If you have ducks, then you will want to ensure that a quality duck feed always forms a major part of their diet. However, as with most domesticated animals, you may want to treat them every so often. But, what can you feed them? On this page, we want to walk you through whether ducks can eat popcorn.
Can Ducks Eat Popcorn?
Yes, ducks can eat popcorn, but it is really not recommend. Popcorn is rich with carbs and salt and is extremely hard for a duck to swallow.
Ducks have small stomachs. This means that they cannot hold a lot of food. This means that you have to ensure that everything that they are eating is packed full of nutrients.
You do not want them to fill up on food that has no benefit to them, because that would be pointless. Popcorn is one of those foods Popcorn holds absolutely no nutritional benefit to your ducks.
We are not going to lie. Some ducks will enjoy the taste of popcorn. This means that they are going to be filling their stomachs up with it.
Many people that have fed popcorn to their ducks have found that their ducks eat nothing else, and this is really the last thing you want to have happen. It will have a major impact on egg production, or even on the health of your duck.
If you Must Feed Your Ducks Popcorn…..
While popcorn is not really going to have any health benefit to your ducks, they may still enjoy the taste. This means that you may still want to give it as a small treat on occasion.
We can’t stress how important it is that the popcorn is nothing more than a small treat. A few kernels mixed into their normal feed would probably work.
This means that they can find the popcorn naturally in their food, and it also means that they are not overindulging to the point where they eat nothing else.
It is important that any popcorn that you give them has popped. Unpopped kernels are going to be too hard for your duck to eat. in fact, they may not even touch them.
It should probably go without saying that any popcorn that you do feed your duck should be completely free of any additives. This means that you should not be giving them salted popcorn, or anything with any sort of flavoring.
This is going to be even worse than giving them straight popcorn.
At the most, we suggest that you do not give your ducks popcorn more than once or twice every couple of weeks. More often than that, and it may end up impacting the rest of the food that they eat.
Conclusion
While ducks can eat popcorn, you shouldn’t really be feeding it to them, particularly if you are looking for a productive duck. If you must feed your ducks popcorn, then it should be nothing more than a sporadic treat.
In an ideal world, you wouldn’t feed it to them anyway. If you must give them a treat, then give them some fruits and vegetables. At least both of those will have some sort of health benefit to your ducks.
Related articles:
– Can ducks eat carrots?
– Can ducks eat tomatoes?
