What can you feed wild ducks: feeding them on the pond in winter

Not only people involved in poultry farming know what to feed wild ducks. Many of us sometimes feed these birds at a lake, pond or other habitat. They happily eat bread, seeds and other delicacies. But, despite the omnivorous nature of birds, some of the products can damage bird digestion. You will learn about what you can feed wild ducks and what you cannot feed them in this article.

What can you feed wild ducks: feeding them on the pond in winter

In zoos, waterfowl are fed specially prepared food in winter. They include all the nutritional elements (protein, carbohydrates, fats) that ducks can get from their usual food. But compassionate townspeople continue to feed the ducks remaining for the winter with baked goods and leftover bread.

Without receiving the necessary nutrients, the bird weakens and becomes more vulnerable to cold and disease. Trying to help starving waterfowl, people often cause irreparable harm to them. What to feed ducks in winter to really help them survive severe frosts?

It is advisable not to feed baked goods to the bird. The ducks will eat, but they won’t be able to get anything but harm from such food. You can prepare high-quality food for ducks of different species overwintering on a pond yourself. Its basis can be whole grain (oats, barley, wheat) or pearl barley, oatmeal, whole grain crushed grain (corn, barley, wheat).

Grain mixture

Protein components of bird feed can be as follows:

• fish or meat waste;
• egg;
• meat, fish, bone meal;
• bone residue in the form of minced meat (sold in grocery stores);
• peas;
• sunflower, soybean, rapeseed cake or meal;
• low-fat cottage cheese.

Meat or fish waste should not contain large bones. They can be fed raw or cooked. Before feeding, the egg should be hard-boiled and chopped together with the shell.

Protein components are mixed with grain feed. Grain for ducks can be pre-boiled or steamed, but in severe frosts it is better to give it dry so that the food does not have time to freeze. Whole grains can be sprouted before feeding until green sprouts 1-2 cm long appear. This food significantly increases the content of vitamins and biologically active substances that are lacking in the winter diet of birds.

But what should you feed wild ducks to enrich their diet with the fiber and vitamins they need? For waterfowl wintering in urban reservoirs, the following food can be prepared:

• dried nettle, clover, alfalfa, dandelion;
• any root vegetables;
• pumpkin or zucchini;
• fresh cabbage.

Ducks can be fed any root vegetables

Some vegetables need to be chopped before feeding. This applies to hard root vegetables and raw potatoes. Since birds do not have teeth, they will not be able to gnaw hard vegetables, and the flat beak of ducks does not allow them to peck carrots or beets. Therefore, all root vegetables with a dense structure must be grated or, raw or boiled, passed through a meat grinder. The same should be done with zucchini, pumpkin, and watermelon rind.

Leafy vegetables such as cabbage can also be given whole. The ducks do a good job of picking them off, tearing off small pieces. Dried herbs or bundles of hay are also not chopped.

As spring approaches, vegetables begin to sprout even in a cold cellar. Ducks will like young carrot or beet leaves. Trimmed tops of root vegetables or green feathers of onions and garlic will be very useful in the vitamin-poor winter diet of birds. If desired, you can specially germinate small root crops by planting them in a box with wet sand, sawdust, soil, and then feed the ducks with fresh herbs.

When preparing a winter diet for ducks, one should not forget about useful minerals. In natural conditions, it receives part of the calcium and phosphorus the bird needs from the bones of fish and frogs, shells of snails and crustaceans, which it feeds on in the pond.

It would be nice to give crushed egg shells

When artificial feeding, you can include crushed egg shells in the diet. It is also convenient to use feed chalk or shell rock (sold in pet stores). When meat and bone meal is included in the feed as a source of protein, additional mineral supplements are not necessary.

We should not forget about the special and important addition of gravel or coarse river sand for all birds. For ducks, the size of the pebbles can be about 0.5 cm

As such feeding, it is recommended to use marble chips, PGS, and natural river sand for the aquarium. Gravel for ducks can be added to the feed mixture in an amount of 5% of its volume or periodically poured into a special container. Pebbles help birds grind food in their stomachs.

