So the ducks LOVE dog food. I’m assuming whoever raised and abandoned Mabel (l) and Maddie (c) fed it to them. I’ve had little luck moving them to duck crumbles. I finally resorted to very expensive duck seed, so it’s not processed into a pellet. They will eat that, but not until after their dog food is gone.
After discovering Bixby is sensitive to chicken (of all things) I had to change the pups food to a different type and brand. Over the summer the duck eggshells have become thinner and thinner and the only change I could think of was the dog food. So I’ve stopped giving it to them. Monday.
What you see above is the result. They stand outside my patio door and bitch at me because I have not provided them with the proper nutrition for the day. In protest, I have not gotten an egg from either of them in two days.
Penelope has not been as picky, but in solidarity, she has joined the picket line.
(And there, Cole, are your ducks for the day)
Open thread…
(oh, and I just finished the first cookbook (of 4) over the weekend and should have it up on Kindle by the end of the week. I know I’ve promised many people I’d do it…so finally)
TenguPhule
How to make the perfect no-churn ice-cream – recipe
trollhattan
I’m imagining ducks bitching and can hear it, because sometimes “quack” isn’t just “quack.”
We backpacked to a Sierra lake last week and were entertained by tree-nesting ducks along the opposite shore. They never came close enough for a really good look but weren’t wood ducks so I had to dig into the bird books and Cornell website back home. Turns out there was a healthy colony of buffleheads that 1. were breeding well outside their normal range and 2. give me a new name to call people, “You bufflehead!”
It’s also an off-the-charts great year in the Sierra for butterflies. Heavy snow+late spring=good conditions for those.
The Moar You Know
More people need to be aware that chicken is not necessarily the unoffending animal protein in dogs that it is in humans. I kind of suspected it might be a problem when we’d feed him chicken off the table and he’d have a bit of pupset tummy the next day. But everyone said it was something else.
Our poor pup was on it for over three years before a brief illness allowed for a changeover in his food. He’s on a salmon-based kibble now and is in every way so much better and happier.
TenguPhule
16 ways to enjoy baked potatoes at home – from seaweed to baked bean hotpot
TaMara (HFG)
@The Moar You Know: This. My experience to a T.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Very adroit double-negative there.
OzarkHillbilly
They are laying thin shelled eggs because they need a supplement (or formulized feed) to replenish the calcium and other minerals that they have been losing from their bones. This is common for laying hens (and there comes a point where they stop laying all together) which is why there is Layer Feed. I don’t know quack about duck diets, but a google search should give you answers.
CaseyL
…maybe if you mixed some of the food they like in with the food you’re moving them to?
IIRC, that’s the standard procedure for changing one’s critters’ regular diet.
TaMara (HFG)
@OzarkHillbilly: They have all that – it wasn’t helping. So dog food was the next logical step.
Kristine
Yea, cookbooks!
Amir Khalid
I suppose you could get the old dog food for the ducks, while Bixby and Scout get the new dog food.
humboldtblue
Posted this downstairs.
Monica Lewinsky wins the week with this tweet response.
rikyrah
The ducks are on strike!
BWA HA HA HA HA H AH HA HA
GO Pearl…be in solidarity with your Sisters :)
Barbara
If you have ever watched Dr. Chris, Pet Vet, which is a kids Saturday morning show that follows an Australian veterinarian, he had to treat a duck that had gout from being overfed in a public park. Some regulars noticed he was in distress and called Dr. Chris. After treating him, he said that it was important to feed animals as close to what they would eat in nature as possible, and never to overfeed them.
JAFD
@TenguPhule: You seem to have created an orouboritic link there.
(Am baked potato fan, always looking for new ideas for them.)
David Hunt
The real Duck Dynasty..
feebog
Ducks on strike quacks me up. No dog food, no eggs, sounds like a pretty simple ask to me.
Searcher
Does the “crumble” food come in a “pellet” variant?
My chickens tend to prefer the Layena Pellets over the Layena Crumbles, because (I assume) it is easier for them to grab individual pellets, and more satisfying than “scooping” up the crumbles.
kindness
Wrt the egg shells thinning……is there a calcium supplement made for ducks?
It sounds like all they have to do is make it look like dog kibble.
JeanneT
There are no ducks in this announcement, but it’s a good day for my dog pack. My dog Raleigh (a 12 year old Lowchen) has officially finished his second cancer-free year since being treated for parathyroid cancer. We will celebrate tonight with a spoonful of yogurt in everydog’s kibble. This does not sound exciting when I write it, but the dogs really do think it’s special!
Raven
When I cultivated a colony of flesh eating (dermestid) beetles for my redfish skelatonization project I had to start with a small vial of larvae and feed them dogfood!
TenguPhule
@JAFD: Whoopsie. Thanks for telling me.
Spuds we like: 16 ways to enjoy baked potatoes at home – from seaweed to baked bean hotpot
Correct link here.
dnfree
How adaptable are your cookbooks for vegetarians?
Dorothy A. Winsor
BJ. Come for the politics, stay for the pets and cookbooks! What could be better?
Martin
Fuck yeah!
It’s hard to express just how much people despise Trump here.
