Too much protein is not good for all waterfowl. They can grow too fast causing several problems including 'angel wing' where the feathers become too heavy and the wing is deformed. Niacin is important to waterfowl and needs to be suppl;emented unless a waterfowl starter is fed. greens supply N and they need to be fed. A good quality shick starter/grower works well for waterfowl. The breeders of standard Muscovies do feed more protein to their ducks, they are much larger than barnyard types, same as for standard geese.

There are some Muscovy populations which are so inbred they have some genetic problems caused by inbreeding depression.

I had a chicken and a swan once that were fed too much protein.The swan had a terrible time the tendon slipped on what is his knee joint.he couldnt walk his joint got huge.The chicken couldnt walk.I read you start off on high protein but then cut back.

Ok, it's making sense now, because after feeding them the high protein diet, one developed an angel wing (she was a lone duckling we received from another farm), I thought it was something to do with the farm she came from, because the others did not develop the A.W. Then of course we stopped the protein after they were better, and they've been fine ever since.

The farmer I bought from explained it to me, but not in such detail, so I guess I lucked out by stopping the protein when I did.

This was the first time this ever happened here, so thank you so much for clarifying.

Brendasue

We adopted an abandoned muscovy chick three years ago and started feeding it a low protein diet. She did not do well and we nearly lost her. I then read that these ducks eat lots of insects and fish so I started giving her small amounts of shrimp each day and noticed she not only liked it but she also improved significantly. Now we feed her a combination of noodles with Niacin and other vitamins, chopped tomatoes, cooked rice, lettuce and a small filet of cooked tilapia, swai or any other inexpensive type of frozen fish every day. She loves it but now Im concerned she may be getting too much protein. She is finicky about her food so we do not have much choice. We occasionally feed dry dog food to some of our neighborhood "wild" muscovies . They love it but ours must be spoiled rotten because she will not touch it. Any suggestions are welcome.

Hi, I just read your question Brenda Sue, I don't have any input or suggestions but I was looking for some myself...I was wondering how many worms did you feed your Muscovies to get them back on track? and how many did u cut back to once u decided to cut back?

I have a 3 month old Muscovy and I'm concerned that I'm giving her too many worms in a day, I usually give her about 4 total , Plus her duck starter/pellets(with niacin added,suggested by bird store) ,barley, oats,corn, herbs & greens(mostly wheatgrass ,backyard grass&clovers.but she doesn't seem to like the greens as much as the protein &grains . She was Do you or anyone else know if what I'm feeding is good or not? She was mainly indoors at first but has transitioned to being outdoor most of the time
But some indoor and I still feed her. She does seem to eat some of the greens outside on her own though.She has lots of other ducks,geese and birds around all the time and a large pond. If you or anyone else has any input/suggestions , I would really appreciate it.

Thank you

Kristin