Expert: Abi - 7/12/2009

Question
Hello, I have an 11yr old swedish blue male duck.  He is the only duck we have and he lives with 7 goats.  He goes outside during the day in a large paddock (80ftX200ft)that leads out to a pasture for the goats to graze.  At night the duck "Ole" comes in to the barn with his goats.  He did have 2 lady ducks up to about 4yrs ago.  They did pass away and we tried to get him another lady duck but he was not having any part of it and actually ran her off.  He spends his days swimming in his little pool (kids pool), chasing birds out of his paddock and trying to mate with anything he can come in contact with. He just got done mating my flower garden to death.  This is "Ole's" life- Here's my question.  I'm assuming that due to his age he's not fairing very well this year as far as keeping weight on.  In the past month he is actually losing more weight.  I am getting concerned about this because winter will be here in a blink of an eye. He is eating and drinking fine- just not gaining weight.  I do have him on a commercial  duck feed and he does like to eat the some of the grain i give the goats.  What can i feed him to help him put some weight on before winter.  With horses and goats generally i add corn oil but is this okay for ducks.  I did go down to the bait store this spring and get im some minnows- put them in his pool and at first it was so exciting for him to swim in his pool and catch the minnows to eat (then he lost interest in the minnows).  He also enjoys worms so i bought him earthworms and occasionally feed them to him.  I'm just concerned that with this next winter coming he might not fair so well if he's not well insulated- living in minnesota.  Thank you for any suggestions and if i can't get "Ole" to get any weight we will have to take a trip to the vet in the near future.  Have a great night.  Shannon

Answer
Hello Shannon,

I do not normally answer questions without the question code as it generally means the questioner hasn't read my profile- but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt! :)

Do you feed Ole any supplements? There are ones you can get for the feed (powdered) and water (tonic). In the winter I give mine Poultry Spice in the food and a little NAF Lifeguard in the water. This generally helps them to keep a little weight on. Feed him anything high protein; boil lentils and rice to give him and even give him a small amount of wet catfood if he'll eat it. Don't let him get into a habit of eating it though. Worms, mealworms, maggots etc etc are good if you can feed them regularly; they are high in protein and birds love them. Our feed store does bit bads of dried mealworms which we feed to our birds in the winter.

If all this fails, you could always go onto the Little Hen Rescue website and look at the little coats they make for the battery hens there and make him one!! :)

Thanks for your question.