Large Gizzard why? Caution to those who do not eat duck. This is about eating duck.

[LadyIsadora]

This is my first time with ducks. I need some advise/ help.
I packed up 4 drakes for freezer camp on Friday. One was my own, 3 others were drakes that were given to me the day before. I know the ducks given me were at least 8 months old. Mine was a 9 week old Pekin.
They varied in weight, all smaller than the pekin but the thing that struck me most was the amazing difference in the size of the gizzard of my pekin. it was at least 4x bigger than the biggest of the other 3. One gizzard seemed deformed when It was cut to be cleaned, it was so folded in on itself I ended up tossing it instead of using it. I felt so bad.
All lungs & other inner bits seemed pretty healthy in colour.
Is a huge gizzard normal? Was my duck sick in some way? He did not seem so. I feed them fermented food along with dry crumbles. Treats of peas and freeze-dried meal-worms.access to LOTS of garden greens, free range for bugs (also in abundance in my yard. I was told the others ate what ever chicken feed the chickens did not eat and they lived in a suburban back yard. That is all I know about their diet.
What causes a large gizzard?

 

[LadyIsadora]

I think I finally found my own answer. Evidently when birds eat hard foods the gizzard has to work harder to crush & process it. Such as unhulled grains. It grows stronger to accommodate the diet. Though my ducks get split/ cracked grains they ate a LOT of snails. Since they were the first two ducks on the scene here, there was quite a surplus of Snails. That is, in great part, why I got ducks in the firstplace. So, they ate a Ton of them. Sometimes full but this time of year many were just empty. They take a lot to grind up & break down. In addition, I am also over run with Pill Bugs (wood lice, rolly-pollys, whatever you call them in your neck of the woods) these are also hard to break down as their shells, like the snails are hard calcium. I guess I wont have to worry about a calcium deficiency for my layers. LOL

(of course ill still put it out free choice)

This ducks gizzard was bigger than any turkey I can remember. It was facinating.