How can I help my duck lose fat when she has an infection?

[Karasu]

Oh, that’s true. Is it normal for her stomach to nearly reach the ground after eating (genuine question)?

Typically you see enlargement of the crop, not the stomach, after eating but for pekins in particular this is a normal feature and is more pronounced near onset of lay.

 

[Karasu]

That’s true. I’ll try to feed her more often and find some oyster shells for her soon. Thank you.

I highly recommend feeding free-choice pelleted feed as soon as you can possibly get it. Improper nutrition may be part of the cause of her difficulty laying eggs - hard to tell without further information. Others have already mentioned oyster shell.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Oh, that’s true. Is it normal for her stomach to nearly reach the ground after eating (genuine question)?

Is it below more towards her vent or more towards her chest? If it is below more towards the vent then that is the pouch that develops when they lay. If it is more on the chest then that’s the crop. Do you have a picture of it?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I highly recommend feeding free-choice pelleted feed as soon as you can possibly get it. Improper nutrition may be part of the cause of her difficulty laying eggs - hard to tell without further information. Others have already mentioned oyster shell.

Agreed especially for an underweight duck.

 

[Drowsy_808]

Post a picture of her tummy near the ground. Pekins are bigger birds and mines belly’s will sometimes touch the ground. How much are you feeding her? 6 pounds is too skinny for pekins. I believe it’s best to fill up a bowl and let them eat free choice unless a vet says otherwise. Is there a feed store you could pick up any type of chicken or duck feed from to hold her over until she gets her feed?


Edit to add- she may need more calcium than just getting some here and there. Get some crushed oyster shell, put it in a dish or feeder and leave it out. She will eat what she needs.

Unfortunately, I’m unable to post a photo at the moment, but I can at a later time.
I’m glad to hear that. I’m not quite sure exactly how much we feed her, but I would say a little less than half of an average bowl for humans. She eats tomatoes and eggs these days, but she usually eats duck feeds. We feed her according to how much she eats, so if she eats around half a bowl, we feed her every six hours. We try not to feed her too quickly and too much out of fear she may overeat.

We would leave the food for her, but there are bugs in the house and whenever we do leave consumables for her, she tends to make a mess. She likes to drag the dog diaper up and eat the cotton from it, so we don’t let her eat or drink on her own.

Unfortunately, she’s quite picky with her food so she doesn’t eat many foods for more than a few times at best. Additionally, her duck feed should be arriving in some days, so it should be alright.

Alright, thank you for the advice.
Would tomatoes and eggs not be sufficient for calcium?
I did some research and tomatoes are quite high in calcium. Eggs have calcium as well.

 

[Drowsy_808]

Is it below more towards her vent or more towards her chest? If it is below more towards the vent then that is the pouch that develops when they lay. If it is more on the chest then that’s the crop. Do you have a picture of it?

Kind of both, actually. Her vent isn’t too close to the ground, but it is considerable and healthily (I think) close. Her chest usually tends to almost reach the ground after she eats though.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of it right now.

 

[Drowsy_808]

I can't say, but when we've had pekins the hanging abdomen was most pronounced on hens that were at the point of lay.

Thank you.

 

[picklestheduck]

Unfortunately, I’m unable to post a photo at the moment, but I can at a later time.
I’m glad to hear that. I’m not quite sure exactly how much we feed her, but I would say a little less than half of an average bowl for humans. She eats tomatoes and eggs these days, but she usually eats duck feeds. We feed her according to how much she eats, so if she eats around half a bowl, we feed her every six hours. We try not to feed her too quickly and too much out of fear she may overeat.

We would leave the food for her, but there are bugs in the house and whenever we do leave consumables for her, she tends to make a mess. She likes to drag the dog diaper up and eat the cotton from it, so we don’t let her eat or drink on her own.

Unfortunately, she’s quite picky with her food so she doesn’t eat many foods for more than a few times at best. Additionally, her duck feed should be arriving in some days, so it should be alright.

Alright, thank you for the advice.
Would tomatoes and eggs not be sufficient for calcium?
I did some research and tomatoes are quite high in calcium. Eggs have calcium as well.

Ducks are messy birds, and they are supposed to have unlimited food and water all day long. No eggs and tomatoes are not a sufficient calcium source. If she is underweight and only getting fed a little bit every six hours and not on duck feed at the moment, I would think all those would contribute to not laying. She needs a calcium source aside from duck feed, like crushed oyster shells, you can find that at the local feed store. You said you don’t want her to overeat, well ducks will eat what they need, and right now she will probably try to eat a lot since she’s probably quite hungry since she’s not getting fed what she needs. And if you are concerned about bugs in the house because you have to leave food for her all day, I suggest moving her outside then into a coop or something made for her. And if she is eating dog diapers, I would say try something else since that’s not healthy. They make duck diapers. Ducks are messy, and in my experience, they have to be to be healthy. I have twelve ducks, and they get unlimited amounts of food and water, and they are the happiest and helathiest they could be. I want you to know im not trying to be mean, I'm just concerned for the health of your duck.

 

[bhaugh]

We try and be good companions for our ducks but we just aren’t ducks and having a friend for her and her to be outside is best.

 

[NatJ]

Would tomatoes and eggs not be sufficient for calcium?

Is she eating the egg shells too?

Egg shells are made of calcium. If she is eating the shells of three or more eggs per day, she might be getting enough calcium (maybe, maybe not). If she is not eating the shells, she is definitely not getting enough calcium, no matter how much she eats of the tomatoes and the insides of the eggs.

Until you get oyster shell, I suggest you offer her the shell of every egg she eats, and every egg that anyone else eats. She may or may not eat them, but offering them at least gives her the option of eating them.

She is one years old and she’s a duck. She usually eats Manna pro duck feed, but she’s been eating tomatoes and eggs as her main meals lately.

Here is a page about what ducks need to eat:
https://grubblyfarms.com/blogs/the-flyer/backyard-ducks-diet

Here is one quote: "Most ducks thrive on a diet of about 1,300 calories per day for adult layers, composed of 16% protein."

You can go add up the calories of what she is eating right now (calories per egg, calories per tomato, how many eggs and tomatoes.)

If she is getting very much less than 1300 calories, give her MORE FOOD. Duck food normally contains quite a bit of grain, and eggs and tomatoes have no grain at all. So I would try adding something that includes grain: maybe bread, or rice, or breakfast cereal, depending on what you have available. (For an idea of how much, read the labels and see.) Most sources recommend not feeding things like bread to ducks-- that may be generally good advice, but in this particular case I think it could be helpful until you are able to get the right duck food again.

Once you have the duck food again, you can adjust how much she gets to try to get her at the right weight. Or you can provide it free choice, as other people have suggested. But for now, you should at least make sure she gets enough food that she doesn't lose any more weight.

Edit to add: I see in one of your other threads that the duck was getting eggs, tomatoes, and corn until someone else told you to cut out the corn. I think you should continue the corn until you can get the proper duck food for her.