Ducks Will Bite Your Fingers Off For Tomatoes: Safe Treats For Ducks
Ducks are such fun pets to have. There is nothing more enjoyable than giving them a few treats while they happily quack and eat from your hands. One thing I've learned about ducks is they are love treats! That being said, you have to be careful what you feed them.
note: Sorry about the upside down screengrab in the dtube video at the top. Every time I upload a pic to steemit lately it turns it upside down. I'm having to edit all my pictures before uploading to get them to show right side up.
Bandit Looking Like She Is Plotting How To Get More Treats
Rule #1: No Bread!!!!
Near where I live we have a park with lots of ducks. I remember as a kid going on adventures to the park with a bag full of bread to feed the adorable ducks. Little did I know that bread is terrible for them. They don't get nutrition from white bread. Eating too much of it makes them feel all full and then they don't want to eat real food that helps them stay healthy. Bread to ducks is the equivalent to humans consuming soda or candy. It tastes delicious but it doesn't provide nutritional benefits.
Here Are Some Better Treats For Ducks
Tomatoes, Peas, and Watermelon Will Drive You Ducks Wild
Ducks will go crazy for tomatoes, peas, and watermelon. If you watch my Dtube video above, you'll see my duckling Bandit will try to eat my fingers off trying to get more bites of tomatoes. She and my other ducklings love tomatoes and will aggressively try to get as many bites as possible. These are healthy treats for your ducks in moderation. A treat here and there is fine but treats shouldn't make up a large part of their diet. They should be eating duck feed for most of their meals and if you free range, they should be eating things they find out in nature for a small part of their diet.
Vegetables
Most vegetables are healthy to give your ducks. In nature ducks forage for food and will eat grass and weeds. Foods like lettuce, corn, beans, broccoli, etc. are foods ducks will enjoy. The only vegetables ducks shouldn't have are onions and spinach.
Spinach can disrupt your ducks ability to absorb calcium which can cause problems for female ducks when they lay eggs. It can cause eggs to have softer shells. Duck eggs are suppose to be thick and harder to crack than chicken eggs. Onions are usually toxic for many animals to eat. Dogs, ducks, and other pets should not eat onions because they can make them sick or kill them.
Grass, Weeds, and Bugs
The reason I picked ducks over chickens is that ducks eat your yard. They eat grass and weeds which is nice when you hate mowing your yard. If you want to give your ducks a treat, let them roam outside of their pen around your yard. They will enjoy all nature has to offer. Yesterday my ducklings got to enjoy their very first ants and bugs. They had fun chasing bugs and snapping at flying ones in the air. Why spend money on treats when nature provides plenty out in the yard?
Sammy Eating The Yard
Eggs
If you keep ducks to produce eggs like me, you'll be collecting the eggs they lay. If you have eggs you aren't going to eat you can boil or scrambled them and feed them to your ducks. Eggs are full of calcium and a treat of cooked eggs can be nutritious. Just don't give it to them raw. Only give your ducks cooked eggs.
Cheerios and Whole Grains
My ducks Smokey, Bandit, Sammy, and Reese love Cheerios. I crush them up since they are still young and let them eat from my hand. So far this is the first people food Reese will come eat out of my hand. She's a skittish bird and the only one afraid of me. Whole grains are good treats for ducks and can come in the forms of oatmeal, pasta, whole wheat breads, and rice.
Always Have Water Around When Feeding Ducks
Ducks are unable to swallow any food without water. They can easily choke to death if water isn't available. If you give them treats or food make sure they have a water source nearby. I usually take a bowl of water and throw their treats into the bowl. My ducks love to splash and eat their treats when it's in water. Since they are young and still living in their brooder I take handfuls of grass, peas, or other veggies and toss them in a nice bowl of water then let the go to town. Watching them eat makes me smile because they eat treats so quickly and messily.
Photos and video property of @marxrab.
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Good to know. There is a nature park near my place. We have a lot of ducks and geese there. If I see people feeding them bread, I'll let them know it's bad for their health and that tomatoes and veggies are best.
Beautiful as always, and they love the sweets, always so roguish, and so well cared for in your hands, happy friends, I have no doubt that they will continue to believe in the best hands.
Sounds like the rules about white bread and the healthier alternatives are the same for us humans as well!!
for humans bread memikiki nutrition. howbeit for duck it like a soda that do not have a nutritional anything?
I think Rice nice to duck. because it can make a lot of eggs and a quick great.
Hrm... Feeding your ducks their own eggs. Isn't that some sort of cannibalism?
I might try bringing cherios to the park, sometime. In Rochester, MN, there is a park known to locals as "Goose Poop Park" (with variants on the second word acknowledged), where goose and ducks congregate all summer long. The geese have been known to attack people with popcorn...
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You have been upvoted by the @sndbox-alpha! Our curation team is currently formed by @bitrocker2020, @zord189, @aaronleang, & @teachblogger . We are seeking posts of the highest quality and we deem your endeavour as one of them. If you want to get to know more, feel free to check our blog.