I’ve had the pleasure of petting, feeding and caring after ducks in my uncle’s farm house for a remarkable period of time in my youth. It used to be my source of first-hand knowledge that was complemented by my following urge to learn from the experts.
In this journey, I’ve realized one question being echoed by the people I know as duck owners that ask: can ducks eat grapes?
While the question is a very straightforward YES, it was to my astonishment that this answer isn’t public knowledge yet.
Also, I found people to be looking for a few treat ideas that included grapes in a healthy amount for ducks.
Addressing all of these issues, I’m crafting my article today and hope to satisfy everyone’s dilemma associated with this question.
Contents
Health Benefits of Grapes for Ducks
Source: @farmerjie
Grapes have tons of health benefits for ducks that you most certainly cannot overlook as the owner. According to WebMD, this fruit can help out the consumer in uncountable ways. Among them, five are most beneficial to this avian creature.
Good for Immune System
First off, a good immune system implies your duck will get sick less frequently. You won’t have to call in your vet every now and then with the additional convenience of less medication to keep them healthy. From going under the weather to viral infections – all of these probabilities will be minimized with a healthy diet for your ducks that contain grapes.
Aids in Bowel Movement
Whether you knew it or not – constipation is a major concern for ducks that consume a monotonous food palette everyday. No matter how much water or other diluting agents you feed them, ducks still require food sources to aid in their digestive system. That’s where grapes cash in and ease their relief which otherwise could turn into a health hazard.
Prevents Cancer
It’s quite common for ducks to have tumors that can be malignant and the first studies of such kind date back to the late 19th century. Due to the abundance of antioxidant resveratrol in grapes, experts suggest that it has the potential to prevent cancers from manifesting in the first place. The most resveratrol exists in grape skins so you might want to keep that while feeding.
No Drastic Sugar Level Increase
Unlike other sweet fruits, grapes don’t radically increase the sugar level in ducks if fed in limited quantities. However, an excessive amount of something is never good – especially when it has to do with sucrose. But with the precise amount, your duck should find sufficient energy to walk around all day and perform all the activities the bird must do for surviving contentedly.
Keeps Heart Healthy
Ducks are much different to chickens when it comes to heart conditions. The avian type in concern has a particular way of converting food into body fat which can end up weakening the heart. Grapes in this case can keep the heart healthy and pumping so that the ducks can live a long life without facing untimely death.
Nutritional Values of Grapes
Grapes have rich nutritional values, not only for ducks, but also for other birds, animals or even human beings. Calories in grapes give ducks energy to burn through, carbs to facilitate bodily activities and some healthy fat to maintain body temperature.
Other than these, the most important nutritional supplementation grapes provide are vitamins and minerals. They have tons of positive effects on ducks that you should be aware of.
Vitamins
Vitamins contribute to a lot of significant aspects of a duck’s growth and well-being. Let’s take a look at the Vitamins available in grapes and how they contribute to the bird’s health.
- Vitamin A: Vitamin A is one of the most underrated vitamins of all time. It not only improves eyesight, hearing and bone strength, but also fortifies the cellular mucus membranes to protect the duck from diseases and infections. Luckily, grapes contain much of this particular vitamin for your ducks.
- Vitamin B-1 & B-6: Vitamin B-1 contains ‘thiamine’ that renders the flow of electrolyte smooth in and out of body cells. Adding to that, Vitamin B-6 aids in breaking down the protein and smoothly converting them into amino acid. That’s why grapes are suggested to be fed to ducks.
- Vitamin C: Although grapes aren’t the richest containers of Vitamin C, however, the degree to which this vitamin is present tends to prevent drastic deprivations. It helps in increasing the frequency of egg-laying and also strengthens the shell-quality for each egg. But if your vet suggests, make sure to go for the Vit-C supplements as well!
- Vitamin D: With Vitamin D deficiency in ducks, their bones won’t shape out and grow properly. Also, the sturdiness of bones will be limited and prone to breakage. While sunlight can endow with a certain amount of Vitamin D to the ducks, grapes can fulfill the necessary quota and keep the bodily structure fit at all times.
Minerals
Like vitamins, there’s plenty of minerals present in grapes that can satisfy a duck’s bodily needs to a certain extent. I’ll briefly describe the benefits for your convenience:
- Calcium: Although in a very little amount, Calcium is indeed present in grapes. It can help with duck’s bone structure, strength of egg shell, muscle functions and overall growth.
- Potassium: Potassium and Vitamin B-1 go hand in hand for ducks upon consumption of grapes. These two together ensure flow of fluid, healthy nerve signals and an overall healthy body of ducks.
