3 year old pekin duck only lays soft shell eggs?

[bluebellblizzard]

My pekin duck used to lay normal hard shell eggs but now she only lays soft shell and shell-less eggs? She has access to oyster shells and sometimes gets egg shells.

 

[CoriM]

I'm sorry, I think that sometimes ducks are just off hormonally. I have a duclair who never molted for the first couple years and has laid soft-shelled continually. I have no had her take two Suprelorlin implants to stop her laying, and that also triggered a molt. But once that wore off she continued to lay soft-shelled eggs. I'm not sure what I will do long term as I can't afford to keep getting her implants.

 

[Spotgieter]

I'm sorry, I think that sometimes ducks are just off hormonally. I have a duclair who never molted for the first couple years and has laid soft-shelled continually. I have no had her take two Suprelorlin implants to stop her laying, and that also triggered a molt. But once that wore off she continued to lay soft-shelled eggs. I'm not sure what I will do long term as I can't afford to keep getting her implants.

I'm where you are with your Pekin. My Lil'bit laid big beautiful eggs for a while and she got sick from eating too many oyster shells. After that incident she rarely laid another shelled egg. Last month she became very lethargic and hadn't been laying anything. My husband and i kept her in the house and put her in a luke warm bath 3 times a day and she eventually passed many egg yolks. We took her to the vet and he said we could do an implant or have her spade. We took the implant and it lasted 1 month. And now we're thinking to get another implant, but if this one doesn't last, we don’t know what to do.

 

[CoriM]

I'm so sorry about your gorgeous girl! That is so hard! Poor thing. The implants are expensive to keep up long term. From what I understand though, they last much longer in the fall/winter months when there is less daylight and their bodies naturally should be shutting down egg production. My girls second implant also triggered a molt and lasted about 7 weeks, then just laid a couple soft shelled several days ago, but since then I haven't seen anything, so I'm hoping it lasts through winter. I don't know what I'll do long terms. I hope your girl stops laying for the winter!

 

[Spotgieter]

I'm so sorry about your gorgeous girl! That is so hard! Poor thing. The implants are expensive to keep up long term. From what I understand though, they last much longer in the fall/winter months when there is less daylight and their bodies naturally should be shutting down egg production. My girls second implant also triggered a molt and lasted about 7 weeks, then just laid a couple soft shelled several days ago, but since then I haven't seen anything, so I'm hoping it lasts through winter. I don't know what I'll do long terms. I hope your girl stops laying for the winter!

Thank you, Cori I heard that too, about the winter. I hope she does well with the next implant. She's our special duck. She thinks she's human. I hope your girls do well too. It's heart breaking to watch them struggle.

 

[CoriM]

I agree, it's truly heartbreaking seeing them struggle and I never want them to be in pain. Your girl is lucky to have someone like you