TenguPhule
@dnfree:
You may have to stew them a bit to break down the paper fibers.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I’m annoyed at that lede. There may now be more registered Democrats than Republicans in OC, but there are almost as many no party preference voters as either, which makes it a Democratic plurality rather than a majority.
Sab
Pleade tell me those ducks weren’t eating chicken dog food. That just seems wrong somehow.
Redshift
Penelope! ?
Mike in NC
We were served Peking duck on our cruise ship tonight. A bit too gamey for my taste. Sorry, ducks.
Mart
Now I know what “ducks in a row” means. Get me some dog food now, or we will peck you up!
Ella in New Mexico
103 Degrees and 21% humidity in El Paso right now.
Hoping for 22 random, senseless, attacks of heatstroke and at least one lightning strike from an afternoon monsoon to hit our visiting Presidential delegation
TaMara (HFG)
@dnfree: Well look at that my reply got eated.
Remind me later this week or email me and when I’m not working, I’ll send you some links to the menus so you can see what’s what
Martin
@Roger Moore: I noted that too, but decided this one time I didn’t care because I liked the sound of the headline.
BC in Illinois
“What do we want?”
“DOG FOOD!”
“When do we want it?”
“QUACK!”
[ Props to Penelope/Pearl for joining in and not crossing the picket line. ]
worn
On the heels of a shitty couple of weeks, your describing the avian hunger strike really made my day, TaMara. Thanks!
The Moar You Know
@kindness: There is one for chickens. Works fine for ducks. And it sounds like the ducks need some.
TenguPhule
Seems appropriate for this thread.
Scientists just discovered a prehistoric parrot nearly the size of a kindergartner
MazeDancer
Maybe fish based cat food? Or kitten chow. Fish is sort of bird food isn’t it? Okay, maybe only sea gulls, but it’s gotta be better than cousiny chicken.
Michael Sheridan
If the strike continues, perhaps you should read the quackers a few “how to serve duck” recipes, and tell them they’re going in the cookbook if egg laying doesn’t resume.
geg6
Cole’s gonna be pissed that you are still calling Pearl Penelope.
Just sayin’. ;-)
jl
I remember raising ducks with cute little duck pond on the farm as a kid. Ducks are fun. But when they get pissed enough to stage an organized work action, you’re in trouble.
Hoodie
Another example of the sociopathy of the Trump administration, this time regarding the arbitrary transfer of USDA employees:
The people are fucking Stalinists. This is of a piece with separating children from parents as a deterrent for seeking asylum. These guys can’t comprehend that city residents are people, and not stereotypes of effete limousine liberals, welfare queens and gang members. Kansas City is a fine place, but maybe people have roots in DC? Mulvaney is a particularly obnoxious little shit.
LesGS
@TenguPhule: Apparently falcons are more closely related to parrots than hawks and eagles. Squakzilla could very well have been a carnivore or at least an omnivore. (That was a freaking big parrot! I’m kinda scared of just the regular sized ones…)
Litlebritdifrnt
@JAFD: I still make what is known as “A Columbus County Baked Potato” traditionally served at any function where the parents were responsible for the cooking at my DH’s school West Columbus High School. Slice the raw baking potato in half. Place thick slices of onion and slabs of butter in the halves and sandwich together. Coat wet outer skin of potato with salt. Wrap the whole thing in tin foil and bake. They are absolute heaven.
SiubhanDuinne
@BC in Illinois:
Penelope/Pearl is no squab … uh, scab.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
I think the compromise consensus was that “Penelope” is her stage name.
jl
@TenguPhule: ” Heracles inexpectatus ”
Put that on a list of prehistoric animals not to bring back.
J R in WV
I think sprinkling a little calcium supplement grains (we used to put out crushed oyster shells for our chickens, they loved it!) on whatever you can get the ducks to eat would be the ticket.
They are losing calcium in their bones, as another noted above, which is a bad thing. Also like the suggestion of getting duck feed in pellets rather than crumbs, sprinkle crushed oyster shell on that perhaps.
They are so cute!
TaMara (HFG)
Again people, they ARE getting all the supplemental calcium, etc. Nothing was working. Sigh.
Mo MacArbie
Gotta say, the lack of reading comprehension exhibited in this and previous threads WRT calcium supplements makes me rethink the value of other opinions expressed here.
Yutsano
This really is a situation most fowl BHF.
(I regret nothing!)
Also working on a garlic herb cream sauce. Stay tuned.
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: That’s horrible. Hopefully the garlic herb cream sauce redeems you. ?
low-tech cyclist
Just sing to them from Al Yankovic’s “I Want a New Duck”:
Better mind their manners, better do just what I say
Or they’re gonna be duck pate
Yeah, you wouldn’t really do that, but you should sing it to them.
Mowgli
@TaMara (HFG):
So funny, we have three adult ducks of exactly the same breeds, so your pic is like looking out our paddock. Ours are Bill (white layer), Mango (blue Swede) and Mrs. Waddlesworth (brown layer hybrid).
We give ours layer feed, and they usually each lay daily, although they sometimes take a day off. We had to put the dog food up on hay bales to keep them away, our Great Pyrenees would have starved.
Just got six new ducklings by mail last week:
1 blue swedish
1 black swedish
1 Cayuga
2 silver appleyards
1 white layer hybrid
I will have to post pics soon
TomatoQueen
@Mowgli: Pics of ducks are required.