How to feed an indochk at home? This type of poultry is unpretentious and with a small expenditure of feed quickly gaining weight. The musky duck is recovering on a par with the Peking duck, but it eats half as much; caring for it is easier. In the summer, she can feed herself in ponds or in the yard. The breed’s popularity is constantly growing, as it is quiet, resistant to disease, and it’s very profitable to grow such birds for meat.
What do ducklings with ducklings eat? For fattening, you can use special feed or make a menu yourself. Most private households use the second option, on industrial farms – the first. The menu may vary, depending on the time of year. In summer, emphasis is placed on vegetables, tops, green grass. In winter, a large part of the diet is cereal.
Food should contain the basic elements (proteins, fats and carbohydrates), vitamins and minerals. The main source of protein is wheat, oats, corn and legumes.Animal proteins are contained in meat and bone and fishmeal, sour milk, milk. Carbohydrates are found in almost all foods, grains and fresh herbs. The main sources of fat are cake and oilseed meal from oil plants.
In order for the ducklings with ducklings to get enough vitamins, they need to be given vegetables, fresh greens. In winter and spring, as well as during intensive feeding, breeding ducks give vitamins additionally. Minerals are contained in chalk, salt, eggshell. So that the ducks do not stop prematurely trotting and gaining weight well, these substances must be added to the diet. More information about the basics of duck nutrition can be found in the video.
Feeding ducks in the summer
As already mentioned, feeding musk ducks at different times of the year is different. This is due to the availability of certain feeds. In the summer there is more greenery, birds can independently get their own food. In winter, the diet is limited. Indoor women do not have a developed subcutaneous layer of fat, therefore, the content in the cold can only be closed, ducks cannot independently find food for themselves.
So, the summer diet includes:
- Green feed: any kind of grass, plant tops.
- Root crops and vegetables: cabbage, carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, beets (root and tops).
- Cereals: wheat, corn, barley, oats.
- Legumes: lupins, vetch, peas, bean and pea tops.
In the summer, an adult bird can be able to feed itself perfectly.Representatives of the genus eat snails, insects, worms. If there is a pond nearby, the Indochka can swim on it and eat duckweed, other aquatic plants.
To make the musky duck gain weight, it is enough to feed it twice a day, best of all in the early morning and evening. Here is an example of a daily summer ration for one musky duck:
- Wheat – 30 g.
- Barley – 30 g.
- Oat – 20 g.
- Mineral supplements – 8 g ..
As you can see, feed consumption at this time of year is minimal, about 100 g, there is almost no need for vitamin supplements. The diet applies to those cases where the keeping of birds is free-range. It is imperative to provide the birds with drink; 500 ml of water should be added per person per day. Intensive fattening looks a little different, we’ll talk about that later.
Feeding ducks in winter
Many farmers prefer seasonal keeping of indochka. This simplifies the care of the bird and allows you to reduce the cost of equipping the house. You can buy ducklings in the spring and by autumn get full adults ready for slaughter. But with independent breeding of ducks, it is necessary to maintain a broodstock. A winter diet should be developed for him.
How to feed an indole at home in winter? In the cold season, it is impossible to get green fodder, because many owners make stocks of silage, hay, grass meal. The basis of the diet is cereals, bran meal, root crops.Musk ducks are sometimes transferred to ready-mixed feed, which contains all the components they need. If you don’t feed the ducks with compound feeds, but make the mixers yourself, the nutritional standards for one individual will be:
- Wheat – 30 g.
- Barley – 20 g.
- Oats – 20 g.
- Bran from wheat – 20 g.
- Meat and bone meal – 10 g.
- Herbal flour – 20 g.
- Beetroot – 20 g.
- Potato – 30 g.
- Silo – 20 g.
- Minerals – 8 g.
- Salt – 1 g.
The total feed consumption in winter for one musky duck is about 200 g. The menu can include kitchen expenses, peeling potatoes and carrots, cabbage leaves, feeding birds bread. This will reduce the cost of grain and vegetables. Give duck cake or meal of sunflower. But you can’t overfeed an indochka with such a product. With obesity, their egg production and egg fertilization rate drop. We must not forget about drinking: 400-500 ml of water is needed per person.
Minerals and vitamins in the diet
Minerals and vitamins in the diet are very important: they provide intensive growth, increase resistance to diseases, affect fertility. In addition, they are included in the diet of laying hens. Here are the main vitamins that birds need and their products:
- A – affects local immunity, stimulates growth. Contained in fish oil, egg yolks.Its predecessor, carotene, is found in plant foods (carrots, clovers, green grass).
