I have a young Call duck hen that just started laying last week. She has laid 5 eggs(usually every other day or so) and every one of them has been soft-shelled. I am feeding her Flockraiser and she has access to oyster shell. After the first couple of soft shells, I mixed some oyster shell in with the food to make sure she was getting it into her system. I feel so awful for her because I have seen her sit on the nest for a couple of hours trying to lay and once she finally does, poor baby is breathing hard and exhausted. Is this happening because this is her first laying season? I've just never seen it take this long for their shells to firm up. Anything else I can do to help her out? Thanks for any advice.
If she's getting enough calcium, there may be another micronutrient problem, or her little body may have some structural trouble. Can you give some additional poultry vitamins? That's all I can think of right this moment - will try to come up with other ideas if possible.
I have a hen that is doing the exact same thing. I'm going to have to change what I feed them. Last year I fed my ducks a mix of Game Bird Breeder feed, hard boiled eggs, cat food, oats and lettuce. The eggs were perfect and I had wonderful hatch rates. I haven't done that yet this year because they are still in with the chickens.
I had thought about the Gamebird food-guess I'll try that(I forgot to mention that she does get cat food). I just hate seeing her struggle-she's adorable(of course, all Calls are).
