can chicks eat.....

can 1-2 week old chicks eat duck starter? i am getting ducklings next week and i want to throw everyone together can the chicks eat duck starter or no?

thanks!

well.... I'm not completely sure!

BUT I do know that ducks have to have unmedicated starter.

That chicks can eat unmedicated if is what you want to feed them


SO, I would go out on a limb and say yes?? As long as you knew and wanted the chicks to be eating unmedicated.


having said that, I had ducks last year, from hatching and day olds. and good grief do they ever make a mess!! and I mean a wet, sloppy, horrible mess. They completely ruined one brooder that I had them in that was made of wood because of all the water damage/mess. Best thing I found for them was a metal trough! big enough for them as they get a little older, much easier to clean and sanitize too. Not to mention waterproof. oh yes. You will want waterproof!!!

For ducks the best thing I have found so far is that strong plastic mesh that comes in rolls from Peavey Mart. I have stapled it to a frame(bottom), it needs to be well supported and it is perfect for little webbed feet to walk on, then you don;t need any bedding at all. I have them on the porch with a wooden board underneath and just lift off the brooder box, spray off the board,and put it back underneath to catch the mess.

I really cannot imagine ever keeping them in a wooden brooder box like i keep my chicks in, their whole mission in life is about playing in water....

Oh and I think chicks could eat unmedicated starter but then they are going to be more at a risk of catching coccidiosis and keeping them with ducks could be a recipe for disaster in my mind.(unless of course they were kept on mesh or wire flooring)

well see the thing is i keep them in the house for the first week in a tuperware bin, then they move to the coop a 7x4 pen with heat lamp for another 2 weeks then they move to the rest of the coop 12x7 with the older chicks, i realize they are messy they wont be with the chicks at day one...they will be in the house for a week in their own seperate bin...but i want them to share the same coop"large"one when they are ll 3 weeks old...and can the chicks eat the food? the chicks will be on medicated chick starter for the first 3 weeks of life....then move to duck starter? where they can all be one big happy family together...LOL

Im sure they can safely eat it, I think the waterfowl starter may be a higher protein than chick? but should be ok.
they just won;t be getting the protection of the amprolium but since they had it at the start maybe just fine?
I know a fellow who only feeds unmedicated feed because that way he can buy it in bulk and feed it to his poultry and his waterfowl.
I

Miry, Love the idea about that heavy plastic mesh

the ducks I had were sort of a "help a friend out" sort of thing, and I wasn't prepared for them at all!! But once I got a trough in the house (yup don't ask, but I had two in the basement! my husband just shook his head) I was laughing, and then I had something similar for their water to sit on (it was hardware cloth stapled over a frame, not so much for them to walk on but to keep the water mess away from the rest of the trough)

But I have to agree, to be a happy duck keeper something set up so that they are not even on bedding at all, but a nice plastic mesh like that--- would be ideal!! (do you remember the mesh size of it? was it something like a 1/2? anything bigger, they would probably fall through hahahah)

mirycreek wrote:Im sure they can safely eat it, I think the waterfowl starter may be a higher protein than chick? but should be ok.
they just won;t be getting the protection of the amprolium but since they had it at the start maybe just fine?
I know a fellow who only feeds unmedicated feed because that way he can buy it in bulk and feed it to his poultry and his waterfowl.
I

o.k yea i will try it thanks, they wont be living together forever just while they are babies to save on heating! and we need to build a nice duck friendly house with no ramp...LOL thanks!

I know I'm crazy but last year we kept 7 RIR chicks and 3 ducklings from day old to 3weeks together in our livingrm. I used unmedicated food and a chick waterer up on a couple bricks so it was head height. I didn't have water for them to dip eyes in but every other day I'd throw them in the tub with a couple inches of water and let them make a mess there. We just kept them in our clear rubbermaid tub brooder. We did it again the next month with 5 ducklings but with warmer weather they only stayed in the house 2ish weeks . Our RIRs are always out freeranging with the ducks and we never had any probs in fact I'm sure 2 of the weak RIRs wouldn't have survived the first couple days without the ducks mothering them and getting them to water food and snuggling up to them