Pekin ducks eat a complete waterfowl or duck feed as their main diet, plus greens, vegetables, and the bugs and plants they find while foraging. Treats like peas, leafy greens, and mealworms are fine in small amounts. Bread and salty or moldy foods are not. What you feed changes as the duck grows, so here is a simple guide by age.
Ducklings: first weeks
Feed an unmedicated duck or waterfowl starter, or an unmedicated chick starter, with about 18 to 20 percent protein. Ducklings grow very fast and need extra niacin (vitamin B3) for strong legs. Hatchery Metzer Farms notes that deficiency problems show up when ducklings grow fastest, around two to seven weeks of age. Duck starter feeds usually include niacin, but if you use chick starter, ask the feed maker or add brewer’s yeast or a niacin supplement as directed. Always give ducklings water in a deep dish so they can wash their bills, but keep it shallow enough that they cannot drown.
Growers and adults
After a few weeks, move to a grower feed, and then to an adult maintenance or flock feed. Laying ducks need a layer feed or extra calcium, such as oyster shell offered on the side. Pellets are less messy than crumbles. Ducks need water within reach whenever they eat, because they dunk food to swallow it and keep their nostrils clear.
Safe treats
- Leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, and chopped dandelion greens.
- Peas (fresh or thawed frozen), cucumbers, zucchini, and shredded carrots.
- Mealworms, earthworms, and slugs, which ducks eat enthusiastically.
- Small amounts of cooked or cracked corn, oats, and berries.
- Seedless melon and apple slices.
Keep treats to roughly 10 percent of the diet so they still eat their feed.
Foods to avoid
- Bread and crackers: filling but low in nutrition, and they pollute ponds.
- Avocado, chocolate, caffeine, and alcohol, which are toxic to birds.
- Moldy, rotten, or very salty foods, and sugary snacks.
- Dried beans that are uncooked.
- Medicated chick feed, unless a vet tells you to use it.
Grit and foraging
Ducks have no teeth, so offer fine grit if they do not forage on soil. Free-ranging Pekins eat bugs, snails, and weeds and are good at garden pest control.
If your duck stops eating, has swollen legs, or has trouble standing, call a vet who treats birds.
Related guides
Bottom Line
Feed Pekin ducks a proper waterfowl feed matched to their age, add greens and the occasional treat, and keep fresh water available while they eat. Skip bread, and make sure ducklings get enough niacin.
