Bantam help! D’Uccle has trouble laying eggs.

[hatchichickens]

I have a small bantam d’Uccle who is a year old and just recently started laying her eggs. She has extreme difficulty pushing them out. It causes her a lot of stress and energy and time to lay an egg. She makes a little exasperated squeak noise with every push. It’s heartbreaking to watch her struggle.
Today I put her in a bit of warm water to help her relax and it seemed to make it easier, but I don’t know how reasonable it is to have to do every time she lays an egg, which is about every other day. The lining of her vent seems to be swollen as well, and that’s not helping with getting the egg out.
Can I feed her different food to make the egg smaller? Or supplement her food with something to lubricate her cloaca?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm wondering about her diet; layer feed? All-flock? Oyster shell available separately? Treats? She may be fine, or have a nutritional problem, or have some reproductive issue, even though she's young.
Details!
Mary

 

[hatchichickens]

I feed her Modesto Mills non-GMO Organic Whole Grain Layer feed. She has oyster shells available too. Also she is free range so she has a variety of bugs and plants to nibble on as she wishes.

 

[ReseisCL16]

A lot of times when a pullet starts laying too early, she won't be grown enough for the standard size of her eggs. Your pullet's problem could be caused by a lot of things.
I had a Japanese pullet start laying a bit too early and she got prolapse. This is when the lining of a hen's vent gets turned inside-out, failing to retract back into it's normal position inside a bird's body. It's painful for the bird, but fairly easy to treat. Keep an eye out for whitish diarrhea on her butt fluff, as this is the tell tale sign of prolapse.
You treat prolapse by putting Bactine on the protruding tissues and pushing them gently back into their correct positions.
Maybe you could try putting some Bactine on the swollen area around her vent? This might help it shrink.

 

[Folly's place]

About the feed; There can be problems with whole grain diets. Individuals may select which seeds to eat, and leave the rest, and be malnourished. It's a common problem with rodents and pet birds fed that way; the yummy bits get eaten, and the individual isn't eating everything. I think a crumble is better, because everything is mixed. Is this her problem? No idea, but it can be a big issue.
Mary

 

[ReseisCL16]

I feed my birds an Organic 16% Layer Ration pellet feed and that works pretty well. Crumbles are great too, but they make a bit of a mess. I fed my birds a crumble for a long time and it worked great!

 

[Alaskan]

often trouble with egg laying is due to
1. not enough calcium
or
2. not enough water

Make sure she has oyster shell, and that she has plenty of fresh water all day long.

Hopefully that will help.

 

[hatchichickens]

Thank you all for the advice. My hens don’t like the pellets all that much so it might be the problem, although the other girls are doing great. Maybe I will supplement her diet with crumble as well.

 

[Alaskan]

if she isn't eating that much of the pellets. .. and eating more "junk food" like scratch or bread...she might be overweight. Extra fat can also make it harder to lay eggs.

Maybe see if she likes crumble better, but definitely give her oyster shell or some other calcium on the side.

 

[aart]

My hens don’t like the pellets all that much so it might be the problem,

You could run them thru the blender to crunch them up a bit.
They'll eat it when they get hungry enough....you've got to be patient.