Consistent soft shell eggs

[fal8823]

Hi,
Hoping for some help and advise.
I have an 18mth old isa brown who is laying soft shelled eggs.
This has been happening for around 4mths now. She initially stopped laying, with an occasional soft egg, which I thought was due to her having a hard moult. Unfortunately her feathers are back now but her regular laying is not.
I have increased calcium in her diet, changed their grain, they have shell grit available and I’ve tried calcium in the water.
Nothing seems to have made much of a difference.
She has gone from a daily layer to maybe 1-2 soft eggs per week, sometimes 2 in 1 day.
She is happy, behaving normally, Eating and drinking normally, has a bright red comb and still loves a chat and hug.
Any ideas on what could be causing this or what else I can do for her?
Many thanks

 

[azygous]

She's pretty young to be having a shell glad give up. I suggest giving her a daily dose of people calcium such as calcium citrate. It's a large pill, but slipping it into her beak is easy and she won't have a problem swallowing it. It has the concentrated calcium that powder in the water and oyster shell can't supply.

Keep this up until she begins laying good quality eggs again. However, should she stop producing eggs, stop the calcium as it will do more harm than good giving it to a non-layer. Since daylight is short now, she may be winding down on egg laying until the days get longer again. Then resume the calcium supplement after she begins laying shell-less eggs again.

 

[aart]

I have increased calcium in her diet, changed their grain, they have shell grit available and I’ve tried calcium in the water.

Curious with what kind and how you "increased calcium in her diet"?
Also what is the normal grain and/or feed you use?
Other birds laying good shells?

Oh, and....Welcome to posting on BYC!
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[SpaceLamb]

We had great results with giving calcium citrate pills daily to our pullet who laid a soft-shelled egg nearly every night. We gave them every day for about a month until she stopped laying soft eggs and was consistently laying good eggs with a hard shell, and then stopped. Since then we haven't found a soft-shelled egg and she's continued to lay a good egg almost daily.

 

[fal8823]

Hi aart,

I have been feeding her spinach, bok choy, canned salmon, sesame seeds, almonds and occasional yogurt.
She does lay more when she eats this (2-4 per week) but still soft.
the brand of grain I'm using is caller Riverina and the other girls are still laying normally with no egg defects.

Also I am in australia (i'll have to update that) and it is currently summer here.

 

[fal8823]

She's pretty young to be having a shell glad give up.

Hi azygous,

If it is a shell gland issue would she have other symptoms? Anything you know of that I should be looking for?

 

[casportpony]

I have been feeding her spinach

Spinach contains oxalic acid, which will bind with the calcium in the spinach, making it a poor calcium source. Is she on a layer feed?

 

[Chicken boy 111]

She's calcium deficient for sure.

 

[fal8823]

Hi casportpony,
I do give her spinach but not large amounts. I thought it was ok in small amounts....please correct me if I'm wrong as I am pretty new to this.
And is on layer feed. Ive tried different brands but no luck so far.

 

[aart]

If it is a shell gland issue would she have other symptoms? Anything you know of that I should be looking for?

Not likely...have had a couple long term softshell layers, they were just fine other than the mess they made in the nests everdamnday.