We have 6 ducks, 5 females, 1 drake, one of the females is a pekin, and the rest are cayugas with some pekin mixed. But all the females look overweight: every one of them has a 'bulge' under their belly of varying sizes (some drag on the ground, some don't). The male is slightly big but doesn't have nearly the same size bulge.
I am wondering if they are 'overweight' or if something is wrong, because the females haven't laid an egg in over a month - they are just over a year old now.
Could there be something wrong with the eggs that is the reason for their bulge? I've attached some pictures.
We feed the ducks one scoop of feed a day, at night. It's a 3 qt size scoop, and we give them the egg layer pellets that we give the chickens. Previously they laid very good. We had a light for their coop over the last year but due to moving the coop it is no longer near an outlet and so there hasn't been light at night for that past few months - could they be why they aren't laying? How much light do ducks need to lay eggs? The sun comes up around 7:30 AM (we let them out around 8:00 AM) and sets around 3:30-4:00 PM.
The ducks are free range after we let them out and eat any grasses, weeds, bugs, or sometimes chicken food (they stretch their necks as far as possible to stick it into the doorway of the chicken house to steal their food!). What could we do to help them lose weight?
They are 'very' active ducks, too. The run all over the yard looking for puddles to play in, they splash around in the pool all times of the year, and are almost always on the move, so I find it strange they've gotten so fat.
Any advice would be appreciated! Sorry about the blurry photo, my camera didn't want to focus and they wouldn't stop running around.
I am wondering if they are 'overweight' or if something is wrong, because the females haven't laid an egg in over a month - they are just over a year old now.
Could there be something wrong with the eggs that is the reason for their bulge? I've attached some pictures.
We feed the ducks one scoop of feed a day, at night. It's a 3 qt size scoop, and we give them the egg layer pellets that we give the chickens. Previously they laid very good. We had a light for their coop over the last year but due to moving the coop it is no longer near an outlet and so there hasn't been light at night for that past few months - could they be why they aren't laying? How much light do ducks need to lay eggs? The sun comes up around 7:30 AM (we let them out around 8:00 AM) and sets around 3:30-4:00 PM.
The ducks are free range after we let them out and eat any grasses, weeds, bugs, or sometimes chicken food (they stretch their necks as far as possible to stick it into the doorway of the chicken house to steal their food!). What could we do to help them lose weight?
They are 'very' active ducks, too. The run all over the yard looking for puddles to play in, they splash around in the pool all times of the year, and are almost always on the move, so I find it strange they've gotten so fat.
Any advice would be appreciated! Sorry about the blurry photo, my camera didn't want to focus and they wouldn't stop running around.