Feeding ducks can simply be the highlight of your day sometimes. There’s nothing more fun than giving domestic or even wild ducks some food and watching them while they gobble it up excitedly!
These enthusiastic creatures are all in for anything you drop at their feet, but that may not always be a good thing because not every type of food is safe for them. One question that might be on your mind here is, “Can ducks eat grapes?”
Fortunately, ducks can safely consume grapes as long as it’s in moderation. In fact, grapes can be healthy for ducks because they contain great amounts of vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, and minerals.
To find out more about the best way to serve grapes to ducks and have other related questions answered, keep reading. In this article, we’ll discuss the topic of feeding grapes to ducks in-depth.
What Kinds of Grapes Can Ducks Eat?
If you’re wondering about the color of grapes that ducks should eat, there isn’t really anything to be confused about. These buddies will gladly munch on green, red, and black grapes and come back for seconds!
What you should do is make sure the grapes are thoroughly washed before giving them to your ducks no matter what color they are. This helps get rid of any pesticides that might be stuck on the grapes’ outer layer, ensuring the safety of the ducks.
Is It Safe for Ducks to Eat Grapes Whole?
Even though it doesn’t sound like a big deal, you shouldn’t give your ducks whole grapes. They’ll likely just swallow them without chewing, and so the grapes might get stuck in their airways and cause them to choke.
In addition to that, some grapes have seeds in them, which, again, could hurt a duck’s throat if swallowed. Even if the seeds pass safely to a duck’s stomach, they’ll be very hard to digest.
Author Note: A simple solution to this problem is to cut each grape in half, remove any seeds, put all the grapes in a big bowl, and serve them to your ducks. This way, they’ll be much easier to eat and swallow without the possibility of accidents.
There are also other ways that you can give grapes to your ducks safely; so you may want to:
- Cut them to halves or quarters and include them in a fruit salad with berries, banana slices, and corn kernels
- Mix them with your duck’s daily feed
- Mush them up using your a potato masher and serve them to your ducks in a bowl
Before offering grapes to your ducks, make sure they’re ripe or they might give your little fellows an upset stomach. Unripe grapes can have other troublesome side effects including diarrhea or nausea.
What Are the Health Benefits of Grapes for Ducks?
I was thrilled to know that there’s more to grapes than just a sweet taste when it comes to their benefits to ducks. They’re great for their health just as they are for us humans. Pretty great, ha?
First of all, grapes are rich in various vitamins and minerals that ducks could use to improve the functions of their bodies. For example, grapes contain:
- Potassium
- Calcium
- Manganese
- Phosphorus
- Magnesium
- Vitamin K
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin A
Calcium works to strengthen bones, improving their density and ensuring they’re not easy to crack. Plus, it maintains the quality of produced eggs and ensures they have strong shells.
Potassium is important for the ducks’ immune and nervous systems, while vitamin C boosts egg production. Quite impressively, vitamin C can help stressed-out ducks, enabling them to relax when they show strange behavior such as hissing or biting.
As for the benefits of vitamin A in grapes, they’re just too many to count. This vitamin can help improve eye health, bone quality, and even hearing. In addition, it’s good for the skin and feathers.
Also, grapes include a decent amount of iron, which is an essential part of the blood-cell making process. See, birds that don’t consume a sufficient amount of iron are prone to anemia, which could shorten a duck’s lifespan.
Second of all, grapes are a wonderful source of antioxidants, and these are known to help prevent cancer. Plus, antioxidants can reduce cell damage, which, again, contributes to the health of your ducks.
Let’s not forget the fact that grapes are filled with fiber, which is essential for a healthy and functional digestive system. Having an adequate amount of fiber every day could lower the chances of facing constipation.
That’s surely a relief because ducks are more prone to constipation than you think!
What Are Some Nutrition Facts About Grapes?
You may want to dive a little deeper and get an accurate representation of how nutritional grapes can be. Well, I’m here to give you all the tiny details on what exactly 100 grams of grapes contain.
