Ducks eating discarded rabbit food

I have some Golden Cascades coming in the mail in a few weeks as day-old chicks. I am building a night pen for them and a daytime paddock that has them in close proximity to my rabbit hutches to take advantage of the bug-shaped protein that hangs out with the rabbits. I feed my rabbits, organic greens and such but I also feed them Payback brand %18 protein pellets. The rabbits manage to get the pellets everywhere...will they be safe for the ducks? Any thoughts?

Also, I am looking for duck feed that is NOT Purina brand for ducklings and layers...Any suggestions?

I don't think it'd be an issue for them at all but take that with a grain of salt as I haven't raised ducks. Rabbit pellets are mostly grass and alfalfa around here. My chickens will even happily eat the other rabbit pellets (poop) for the undigested feed value.

As for duck feed, I don't know where you are, but call the feed mills around you. Here I can get non-GMO feed for not much more than conventional feed or organic for a 40-50% premium. I do know that you can get feed shipped, though that's expensive. There's H&H in Texas, I think, and sometimes you can get it shipped to a local feed store for cheaper. It all depends on how much you're willing to pay for the feed you want, but hopefully a little (or a lot) calling will get you sorted.

You should also post where you are as someone local might be able to point you in the right direction. BackyardChickens.com would also be a good place to post for help finding a good feed in your area.

Good luck.

Timothy Markus wrote:
As for duck feed, I don't know where you are, but call the feed mills around you. Here I can get non-GMO feed for not much more than conventional feed or organic for a 40-50% premium. I do know that you can get feed shipped, though that's expensive.

Thanks for the reply!

I have feed stores around, but not any mills that I am aware of...and a few of the feed stores will buy large lots of barley, oats, etc. that I could put something together, but I was wondering about brands that are non/less GMO or even BIG AG than Purina that I could use for my ducklings especially. I want to get them off to a good start and once they are adults, I could see mixing my own up...which I frequently do with my rabbits...

I'd call the feed stores and ask them what other options are available. The duck starter here is 20%. You could probably do fine with a chicken starter if you had to and some supplemental protein, though I'm not sure what you would use for that, but peanut meal would work. You can also try fermenting the feed (check out backyardchickens.com) as it's supposed to make the nutrition more bio-available and reduce feed costs. I do that with my quail and I really like it.

How many ducks are you planning on having?