Don’t get me wrong, having too many eggs is always better than having too few.
But, when you’re ducks (or chickens) are laying almost every day, there’s only so many you can eat yourself or give away to friends or family.
Meet a common dilemma amongst poultry raisers: too many eggs!
But, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: eggs are actually an amazing food to feed your ducks!
Here’s whether ducks can eat eggs, what benefits eggs really have for ducks, and the best ways to prepare eggs for your ducks.
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Can Ducks Eat Eggs?
Not only CAN duck’s eat eggs, but ducks LOVE eating eggs.
Although sometimes a point of ethical controversy, eggs are actually an amazing source of protein for your ducks and are absolutely safe too (provided they’re cooked).
Never feed raw eggs to your ducks – you don’t want them to associate their eggs with food otherwise some ducks might start eating their freshly laid eggs!
Otherwise, cooked eggs can be a highly nutritious protein boost for your flock (scrambled eggs tend to work best!).
Can Ducks Eat Chicken Eggs?
Just to be clear, ducks can eat any domestic poultry eggs – as long as they’re cooked first!
In fact, some farmers prefer to feed their ducks chicken eggs instead of duck eggs to help prevent the association between their own eggs and eating eggs.
Plus chicken eggs are normally a bit larger, and feeding ducks chicken eggs instead of duck eggs also avoids the whole ethical dilemma.
Benefits Of Feeding Cooked Eggs To Your Ducks
Still not convinced about feeding cooked scrambled eggs to your ducks?
Well, you’re about to be because the nutritional benefits are simply superb.
Here are the benefits of feeding cooked scrambled eggs to your ducks (with eggshells mixed in too!):
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- High Protein Content: for strong, continued egg production.
- Amazing Calcium Content: to assist in producing healthy egg shells for regular egg-laying.
- Help Against Vitamin B Deficiencies
- Helps Ducks During Molting Season
High Protein Content
Much like most poultry, ducks need a whopping 16% protein in their daily diets.
Whilst the most reliable way to get this protein content still remains their normal formulated feed, scrambled eggs provide a healthy alternative treat for your ducks that will help them reach their daily protein intake levels.
Ensuring your ducks get enough protein does wonders for their overall health, egg-laying, and well-being — and even helps them lay through the colder months of winter.
Amazing Calcium Content (Plus Other Nutrients)
Setting aside protein, eggs are just an incredible source of so many other essential nutrients and vitamins.
If you add the crushed eggshells to your scrambled egg mix then you’ll also be providing ducks with an extra special nutrient that’s absolutely required in their daily diets: calcium.
After all, mature ducks who are regularly laying eggs need as much calcium as they can get to assist with healthy eggshell formation.
Preventing Vitamin B Deficiencies
For anyone who has raised ducklings (or even ducks), you’ll know how common vitamin B deficiencies can be.
The most common symptoms of a vitamin B deficiency in ducks or ducklings are poor growth, characteristics of nervous behavior, and crippled legs/curled toes.
This happened to one of my ducks, Sally-Girl, where her toes bent inward causing her to have trouble walking (we fixed the issue gradually with Vitamin B boosts, including scrambled eggs).
Luckily, duck eggs & chicken eggs contain vitamins B2, B5, and B12, so these vitamins that are transferred from your bird to the egg can be recycled back into the bird to retain.
Helps Molting Ducks
It’s pretty common for ducks to molt in the late summer months, or in early spring.
It’s just as common for female ducks to slow their egg production during this time, as the protein and other nutrients they intake are prioritized for their feather regrowth.
It’s during these times when extra protein supplemented into your duck’s diet can really make a difference.
As soon as you notice your ducks molting, it’s time to start cooking some scrambled eggs.
Making Scrambled Eggs For Your Ducks
Alright, enough learning and booking, time for cracking and cooking.
But, unlike when you’re cooking eggs for YOUR breakfast, you’ll want to ditch the salt and pepper, butter, and oil when you’re making scrambled eggs for your ducks.
Here’s a no-nonsense strategy for making scrambled eggs for your ducks, including how much and how often to serve them!
Cook the Eggs
Regardless of which poultry eggs you choose, you need to cook them well. Your ducks won’t thank you for feeding them poached or soft-boiled eggs here!
Scrambled eggs tend to work the best, as you can mix it all thoroughly together to make the nutrients evenly spread.
More importantly, the main reason you need to cook the eggs is to protect your ducks from diseases carried by eggs, like Salmonella. The fact is that Salmonella can contaminate the eggs while they’re forming inside the fowl, even before they’re laid.
Add Eggshells
Although it sounds unpleasant to us humans, ducks will happily munch on ground eggshells when it’s mixed in with scrambled eggs.
It’s especially good as the eggshells are almost literally almost all calcium!
This provides an incredible calcium boost for your laying ducks, helping with regular and consistent new eggshell formation.
Of course, just be sure you crush the eggshells up finely so they’re easy for your ducks to swallow, and make sure you wash the eggs before cracking them too!
Other Additions
Here’s the fun part.
If you’re making a scrambled egg mix for your ducks already, you might as well take the opportunity to add some other healthy foods in there too!
Some other highly beneficial foods to add to the scrambled eggs mix for your ducks include:
- Fresh herbs
- Oats
- Chopped-up leafy greens
- High-nutrient seeds, like flax seeds, chia seeds, or safflower seeds.
- Berries (like blueberries or blackberries)
How Much & How Often
Feeding scrambled eggs to your ducks should always be a supplement to their normal formulated feed, not a replacement.
You’ll only really need to feed your ducks half an egg per duck, and no more than about once a week. Still, even in these limited quantities, your ducks will be able to get the benefits without any downsides.
Can Ducklings Eat Cooked Eggs?
Ducklings can safely eat cooked scrambled eggs too!
However, you’ll want to ditch the eggshells if you’re feeding scrambled eggs to your ducklings. They don’t need the extra calcium, and it can be too coarse for their undeveloped digestive systems.
From as young as 2-4 weeks old, you can safely feed your ducklings small amounts of cooked scrambled eggs – the Vitamin B helps prevent common deficiencies too!
See here for 25 common foods you can feed your ducklings as snacks, treats, or supplements.
Breakfast’s Over!
So if you haven’t started feeding your extra eggs to your flock, you’re missing out.
Not only is it a good way to avoid waste in your household, but the benefits are so clear – plus you’re ducks will absolutely love you for it!
At the end of the day, a happy duck is a healthy duck, right?