Need help with thin shelled eggs

[drjulian]

Sadly no. I live in a rural area and our vets say "poultry is expendable and not worth the cost of the vet"

 

[Gone-Quackers]

Sadly no. I live in a rural area and our vets say "poultry is expendable and not worth the cost of the vet"

Yeah, you'll here that from virtually all vets everywhere (I'm a vet tech so I know). You can occasionally find a few who know about ducks, a wildlife rehab veterinarian might be your best vet- that's who I get my help from.

 

[cayugaducklady]

i'm sorry you're having the worry of dealing with this.

I back-up the recommendation for a rehab vet. Call a local clinic and ask who has the city/county contract for wildlife emergencies. I got some great advice about avoiding predators from the local vet that also has the area's wildlife contract. If no one knows or your area doesn't contract out for those services a local wildlife rescue group may be able to recommend who they take their wild life too for vet issues.

If they have access to calcium and laying is off schedule I'd try adding some cooked beet/cooked potatoes/cooked carrots and a can of catfood or dog food (or some other high protein source-- koi food, etc.) My girls go bonkers for venison flavor and tripe flavor.

A can of grocery store canned no salt beets, carrots or potatoes will be OK. Frozen , thawed corn or canned no salt corn .

Protein + energy (carbs) + Calcium = good, yummy eggs

Ps- my girls wouldn't eat Dumor or Purina feeds from my local TSC. I don't know if it was an issue with storage at my local TSC or just those particular mixes. I've had much better luck with balanced feeds by other makers.

 

[Amiga]

Egg laying is a real balance - the phosphorus to calcium ratio needs to be right, the Vitamin D levels, protein, and probably factors we don't know much about…..

 

[Nandinaberry]

It could very well be the peas!
I have Cayugas.
I was giving mine a few peas each day with their other greens, and after a while one duck started laying abnormal eggs. By abnormal I mean deformed, small or very soft shelled.This happened to be the duck that was always first to gobble up all the peas. When I stopped the peas, she resumed laying normal eggs after a few weeks.
However, I am experiencing a problem overall now with brittle shells. They are all 2+ years old.
I've heard that legumes should not be fed to ducks (this includes soy). I've also heard that too much calcium supplement can cause an imbalance of the absorption of other minerals. In my case I wonder if there is too much iron in the water which could be interfering with calcium absorption. Spinach and other similar greens have a lot of iron and oxalates that ducks don't manage well.
Hope this helps.