Cage raising of meat ducks can speed up fattening, but cage-raised laying ducks need protection against three diseases

    Cage raising of meat ducks is a newly emerging efficient duck-raising method following free-range and pen raising. Cage raising of meat ducks keeps high-quality meat ducks such as Pekin ducks, Cherry Valley ducks and Gannan Wazi ducks in duck cages from the time the ducklings hatch until they are ready for market. When raising meat ducks in cages, three diseases need to be prevented:

Meat ducks

    Preventing paralysis:Cage-raised meat ducks are most prone to calcium and phosphorus deficiency, causing unsteady standing and even paralysis and death. To prevent this disease, add 3% calcium powder or 5% gypsum powder to the duck feed, and at the same time add snails or small grit. If a meat duck is infected with paralysis, immediately add 0.1% vitamin D to its feed and feed it continuously for 10 days.

    Preventing vitamin deficiency:A single type of feed will cause vitamin deficiency in meat ducks. Green fodder and earthworms, snails, frogs, etc. should be fed appropriately, and at the same time add 0.2~0.3% compound multivitamins to the duck feed (when symptoms are obvious, add 1%).

    Strictly prevent duck plague:For ducklings aged 1—5 days, use 0.02% potassium permanganate solution as drinking water, and normally add compound sulfadiazine and oxytetracycline to their feed; every morning, the plastic sheet droppings-collection board at the bottom of the cage must be cleaned, and outside the duck house, every 7 days, disinfect with fresh lime water. Once meat ducks become ill, they should be treated immediately and raised in isolation. Some people use rabbit blood and wheat grains to treat duck plague with good results, so it is worth a try. The method is to take an appropriate amount of barley, fry it cooked in an iron wok, put it in a wooden bucket or clay jar, slaughter a domestic rabbit, take the blood and mix it evenly with the hot wheat grains, and let the meat ducks infected with duck plague eat it; those too severely ill to eat can be force-fed 60~100 grains.