First Egg

[Lauren84]

Help!
Today whilst I was at work my duck Custard laid her first egg but there was some kind of cord attached. Is this normal? My duck seems very sad and tired now.

Also could anyone recommend food I could buy in the UK or any special supplements for laying ducks? I already give my ducks brewers yeast in their food.

Thank you so much for your help ,I’m very worried about her.

 

[BOchickmama4]

@Miss Lydia
can you help?

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's not unusual for first-timers to lay strange-looking eggs and I had one of my 7.5 yr old Runners lay some similar the other day. Do you put out oyster shell for your ducks? do you feed layer? both of these can help your duck produce hard shells. And then if you ever suspect one is egg bound the best thing for that is calcium Gluconate. But usually layer feed and Oyster shell helps our ducks lay nice hard shell eggs, and most likely your duck will too, getting the system worked out is what is happening now.

 

[Lauren84]

It's not unusual for first-timers to lay strange-looking eggs and I had one of my 7.5 yr old Runners lay some similar the other day. Do you put out oyster shell for your ducks? do you feed layer? both of these can help your duck produce hard shells. And then if you ever suspect one is egg bound the best thing for that is calcium Gluconate. But usually layer feed and Oyster shell helps our ducks lay nice hard shell eggs, and most likely your duck will too, getting the system worked out is what is happening now.

Thank you Miss Lydia, she’s less than 20 weeks old so I didn’t have her on layer feed before but I do now.

Thank you for the advice. Custard is doing much better now and seems like her usual self. Maybe she was just feeling especially tired afterwards. Hopefully with her new food and the oystershell she will lay hard shelled eggs next time and not feel quite as tired by it.

I also have a drake and usually my ducks all feed from the same bowls. Do I need to make sure my drake does not eat the same food as the females?

Thank you

 

[Miss Lydia]

Great to hear she is feeling much better today. Laying soft shell eggs does make them feel not quite right I have noticed it many times with mine.

I have 4 drakes and I have fed layer all their lives because I have no way of feeding them separately. I do add some grains to it to help some and of course, I have oyster shells out for my layers. What I have been doing is I take the layer usually 8 cups put it into a bucket add 2 cups of grains to it and mix it up real good. You could feed an all flock and keep oyster shells out for your layers. if I could find all flock in NON GOM that is what I would do.