They happily eat bread, seeds and other delicacies. But, despite the omnivorous nature of birds, some of the products can damage bird digestion.

You will learn about what you can feed wild ducks and what you cannot feed them in this article.

Making your own food

To make feeding ducks easier, you can create a mixture based on different products. It is recommended to include the following products in the feed:

• Corn. Cereals form the basis of the bird's diet; they will act as the main source of carbohydrates and some vitamins. The grain content of the feed should be 40-50%.
• Greens (in summer), herbal or fish meal (in winter). These “products” are important sources of vitamins and microelements for birds. There should be 10-15% of them in the feed.
• Vegetables, root vegetables. They contain vitamins and some microelements. They should be boiled (soft), and the content of vegetables and root vegetables should be 10-15%.
• Meat, cottage cheese, fish, eggs. These products contain a large amount of protein, which is needed by both young animals and adults. The optimal content of these components is 15-30%.
• Additional components can be included in the feed in small quantities. These can be mineral supplements, bran, bone meal, salt and others.

What can you feed wild ducks in a pond?

First of all, you should understand that you cannot feed ducks different types of baked goods. Yes, having discovered that abandoned crackers are edible, mallards will willingly pick them up, but such food, full of fats and yeast, poor in fiber, is very poorly digested.

And rye bread is the most dangerous for duck health, as it causes fermentation in the crop and ultimately poisons the body.

There is a misconception that crackers do not have such a negative effect on the body as plain bread. However, even small crackers can swell greatly inside the bird after passing through the gastrointestinal tract.

Don't feed your ducks everything you eat yourself. A bird can also pick up those foods that are harmful to it without sorting it out. Moreover, food that has been in water for too long can become covered with harmful fungi and bacteria.

One of the rules of good form when feeding ducks is to leave food for them on the shore rather than throwing it into the water. In this way, you not only do not pollute the reservoir, but also extend the shelf life of the products you are trying to feed the ducks.

This happens due to the fact that you do not create additional conditions for the proliferation of microorganisms that contribute to rotting.

In summer

In the summer, mallards should be fed only under certain conditions: either if there are any problems with their habitat, or when the population has become too large, or in relation to wounded and sick birds that cannot get food themselves.

Products for feeding:

1. Grated hard cheese. You should choose one that remains afloat for some time and will be picked up by ducks almost immediately in full.
2. Oatmeal. You can simply boil the porridge and roll it into balls and throw it straight to the birds.
3. Boiled vegetables, cut into small cubes.
4. Fruits and berries. It is enough to cut them into small pieces and give them to the mallards.
5. Aquatic plants such as duckweed or algae. They are a rich source of vitamins. Suitable for feeding both fresh and raw.
6. Special food for ducks, which is sold in pet stores. They come in granules and stick well to the surface without dissolving if you decide to throw them right next to the bird. If the feeding is left on the shore, it is better to moisten the food a little with water - this way it will not stick to the beak.

in winter

During the cold season, the birds remaining in our latitudes can be fed, but it is imperative to do this correctly, observing some subtleties in the choice of products

It is important to compensate birds for the lack of important microelements, vitamins and protein

1. Corn. A universal crop for most birds. It is rich in fiber, vitamins and proteins, especially those varieties that have a richer yellow color.
2. Legumes. Peas and beans are great for ducks. However, they are too large for mallards, so the beans will have to be crushed.
3. Wheat. It is better to use special varieties developed for feeding birds. These varieties are saturated with proteins, vitamins B and E. But millet, which nowadays rarely ends up on a person’s table, is also suitable as a cheap option.
4. Oats. It is very relevant in winter, as it contains up to 5% fat and a large amount of amino acids.
5. Barley is a good base for duck feed. Moreover, its type does not matter: whole grain, sprouted, soaked or any other type. You should only avoid giving it to young animals, since chicks need their own “diet”.

Cereals can be given either dry or sprouted. Moreover, in sprouted form you replace the lack of greens in the bird’s diet. Also, for more comprehensive feeding, combining different varieties of cereals will be useful.

