First of all THANKS to all for answering my previous post about keeping the food and water from these 2 pekin ducks during the night to help with the mess while inside my garage at night. Now the problem is just the opposite. I cant seem to get them to eat at all. These two guys were froze to a pond in a park when i brought them home. They have been on their own along with several others since being dropped off there earlier in the summer.they are very skiddish and one has bad feet, hard for her to get around. The other,a drake i think, seems fine.we put them out when the sun comes up so they can roam around but after a bit of stretching and wing flapping they pretty much lay around all day.We have tried corn. lettuce, rabbit pellets,bread and dry cat food they just dont seem hungry. They nibble around in the straw we put down for them and root in the grass a little but thats it. They do drink plenty of water though. could they just be stressed? Any ideas ? thanks again J.F.

-- J.F. (n8ieb@cs.com), January 05, 2002

Answers

We have Muscovys and I can't say they really chow down. They sort of pick at stuff. They do seem to like dry cat food when they can get into it. They also seem to like to root through the grass or bedding to find things to eat whether it's bugs, rootlets or seeds. If you're trying corn make sure it's cracked and not whole corn.

Even then they don't pig out. They do go for the water though. I'd say your ducks seem OK.

-- Darren (df1@infi.net), January 05, 2002.

J.F., if they aren't really too hungry (i.e., they are well fed most of the time) they aren't going to be shoveling in food all at once. A good sized duck is going to eat maybe 1/2+ cup of food a day--I'm not exactly sure but it's not a whole lot. That really isn't very much and you just may not notice that they get all they need. I'd say they are fine.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), January 05, 2002.

I have Pekin ducks, and feed them chicken lay pellets with a sprinkling of standard scratch. They eat more scratch in the winter months. Also I give them a 3# bag of salad mix from Costco every day...for 11 ducks. They get fed well as I have them for eggs. They root around for grass roots, worms, and slugs. You might try finding a kids wading pool and giving them water to swim around in. Mine like it even though it's frozen and I break it up every morning, change it every other day. Also be sure they have a bucket of fresh water, something they can get their heads down in. Bless you for taking them in!

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), January 05, 2002.