- Energy: 69 kcal or 288 kJ
- Water: 80.5 g
- Sugar: 15.5 g
- Protein: 0.72 g
- Fiber: 0.9 g
- Calcium: 10 mg
- Magnesium: 7 mg
- Sodium: 2 mg
- Iron: 0.36 mg
- Copper: 0.127 mg
- Phosphorus: 20 mg
- Manganese: 0.071 mg
- Potassium: 191 mg
- Vitamin C: 3.2 mg
- Vitamin B-6: 0.085 mg
- Choline: 5.6 mg
- Vitamin E: 0.19 mg
- Vitamin K: 14.6 µg
How Often Should Ducks Be Given Grapes?
Despite having many health benefits, giving large amounts of grapes to ducks isn’t a good idea for several reasons.
See, grapes are high in sugar, and indulging in them might soon lead to developing diabetes. This could cause the ducks to become obese, which could affect the overall performance of their bodies.
Top Tip: Also, grapes contain a lot of water, and consuming too much of them could give your ducks diarrhea. Not a great scenario!
Therefore, your best bet is to give grapes to your ducks as a healthy snack or treat every now and then. One or twice a week should be enough. Grapes shouldn’t be the main part of your birds’ daily food, so keep them at less than 10% of your ducks’ diet.
Some people might even make the mistake of replacing other, more important veggies or fruits with grapes, thinking it’s the same thing. But no; grapes shouldn’t be taken instead of more nutritious food such as:
- Kale
- Oats
- Berries
- Lettuce
- Corn
- Melons
Can I Feed Ducklings Grapes?
No. Even if you cut the grapes in half, the pieces would still be too big for a duckling’s mouth, so they might cause harm to the baby ducks.
Yet, the good news is you can introduce grapes to ducks once they become four weeks of age. When they reach this milestone, give them small amounts of grapes after thoroughly mashing them and getting rid of any seeds.
What Other Food Can Ducks Eat?
Besides grapes, ducks are allowed to have many types of food that aren’t necessarily their daily feed. If you want to treat your birds to some healthy, yummy snacks, you could always serve them the following suggestions.
- Bananas
- Plums
- Peaches
- Pears
- Apples (after removing the core and seeds, then slicing into smaller pieces)
- Watermelon
- Cantaloupe
- Peas
- Rice (cooked or uncooked, white or brown)
- Wheat
- Barley
- Sweetcorn
- Tomatoes
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Cucumbers
- Carrots (after chopping them into small pieces)
- Beans
- Spinach
- Brussels sprouts
- Cauliflower
- Cracked corn
- Cooked fish or meat leftovers
- Shrimp or lobster shells
- Peanut butter
- Scrambled and boiled eggs
What Food Is Unsafe to Give to Ducks?
Now that you’re familiar with what ducks can eat with no trouble, it’s time to take a look at the food that you shouldn’t offer to your ducks.
- Junk food
- Scraps
- Bread
- Crackers
- Popcorn
- Cereal
- Chips
- Nuts
- Large seeds
Can Ducks Eat Raisins?
Yes, ducks can eat raisins but only if you monitor the amounts that they eat closely. I mean, sure, raisins are dried grapes, so what’s the big deal?
Top Tip: After the drying process, raisins end up with much more sugar than grapes when you give the same amount to your ducks. Of course, all this extra sugar might be harmful to your ducks if you let them eat as many raisins as they want.
Final Words
Keeping ducks on a farm or backyard can bring joy to your household, and the feeding times tend to be exceptional because ducks are excited eaters!
This is why giving them tasty and healthy treats must be always on your mind. If you’re wondering, “Can ducks eat grapes?” you should have your in-depth answer by now.
Ducks are allowed to have grapes every once in a while because this fruit is loaded with nutrients that your ducks can benefit from. Just remember that grapes are high in sugar and water, which is why you should give them to your ducks in moderation.
Whether you serve grapes sliced in half, as part of a salad, or mashed into a smooth mush, your ducks will simply love any version you offer them. They’ll adore you for such a delicious treat!
