Rapid and High-Quality Duck Raising New Technology

Author: Yang Xuemei, He Yuesheng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: Nutritional needs of ducks
Ducks obtain the nutrients required for their growth, development, and production through feeding on feed. These nutrients can be broadly categorized into six types: water, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals.
1. Water
Water is an indispensable substance for ducks to maintain life and is a vital component of their bodies. In adult ducks, the body contains 50%–55% water, while the water content in ducklings and duck eggs exceeds 70%. Water plays a crucial role in regulating body temperature. It transports heat from the body to the surface, kidneys, and lungs through the circulatory system, allowing heat to be released through evaporation, excretion, and radiation, thereby maintaining normal body temperature. Water is also an important solvent. The digestion, absorption, and transport of various nutrients, as well as the excretion of metabolic waste, must occur in body fluids. As a buffer, water participates in maintaining the acid-base balance and osmotic pressure in ducks' bodies, thereby preserving the normal morphology of cells. Additionally, water acts as a medium, facilitating various biochemical reactions within the body. In summary, water is essential for ducks' physiological activities. If ducks lack water, it can lead to reduced appetite, decreased feed conversion efficiency, slow growth, and weakened production performance. Severe dehydration can even cause death. Therefore, it is essential to continuously provide clean drinking water for duck flocks, especially during hot seasons.
2. Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are organic compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are found in plants and their seeds and include sugars, starches, and crude fiber. Sugars and starches are easily digestible and serve two primary nutritional roles:
- They are the main source of energy for maintaining body temperature and all life activities, such as respiration, circulation, digestion, reproduction, movement, and all cellular metabolic processes.
- They act as energy storage substances. After meeting ducks' energy needs, excess energy is converted into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscles, or further synthesized into fat for storage in the body.
Ducks have difficulty digesting crude fiber, with an utilization rate of only 8%–13%. The content of crude fiber in the diet should not be excessive. A small amount of crude fiber in the feed can fill the gastrointestinal tract, providing a sense of fullness, promote intestinal peristalsis and fecal excretion, and ensure normal physiological activities of the digestive system.
3. Fats
The highest content of fat is found in by-products of oilseed processing and animal feed. Fats serve as an important source of thermal energy for ducks, providing 2.25 times the energy of carbohydrates.
- They are the solvent for fat-soluble vitamins. A deficiency in fat can impair the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K.
- They provide essential fatty acids required for ducks' life activities.
- They form fat in the duck's body to protect internal organs or are stored for energy needs when energy is scarce.
4. Vitamins
Vitamins are essential nutrients for ducks to maintain normal physiological functions. Although vitamins are present in small amounts in feed, they have a significant impact on ducks' growth, development, egg production, fertility, hatchability, and health. Ducks raised on pasture can obtain large amounts of green forage and live animal feed in the wild, generally eliminating the need for vitamin supplementation. However, ducks raised in confinement require appropriate vitamin supplementation.
Ducks must obtain 13 types of vitamins from their diet, including fat-soluble vitamins...