Most often they mix it “by eye”, but they adhere to the rule that there should be 30–35% barley in the mixture.

As an additional protein supplement to the bird's diet, you can include bone meal, fish or meat waste, and even low-fat cottage cheese. Remember that this is only an addition to the diet and is not a main product.

To enrich the mixture with vitamins, you can add dried herbs (in particular dandelions), root vegetables, pumpkin, zucchini or cabbage. You can use leftovers and trimmings to save money. For example, wilted dill or peelings from the above vegetables, carrots or lettuce will complement the birds’ diet well.

It is better to grind solid products to make the task easier for ducks.

In winter, the duck will also need a source of calcium to ensure proper digestion. They can be crushed eggshells, shell rock, chalk, or even coarse sand.

What to feed wild ducks at home

Most often, the diet of a domesticated mallard is no different from that of a domestic duck.

Young animals

Starting from the first days, young ducklings are provided with a feeder and drinking bowl. You can feed them chopped boiled eggs. Within a day after the ducklings hatch, they begin to eat on their own.

Some poultry farmers recommend using starter feed, which contains all the necessary nutrients for the body of a young chick.

A few days later, when the ducklings are stronger, crushed cereal is added to the egg and cottage cheese is introduced into the diet. It is also necessary to ensure that there is always clean water in the drinking bowl.

Important! Protein should be a mandatory component in the diet of ducklings, so already on the 3rd day they can be given minced meat or fish, as well as bone meal. Young animals need to be fed every 2 hours until they are 5 days old.

In the future, this interval is gradually increased. The feeding regimen for one-month-old chicks is reduced to 3 meals a day

Young animals need to be fed every 2 hours until they are 5 days old. In the future, this interval is gradually increased. The feeding regimen for one-month-old chicks is reduced to 3 meals a day.

10-day-old ducklings can be given pre-chopped greens and boiled vegetables. For greenery, you can use grass or add a little duckweed, which is a natural source of green food for these birds. At this stage, boiled eggs and cottage cheese are removed from the diet.

The food given to the chicks should be crumbly, since they have not yet learned to clean their beaks from wet food. After the ducklings replace their down with feathers, they can be fed like adults.

If wild ducklings are kept in natural conditions and not isolated from adults, then they quickly learn to obtain their own food. They spend a lot of time searching for worms and larvae, which are an additional source of protein. In addition, they are very friendly and try to take care of each other, even if there is no female nearby.

Adult ducks

The diet of adult ducks should consist of:

• greens (grass, algae, duckweed, etc.) - 50%;
• cereals (crushed grains and legumes) - 30%;
• bran - 10%;
• cake - 7%;
• root vegetables;
• fish and meat waste;
• crushed shell rock and chalk;
• table salt.

Did you know? In the wild, in bodies of water, ducks are able to dive to a depth of up to 6 m when searching for food.

It is necessary to feed wild mallards 2 times a day with mash, and at night give them whole grains, which will satisfy the feeling of hunger for a long time. It is necessary to prepare wet food for 1 time, and calculate its quantity in such a way that the feeder is empty within 30 minutes. This approach will help protect food from souring.

Balanced feed can be made at home.

To prepare 1 kg of feed you will need:

• 250 g corn;
• 250 g wheat;
• 200 g barley;
• 50 g peas;
• 50 g bran;
• 80 g sunflower cake;
• 20 g yeast;
• 40 g bone meal;
• 50 g of chalk and crushed shell rock;
• 8 g table salt;
• 20 g feed fat.

You need to make sure that the bird always has clean water, and you should also install a container with a shell and gravel. Sand helps the duck's digestive system, so it is also worth taking care of its availability.

When feeding wild ducks on a pond, you need to remember one golden quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “We are responsible for those we have tamed.” After all, by providing a source of food to a wild bird, we dull its natural survival instinct.

However, even if these birds have settled for a long time, it is necessary to provide them with a balanced diet throughout the year.

