How to Measure the Food Intake of Ducks

With sick or growing ducks, you may need to measure their daily intake of food. Weighing the food is the easiest way to accomplish this. The information gained can tell you, and your avian veterinarian, if your duck eats enough food for his size, activity level and age. It can also alert you to health problems if your ducks' daily intake of food decreases.

Things You'll Need

  • Gram scale
  • Pen
  • Paper
  • Calculator
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Instructions

    • 1

      Put duck food into the duck bowl. Use waterfowl crumble made specifically for ducks. This type of food is much easier to get an accurate measurement with. Use a bowl with high edges to prevent the food from spilling out as much as possible. The right height of the bowl edges will vary depending on the age and height of your duck.

    • 2

      Weigh the now filled food bowl by placing it on the gram scale and write down its weight.

    • 3

      Place the food bowl in the pen with the ducks. This works best if the ducks are the only animals with access to the food bowl, so it's best to keep them confined when measuring their food intake. If you are concerned about the food intake of a single duck, then confine that duck in a cage alone with the food bowl.

    • 4

      Position the food bowl at least five feet away from any water sources. If the food gets wet, then you will not be able to accurately determine how much food the duck at as the water will add weight to the food.

    • 5

      Remove the food bowl at the end of the day and weigh the bowl with the remaining food. Write down this weight.

    • 6

      Subtract the weight of the bowl and food recorded at the end of the day from the weight of the duck food and bowl recorded before feeding the ducks. This gives you in grams an estimate of how much duck food was consumed that day. It's an estimate because some food may have spilled out and gotten mashed into the ground.