they only have tiny tummies!
Hi, I recently rescued a VERY young abandoned drowning Pekin duckling at a lake. Forgive my lack of brainpower for asking, but can you please break down your feeding recipe and proportions for just ONE duckling if that’s not too much to ask?
I would say if you halved the recipe it will probably last about 2 – 3 weeks for one duckling. They really do start to eat more and more each day, so it doesn’t take long for it all to disappear! Best of luck with the venture.
Margaret
Hi!
Do you mix this with water?
No… just feed it dry, they seem to prefer dry food.