Real help

In the city in winter there are many ways to help wintering birds without compromising their health. Places where birds will feel protected are zoos and shelters. Here they are provided with food containing all the necessary vitamins and valuable substances. The feed is balanced in such a way that the wild duck does not experience a shortage of it and easily survives the cold.

The mixture of seeds that wild ducks feed on is prepared by hand. This process is described in detail in the article “Do-it-yourself recipes for preparing feed for ducks and ducklings.”

Mash is the best thing you can feed ducks on a pond. They consist of:

• grains of corn, wheat, eggs;
• semolina;
• meat and fish products;
• oats;
• eggs and shells;
• bone and fish powders;
• peas;
• cake;
• bran;
• low fat cottage cheese.

The grain components are pre-soaked or boiled and then mixed with protein ingredients.

Large bones should not be present in waste from meat and fish.

In summer, feed volumes are reduced by one and a half times, since grass is present in large quantities in the birds’ diet.

Is it possible to give bread?

Bread is the most accessible food for birds living in park ponds. Feeding ducks with it can be observed everywhere. Elderly people, mothers with children, and even couples in love do this.

Seeing the reaction of birds to thrown crumbs, many express confidence in the absolute benefits of this event for hungry city birds. However, are ducks really hungry? If feeding occurs in the summer, then, most likely, the birds are not hungry at all, and the greed with which they grab the bread that has fallen on the water is caused by a simple instinct that took hold during the nestling period. Competition, which is an important evolutionary factor affecting the survival of the species, is especially intense among ducklings.

Even a well-fed bird will make every effort to grab the bread first. There is a stir in the flock, seemingly the result of the hunger the ducks are experiencing. This often prompts individual citizens to regularly go to the pond in order to feed the ducks living there, first stopping at a store or bakery. However, is this food good for birds?

Bread is a combination of large amounts of carbohydrates, fats, salt, and yeast. All this is not present in the usual diet of birds; accordingly, there are no enzymes necessary to break down all these ingredients. As a result, bread swallowed by ducks passes through their gastrointestinal tract slowly, swelling and preventing the birds from eating normally. Particularly dangerous are varieties of bread containing rye flour, which triggers active fermentation, which further poisons the body of a wild duck. Often birds that have eaten too much bread die from a blockage in the stomach that they cannot cope with.

With regular feeding, birds begin to wait for the person feeding them, not wanting to look for more suitable food. Often it is grain feeding that causes the wintering of usually migratory birds. This can cause mass deaths of late-flying wild ducks. In winter, with the onset of cold weather, bread feeding usually stops (grandmothers do not take their grandchildren to the park, pensioners walk near their homes.

Feeding ducks stale, moldy bread is completely unacceptable. Birds will swallow it with the same greed as fresh. Mold that gets into the duck body can lead to the death of birds within a few days, causing the development of an incurable disease - aspergillosis. This disease is uncommon, but once it affects one duck in a flock, it quickly spreads to the entire flock, causing sudden mass deaths of wild ducks.

What foods are bad for ducks?

List of products dangerous to the normal functioning of birds:

Birds, just like people, can suffer from an improper diet. If you don’t know what to feed the duck, it’s better to leave the idea altogether.

Diet depending on the time of year

In nature, the diet of ducks varies significantly with the seasons. The autumn depletion of their diet generally forces them to make annual long migrations, one of the purposes of which is to provide food for migratory birds in the winter. There, in their second home, the birds find enough food, similar to what they consume in the summer in their nesting areas, and there is no change in their diet. Another thing is wintering ducks, which are forced to endure rather extreme changes in conditions, necessitating changes in the quantity and composition of food.

This is the most difficult season for the remaining migratory birds. The duck finds itself in conditions that are completely unusual for it. Low temperatures, ice on the surface of water bodies, reduction of usually abundant natural food. To survive such extreme conditions, you first need to roughly double the nutritional value of your diet. How to achieve this? In feed mixtures, so-called mash, the concentration of the most high-calorie elements (grain, feed, potatoes) should be increased. The animal component of the mash needs to be increased.