- D – ensures the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, affects bone growth, and the formation of eggshells. Contained in fish oil, fish meal, yeast, which must be included in the feeding of ducks with ducklings.
- E – affects the fertility of ducks, increases immunity. Its content is increased in sprouted wheat, barley, oat grain, soy, milk, vegetable fat.
- K – affects blood coagulation and metabolism in connective tissues. There is a vitamin in carrots, spinach, many herbs, clover, alfalfa, green peas.
- B1 – affects the body’s resistance, nervous activity. There is oilcake from butter plants, sour-milk products, yeast, bran, greens.
- B2 – necessary for the normal growth and development of ducklings. Contained in milk, herbs, yeast.
- B3 – normalizes the metabolism of proteins and lipids, neutralizes toxins. The intake of vitamin will provide feeding with meat and bone meal, weed, cake.
- B4 – serves to prevent perosis. It enters the body with cereals, beans, beets, yeast.
- B5 – activates the digestive and nervous system, heart. Its content is increased in cabbage, potatoes, green grass, carrots.
- B6 – affects the metabolism of proteins, normalizes blood formation, improves skin condition. There is a lot of vitamin B5 in animal feed, oilcake, grass flour.
- B12 – affects blood formation, amino acid metabolism, stimulates growth. It is found in animal products, especially a lot of it in fish meal.
- N or biotin – regulates the metabolism of fats, affects the skin. Contained in legumes.
- C – affects immunity, accelerates the change of plumage, wound healing. Indoor women synthesize it on their own, and also get it with fresh vegetables and herbs.
- Calcium and phosphorus are necessary for normal growth and egg shell formation. Contained in meat and bone meal, chalk, egg shells, shells.
- Sodium is the main source of its salt.
If any vitamin or trace element is ingested quantity, it immediately affects the growth and health of birds. Particularly often, a deficiency is felt in the spring, because during this period it is recommended to include special additives such as Premix in the diet, regardless of what the indians eat with ducklings. This is necessary not only for musk ducks to rush well and gain weight at home, but also for their health.
Feeding ducklings
How young animals are fed and how it should be his diet? Daily ducklings are fed with finely chopped egg yolk. Potassium permanganate is added to the drinkers, which protects the young from intestinal infections. Sometimes kids have to learn to eat. They see only moving objects, because the food is poured on the backs of ducklings, and they peck it from each other.Sometimes chicks need to be dipped in beaks in water to learn how to drink.
On the second day, add flour from oats or barley to the egg, 3-5 g of cottage cheese per individual. On the third day, you can add chopped nettle, quinoa or other grass to the menu. From the fourth day, meat and bone meal or fish meal are introduced. Further, small ducklings can be fed with a mixture of eggs, oat or barley flour, cottage cheese with the addition of greens, meat broth, sour milk. From the 20th day they begin to give boiled potatoes, which make up 20% of all food. Grain feed ducklings begin at 40 days. After 10 days, you can transfer the ducklings to a special compound feed intended for broiler chickens.
All feed must be friable: if the mixture is sticky, it can stick beak and hammer duckling airways. In the first 10 days, the chicks are fed 6-8 times a day. Up to one month – 4-5 times a day. After a month, they are transferred to two or three meals a day. It is important to remember that ducklings drink a lot, and therefore access to fresh water should be around the clock. You can watch the video on how to properly feed small ducks.
Intensive fattening of ducks
Cultivation and feeding of musky ducklings is carried out up to about 2 months. At this time, they gain weight 2.4-2.6 kg. In terms of profitability, this is the most optimal moment for slaughter. Indoor feeding before slaughter has its own characteristics. It is aimed at rapid weight gain, the formation of body fat. This breed has a tendency to enlarge the liver. By its qualities, it is not much inferior to the goose. To make the weight arrive faster, ducks are kept during this period without walking.
How much food should be spent on intensive feeding? For one month for a brood with ten ducklings you will need:
- Compound feed – 1.5 kg.
- Boiled waste with meat – 200 g.
- Boiled potato – 600 g.
- Grass, nettle, beet tops, alfalfa – chopped and unlimited amount.
- Finely crushed gravel, shells, eggshells – at least 8 g per day per head.
Be sure to add Premix or other vitamins to the menu for intensive feeding. It is important to know that at 60-65 days, indigenous birds begin to drop feathers. At this time, they begin to lose weight and are not suitable for slaughter. The new plumage sits more tightly in the skin and is poorly pulled out. This is another reason why two-month-old ducklings are sent for meat.
