Duck Eggs and Fiber Content

A duck egg has 0 grams of fiber, exactly like a chicken egg. What it does have is enough vitamin B12 to cover 158 percent of the Daily Value in a single egg, about eight times what a large chicken egg supplies.

So on duck eggs fiber, there’s nothing to find. On almost every other line of the label, though, duck eggs pack more into one shell than most people expect, and a few of those extras deserve a closer look.

Duck eggs fiber and the full nutrition label

USDA FoodData Central weighs one duck egg at 70 grams without the shell. Here’s what that one egg holds, with percent Daily Value based on the FDA’s label targets:

The one gram of carbohydrate is mostly sugar. FoodData Central reports no dietary fiber at all, because Mayo Clinic defines fiber as the indigestible part of plant foods, and an egg contains none.

What makes a duck egg different

Duck eggs are bigger and richer than the large chicken eggs most of us buy. Per 100 grams, the edible part has 185 calories and 13.8 grams of fat, compared with 143 calories and 9.5 grams of fat in a chicken egg.

Protein is nearly even by weight, 12.8 grams per 100 grams for duck and 12.6 for chicken. The duck egg wins on protein per egg only because there’s more of it.

Where the duck egg pulls far ahead is in micronutrients. Per 100 grams, FoodData Central lists about six times the B12, more than twice the iron and roughly 20 percent more selenium.

The vitamin B12 standout

The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements explains that vitamin B12 keeps your blood and nerve cells healthy and helps your body make DNA. Adults need 2.4 micrograms a day.

One duck egg delivers about 3.8 micrograms, so a single egg clears a full day’s need with room to spare. A large chicken egg, by comparison, offers about 0.45 micrograms.

ODS notes that plant foods contain no B12 unless they’re fortified. It names vegetarians and older adults among the groups more likely to come up short, which makes duck eggs an interesting option for vegetarians who eat eggs.

People over 50 are a special case. ODS says they should get most of their B12 from fortified foods or supplements, because many make less stomach acid and absorb B12 from food less easily.

Choline, selenium and iron in one egg

Three other nutrients stand out in a single 70 gram duck egg:

• Choline: 184 mg, a third of the 550 mg Daily Value, almost all of it from the yolk
• Selenium: 25.5 mcg, close to half the 55 mcg Daily Value
• Iron: 2.7 mg, about 15 percent of the 18 mg Daily Value

The egg also carries about 321 micrograms of lutein and zeaxanthin, the yellow pigments Harvard’s Nutrition Source lists among the nutrients in eggs. That’s a little more than in a large chicken egg.

Not sure how much fiber your own day calls for alongside rich foods like these? Our fiber calculator sets a personal target in a few seconds.

The fat inside a duck egg

Most of a duck egg’s 130 calories come from fat, nearly all of it in the yolk. FoodData Central splits the 9.7 grams in one egg this way:

• Monounsaturated fat: about 4.6 g, the largest share
• Saturated fat: about 2.6 g, or 13 percent of the 20 gram Daily Value
• Polyunsaturated fat: about 0.9 g

That means close to half the fat is the monounsaturated kind. Saturated fat still adds up quickly, though: two duck eggs alone supply about 26 percent of the Daily Value, before any butter or cheese goes in the pan.

None of these fats carry fiber. If you want the meal to bring both, the legumes, vegetables and grains on the plate have to supply it.

Vitamins A, D and E in the yolk

Fat soluble vitamins travel with the yolk’s fat, and a duck egg brings a modest dose of each. One 70 gram egg supplies about 136 micrograms of vitamin A, 1.2 micrograms of vitamin D and 0.9 milligrams of vitamin E.

Against the FDA’s Daily Values, that’s roughly 15 percent for vitamin A and about 6 percent each for vitamins D and E. None of those makes the duck egg a star source, but together they round out its profile.

Duck eggs next to large eggs from a hen

Because recipes and labels use the large chicken egg as the standard, it helps to line the two up one egg at a time:

One duck egg gives you about 1.4 times the protein of a large chicken egg for 1.8 times the calories. The fat roughly doubles, and the cholesterol more than triples.

Chicken versus duck gets its own full comparison elsewhere on the site. Here, the takeaway for fiber is simple: neither egg adds a single gram.

The cholesterol in a duck egg

At 619 milligrams, one duck egg holds more cholesterol than three large chicken eggs combined. That’s the biggest practical difference between the two.

Harvard’s Nutrition Source notes that the 2015 Dietary Guidelines removed the old 300 milligram daily cholesterol cap, and that up to one chicken egg a day appears fine for most healthy people. Keep in mind that one duck egg carries more than three times the cholesterol of the large chicken egg most egg advice is measured against.

Harvard also advises people with diabetes to keep egg yolks to about three a week. A duck egg’s yolk is a richer one, so treating each duck egg as at least one of those three is a sensible starting point.

Cooking with duck eggs

Duck eggs fry, scramble, boil and bake much like chicken eggs, just larger. Since a duck egg weighs about 70 grams and a large chicken egg about 50, two duck eggs stand in for roughly three large eggs by weight.

In practice, a recipe that calls for three large eggs, about 150 grams, works well with two duck eggs at about 140 grams. Weighing cracked eggs on a kitchen scale takes the guesswork out, especially for cakes and custards, where small differences in egg weight show.

Cooking changes the texture, not the fiber. A boiled, poached or fried duck egg still lists no fiber, so the fiber in any duck egg dish depends entirely on what’s served with it.

Plates that put fiber next to a duck egg

Rich duck eggs pair naturally with earthy grains, legumes and sturdy vegetables. These FoodData Central portions bring the fiber the egg can’t:

A weekend brunch scenario

Picture a fried duck egg set on 1/2 cup of warm lentils and 1 cup of cooked kale, with a sliced pear on the side. That plate reaches about 18 grams of fiber, along with roughly 18 grams of protein from the egg and lentils combined.

For a lighter weeknight version, top 1/2 cup of bulgur and 1 cup of cooked Brussels sprouts with a soft boiled duck egg. You get about 10.5 grams of fiber in one bowl.

Looking for more grain bowls and legume dishes to crown with an egg? Our recipe eBooks are stocked with high fiber ideas.

Who duck eggs suit best

A duck egg is a strong pick if you’re an egg eating vegetarian watching B12, or if you want more protein and iron per egg. It’s a weaker pick if you’re limiting saturated fat, calories or yolks.

If you’re curious, an easy trial is one duck egg in place of your usual two chicken eggs at breakfast. You’ll get about 9 grams of protein instead of 12.6, nearly 4 micrograms of B12 instead of 0.9, and about 13 fewer calories.

Either way, plan the fiber separately. Mayo Clinic suggests about 25 grams a day for women 50 and younger and 38 grams for men in the same age group, and no egg moves you toward either number.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. “FoodData Central” (egg, duck, whole, fresh, raw 172189; egg, whole, raw, fresh 171287; artichoke; green peas; split peas; lentils; Brussels sprouts; pear; kale; bulgur; barley). 2026. fdc.nal.usda.gov
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels.” 2024. www.fda.gov
• National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. “Vitamin B12: Fact Sheet for Consumers.” 2023. ods.od.nih.gov
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Eggs.” The Nutrition Source. 2024. nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu
• Mayo Clinic Staff. “Dietary fiber: Essential for a healthy diet.” Mayo Clinic. 2025. mayoclinic.org