In summer, birds in a natural reservoir receive quite a lot of animal feed; it is necessary to try to cover the reduction in natural animal proteins by feeding the ducks with fish and meat meal. Dairy products, eggs, small fish and various types of meat waste can be an excellent source of essential amino acids. In this case, the presence of bones or their fragments is unacceptable. Once a duck has swallowed a bone, it cannot be thrown back out. The bird usually dies.

It is better to give the mash warm, in a semi-liquid form. The amount of feed is calculated so that the bulk of it is eaten in a few minutes. The food remaining in the feeders will freeze and will be inaccessible to the ducks. In addition, birds should always have access to dry grain mixtures, allowing them to eat almost constantly.

Spring

As water bodies thaw, ducks, as a rule, quickly move to searching for food in the water. If the pond ecosystem is close enough to natural, ducks begin to actively feed as soon as the banks appear. The spring migration of ducks returning to their nesting sites usually occurs after the rivers open, during the spring flood. There is no shortage of food at this time for arriving birds: fish go to spawn, amphibians spawn, and invertebrates are active.

Park ponds usually cannot provide such a varied diet, and the ducks on them must be fed even during this season.

The composition of the spring feed mixture is practically no different from what the birds consumed in winter, only the calorie content and quantity of food should be reduced. Ducks no longer have such an urgent need to maintain their body temperature, so excessive feeding can cause obesity, which is detrimental to wild birds.

The most favorable season for waterfowl. Under natural conditions, ducks receive all the substances necessary for life in sufficient quantities. However, birds that have settled in park ponds will still need additional feeding

During this season, it is very important to diversify the ducks’ diet with so-called seasonal feeds.

Autumn

This is a very important time for migratory birds. Abundant feeding is designed to provide sufficient energy reserves for long-distance migration. It is very difficult to artificially create a transition from abundant feeding to meager feeding, however, it is still possible

A properly selected diet can encourage ducks to leave the pond at the same time as their brothers living in natural conditions

It is very difficult to artificially create a transition from abundant feeding to meager feeding, however, it is still possible. A properly selected diet can encourage ducks to leave the pond at the same time as their brothers living in natural conditions.

In practice, most often, it is not possible to guess the timing of the decrease in the abundance of food, and the ducks may again miss their departure time. In this case, it is necessary to prepare them for the coming winter, not reducing, but, on the contrary, increasing the caloric content of feed.

See the following video for feeding wild ducks.

Is it possible to feed

Ornithologists are categorically against feeding wild birds, especially in the warm season. The instincts inherent in nature suggest that wild animals must independently obtain their own food.

Therefore, feeding ducks leads to dulling of their natural instincts. They stop looking for food and wait for a new portion from a person. And with the arrival of winter, the ducks are not ready to fly south and remain in the feeding area. And it is very difficult for birds to survive without human help.

You should not give wild ducks fresh white and black bread - it causes fermentation in the bird's crop.

Bread with mold is harmful to them , which causes the development of aspergillosis, a fatal disease of birds.

Moldy bread is lethal to wild ducks

What and how to feed a duck for meat for rapid growth

It is very important for poultry farmers who want their ducks to reach high weights to stick to a diet that contains grains. Birds will rapidly gain weight, while being enriched with the necessary microelements

Cereals are commonly used in poultry farming, which has become a certain tradition. As a percentage, cereals always take up more than half of the diet.

Feeding the young

These crops have their advantages that bring considerable benefits:

Corn has always been considered a high energy source. When it is digested, no excess remains in the ducks’ body; it easily saturates the bird. Wheat grains are no less useful, but come a little behind

The nutritional value is due to the high protein content. Wheat is important for rapid growth. Barley is beneficial for fiber, but should be given with caution. Ducks do not digest barley-based food well

Therefore, the grains in the mash should occupy no more than a quarter of the mass. Oats are very healthy because they are characterized by a high fat content. In most cases, it is used for fattening for meat. After eating it, duck meat becomes especially piquant and tasty.