- Iron: Grapes are rich in iron that’s much needed for ducks. Note that excessive iron can compromise a duck’s health, but it’s proven that the iron in grapes does no such thing. Rather, it helps out with the regular egg-laying process and confirms the optimum amount of hemoglobin.
- Manganese: Manganese isn’t the most important mineral for a duck’s body, but its presence in ideal levels is demanded for healthy cellular reactions. The lack of it may turn out to be fatal in certain scenarios.
How to Feed Grapes to Your Ducks?
Source: @yabapaopaodot
There’s a lot to talk about when you ask for grape-feeding guidelines for your ducks. I’ll try to be thorough so that you can precisely understand how to go about it in a healthy manner.
Preparation
It’s a five-step precautionary phase that you most certainly should follow to avoid any sort of complications regarding your ducks. The steps are as follows:
- Pick the Ripe Grapes: Ripe grapes are tastier and their nutritional values are set at the optimum state. Also, it’s much easier to eat through for ducks, along with less risk of choking. Thus, go for the ripe ones when purchasing.
- Throw Away Moldy/Rotten Grapes: Inspect the grapes before you feed them to your precious ducks. If there’s a dent, breakage, hint of rotten patch or visible infection, simply dump that into the garbage can.
- Wash Thoroughly: You can’t have known where the grapes might have been before ending up in your hands. It could be layered with pesticides or other harmful chemicals. So make sure to rinse the grapes thoroughly using cold water.
- Don’t Feed a Whole Grape: Ducks usually swallow large chunks of food and don’t have the ability to chew the way we do. So a whole grape could choke them and many deaths have occurred because of such approaches.
- Keep It Simple: Don’t overfeed the ducks with grapes because too much of one thing is never good. Rather, moderate their diet chart and mix it up with other food materials like grains.
If you manage to follow these precautions, your ducks should draw great health advantages from grape-feeding.
Grape Meal Ideas
There are quite a few ways to feed grapes to your ducks. The more variety you can create for them, the less interested they’ll be about a healthy diet. Let me present you with three ideas you can try out:
- Mixed with Rice/Fish/Vegetables: Ducks require all arrays of food nutrients and the basic platters tend to serve the purpose accurately. With rice, fish or vegetables, you can mix a small portion of grapes that’s chopped in half.
- Mashed up in a Bowl: If you use a masher to break up each of the grapes, they can not only consume the skin & meat without any worry, but also drink up the juice as well. It’s one of the most effective ways of grape-feeding to ducks.
- In a Fruit Salad: Fruit salad means you’ll need to chop up fruits like berry, melon, plum, banana etc. and add chopped grapes with them. It should be fed once a week due to the higher amount of sugar levels.
Quantity & Frequency
When it comes to grape quantity for each duck meal, you should be conservative and moderate the amount by mixing up other ingredients like I’ve shown you. Grapes should IN NO WAY cross 10% of the overall diet. That’s a healthy benchmark to keep your ducks safe from overconsumption.
As per frequency, you can throw in a couple of grapes every other day with one meal that contains other ingredients as well. Mushed grapes can be fed twice a week and the fruit salad is better if it’s limited to a weekly basis. If you want to keep it safe, this salad can be fed in alternate weeks if other regular meals already contain portions of grapes.
FAQ
This section highlights some common queries regarding ducks eating grapes to clarify doubts of the duck-owners. Let’s give them a try!
Q: Does the smell of grapes actually repel ducks?
Ans: For most cases, no, the smell of grapes does not repel ducks. However, some unique ducks might find the smell intolerable in certain cases, but that doesn’t represent the general scenario.
Q: Can I feed ‘canned grapes’ to my ducks?
Ans: If you’re not desperate, I would recommend against feeding canned grapes to ducks. I prefer the grapes to be fresh, recently ripened and free from chemical interference.
Q: Should I peel the grape skin before serving the ducks?
Ans: No, you shouldn’t. Because grape skin contains a lot of nutrients that are important for a duck’s health. So you ought to find a way to include grapes with skin to your duck’s diet.
Q: Which color of grapes to choose for my ducks?
Ans: Any color of grapes should do just fine for ducks as long as they meet the criteria I previously mentioned. Whether it’s red, black or green – the nutrient values are quite similar and moderated quantities won’t differ much from one another.
Thoughts
So we’re now at the end of our query investigation that has hopefully clarified the doubts about ‘can ducks eat grapes?’
Make sure to re-read the preparation phase because that’s important for your duck’s wellbeing. It also guarantees that the ducks are receiving nutrients in the best possible shape.
Adding to that, another point of highlight would be to chop the grapes in halves to avoid choking hazards. Trust me, it’s more common than you think.
Don’t overfeed grapes, don’t deem it to be a prime diet ingredient and don’t feed it whole – that should treat your ducks in the best possible way!
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