Niacin: What is it and Why do my ducklings and goslings need it?

-by John Metzer

Niacin is also known as Vitamin B3and is vital for good health and growth in waterfowl. Compared to chickens, waterfowl need 2 to 3 times the amount of niacin in their diet during their initial growth period, hence the occasional problem with low niacin levels being fed to waterfowl. Once they are grown, a niacin deficiency is very rare. Most owners do not know that there is a niacin problem until signs of a niacin deficiency occurs.

How to Identify a Niacin Deficiency

A niacin deficiency can be seen in the legs of the bird. If the legs are bent or “bull legged”,are pigeon toed, splayed to the sides, or are unable to support the weight of the bird, there is a high likelihood that it is due to a niacin deficiency. Such legs make it very difficult for the birds to move, preventing them from getting adequate amounts of food and water.

 

Remember, ducklings do the majority of their growing in the first 10 weeks of life. About 90% of niacin problems occur during this time.

Causes of a Niacin Deficiency

Typically poultry feed has enough niacin in it. If it doesn’t that means a mistake was made in making the feed or the feed is not formulated with enough niacin for waterfowl. Unfortunately poultry feed manufacturers are not required to put niacin levels on the feed tag. If you have a concern that your feed is low in niacin, you can phone the feed manufacturer and ask them how much niacin is in the feed. The feed store will probably not know, you will need to contact the feed manufacturer directly.

How to Fix it

Chicken feed, while it can be used as a starter, sometimes needs to be supplemented by niacin in one form or another. Supplements include niacin tablets, Vitamin B3 drops, and brewer's yeast. These supplements can be found at your local feed and vitamin stores.

Determining how much to supplement with niacin tablets, vitamin B3 drops, and brewer’s yeast will be covered in a future post.

Recovery?

Customers have said that a limping problem has been fixed after supplementing with extra niacin. However, if you do not correct the problem immediately and the bones become deformed, the legs cannot be straightened once you start supplementing with extra niacin. Hence, you must supplement as soon as you are suspicious you have a niacin deficiency.

Side Note

We have been asked if it is possible to overdose on niacin. Because of how small the amount is, it is easy to think you can give your birds too much. The answer is that you would need a lot to overdose. We don't have an exact amount to point towards, but humans can overdose on niacin and that can cause bowel problems. If your birds start having digestive issues, then it's a possibility, but is unlikely.

Are My Ducklings' Leg Problems Due to a Niacin Deficiency?

Originally posted by John Metzer on Wed, Dec 29, 2010 @ 03:22 PM 

Niacin is a critical vitamin required for the correct development of ducklings and goslings.  In fact, waterfowl have a higher requirement for niacin (also called nicotinic acid) than chickens.  Niacin is formed from the amino acid tryptophan and waterfowl do not synthesize niacin well from tryptophan.

What do the birds look like if there is a niacin deficiency?   If there is a lack of niacin in their feed, initially some birds are reluctant to move about.    Eventually their hocks swell and their legs develop a bowed shape.  It becomes very difficult for them to move about and they do not gain weight or thrive.  In young birds you will see problems within several days if they do not have adequate niacin.  If they remain on a low niacin diet, death may occur within two to three weeks as it is just too painful for the birds to move to eat and drink.

A series of pictures from the book,  Nutrition and Management of Ducks, with permission of the authors, showing a normal duckling (A) and ducklings (B,C,D) that were fed Niacin deficient diets.

How can this happen?  If you are not using a balanced chick starter designed for broiler chicks or game birds, you may have problems.  If you are using a chick starter developed exclusively for laying chickens, it probably does not have enough niacin.  Do not make their diet exclusively whole grains, like Chicken Scratch.  On very rare occasions, the lack of niacin could be from a mistake at the feed mill.

So how much niacin do waterfowl require?  It should be at least 55 parts per million (ppm).  This is the same as 55mg per kilogram of feed or 55mg per 2.2 pounds of feed.  Oftentimes this is not on the label but if you contact the manufacturer of the feed, they should tell you the minimum guaranteed level in the feed.  You can go to our website for a complete list of waterfowl nutrient requirements.

A bottle of Niacin tablets, 500 mgs per tablet.

How can I supplement niacin?  Niacin can be easily purchased at a nutrition or drug store.  Typically the pills contain 500 mgs of niacin per tablet.  Assuming a duck is eating about .35 lbs per day (this is how much a Pekin is eating at about 3 -4 weeks of age) , they need 10 milligrams (mgs) of niacin a day.  So, theoretically, one pill has enough niacin for 50 ducks.  But if you are grinding up a pill and spreading it over pelleted feed, much of it will sift to the bottom and not be consumed.  Add a little water to the feed and it will “stick” to the pellets.

An alternative is to add it to their drinking water (assuming they have no swimming water).  If they drink 100% of the water you give them, you only need to add one 500 mg tablet to every 8 gallons of water.  But we both know that does not happen.  If you think they are wasting half their water, then add one 500 mg tablet to only four gallons of water.    For your own calculations,  go to the table on our website on daily feed and water consumption of ducklings.

Two broiler chicks, the one on the left was fed a niacin deficient diet.  

Photo courtesy of DSM Nutritional Products.

Are there alternatives to pure Niacin?  If you are concerned with the possibility that other vitamins may be missing, too, you can purchase Vitamin B liquid supplements.  The GNC product I found had 20 mg of niacin per dropper full.  This is enough for two ducks that are 3-4 weeks old.  This might be the best way to administer niacin if your birds are exhibiting leg problems.  By administering the niacin to each bird,  you will know they are getting the required niacin.

A feed ingredient that is rich in niacin is dried brewers yeast.  There is about 5mg niacin per 15 grams (one tablespoon) of human grade brewers yeast.  Livestock grade brewers yeast is not as concentrated.  There is only about 1.5 grams niacin for each tablespoon of livestock grade brewers yeast.

If you are not sure if your problem is due to inadequate niacin, give them some sort of additional niacin as soon as possible.  You will not harm them if you give them too much niacin.  And if they quickly recover, you know you found the problem.

What if only a few of my birds have leg problems?  Variability within a flock is normal.  Each bird varies on how well it forms  niacin from tryptophan, either due to genetics or the different microflora  in their gut.  It would not be unusual to have a single flock of birds, with some exhibiting a niacin deficiency and others walking perfectly normally - but all eating the same feed. 

Glory, a duck that was rescued by Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary,  arrived with leg problems due to a niacin deficient diet.

How long does it take for recovery?  Except for the extreme cases such as the picture above, improvement is normally seen within several days and there can be complete recovery.  But this requires adequate niacin within 24 hours of the first sign of a problem.