Note! By sticking to a higher percentage of grains, you can ensure that the birds grow quickly, while gaining a sufficient amount of weight in a short time. Is it possible to feed ducks bread? No you can not! Because the bakery product swells inside the duck, gets stuck in the esophagus, and can lead to dangerous diseases

Is it possible to feed ducks bread? No you can not! Because the bakery product swells inside the duck, gets stuck in the esophagus, and can lead to dangerous diseases.

A few words about nesting

Those who want to understand what ducks eat would do well to know that birds arriving at the nesting site are divided into pairs. Mating taking place on the water is accompanied by loud screams. Females lay eggs in a secluded dry place. Simple nests, built from dry leaves and carelessly twisted stems, are covered with duck down.

One female lays from eight to sixteen oblong eggs of a grayish-white hue, which do not differ in appearance from the eggs of poultry. It takes 24-28 days to hatch. Females selflessly incubate their offspring, leaving the nest only when absolutely necessary. The hatched chicks literally go to the water the next day. The young grow quite quickly and begin to fly by the age of six weeks.

What to feed ducks in ponds and reservoirs

Before you start feeding them, you need to think - is it worth doing? If ducks live in a good natural reservoir, where there is a lot of fish and shallow water with mud and aquatic plants, then these birds will feed themselves.

Ducks living in ponds can be fed with berries and fruits.

It’s another matter if there are too many ducks per unit of water surface, and the banks have lost natural vegetation. In this case, you cannot do without artificial feeding.

If the ducks have settled somewhere in a pond or lake far from crowded cities, then you can feed them with the mixtures described above. If it is impossible to provide such feeding, the ducks will have to be fed directly in the water.

In addition to bread, you can give:

• grated hard cheese, which does not sink immediately, so almost all of it is picked up by ducks;
• thick oatmeal (roll into balls and throw or serve directly into beaks);
• boiled vegetables in small pieces;
• fresh berries and fruits, cut into small pieces.

However, the best option is special combined feed for ducks. They are produced in granules, so when they get into water, they do not immediately dissolve.

In winter in the city, when ducks refuse to waste energy on flying, the townspeople take care of the feathered “patriots”. And they do it right, because in the non-freezing areas of city rivers, lakes and ponds, ducks cannot feed themselves naturally. Two-thirds of their food consists of what people give.

In winter, ducks must be fed.

In order for ducks to survive safely until spring and fly away to arrange their personal lives, they must be fed with a variety of foods. Animal feed is especially important. In this case, you can grind the fish fillet, mix it with mixed feed, sprouted grain, oatmeal or porridge, and then roll this mixture into small balls. Any waterfowl will overwinter on such balls.

Feeding wild ducks at home

The mallard naturally lends itself to domestication, so it is difficult to call it a fully “wild” bird. The main difference from the domestic specimen is in size and “household needs.”

Wild ducks are bred for their eggs, because many people find the meat bitter and foul-smelling. Therefore, the feeding recommendations are the same as for keeping conventional species - pre-prepared mixed feed from grain crops, designed so that the bird does not experience a shortage of energy when heating itself in cold weather. In summer, fresh grasses, wet grain feeds and protein components in the form of fish, frogs or insects.

For a comfortable existence of wild ducks in the household, in the summer it is necessary to provide them with access to a reservoir in which they can obtain food of both protein origin and various herbs.

The taste of meat depends entirely on the food.

Seasonal feeding habits

In the summer, when feeding ducks, you should follow the recommendations listed above. But in winter there is no fresh grass, no vegetables, no aquatic plants. These products are replaced with hay harvested in the summer and root vegetables prepared in the fall.

In winter, sprouted grains are most often given, and the volumes of foods containing protein and carbohydrates are also increased. Such a diet will help ducks survive the winter and not get sick.

In winter , birds are fed twice a day:

• in the morning they give mixed feed and wet mash;
• in the evening it is recommended to give a mixture of grains along with fish or meat and bone meal, sprouted grain, rot and steamed hay.

REFERENCE! All foods fed to ducks will not lead to weight gain. But they will help the birds endure the cold.