Shell-less, strange flat egg?

[prestoconfuoco]

Hey all,

Last night as I was putting my two female ducks away in their house for the evening I found this on the ground in the straw.

I think the white spots/'crust' around the edges were mould?—it was near a spot where they'd been doing a lot of digging and kicking up, and we've just had a lot of rain, so I think it may be from some days ago and it had been buried. (The brown spots were just dirt/poop/bits of straw from the ground.) There was definitely yolk in it which came out when part of it had been punctured. Another reason I think it was old is that it had a kind of firm, gelatinous texture, so I think it had been sitting there for a few days. But it's a lot smaller than a normal egg, and obviously doesn't have a colored shell?

I'm guessing this is just a shell-less egg of some kind. This morning, I don't have eggs from either of them, so I think I will have to wait to see if I start getting two eggs per day again to make sure both of them are in healthy shape. I generally feed them 50/50 Mazuri breeder and maintenance, but I gave them all breeder today just for a little calcium boost.

I just wanted to see if folks generally agree that this looks like a normal shell-less egg and not a sign of something else more serious? (I'm well aware shell-less eggs on there own can be serious & I'm hoping this was just a one-off blip...)

FWIW my two girls are about 2y/o and 2.5-3y/o, the younger a welsh harlequin and the older some kind of white layer duck.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jenbirdee]

That looks like it was a soft shell egg that was hidden a few days like you said. Adding more calcium is the right thing to do. I feed my ducks mazuri maintenance and have a big bowl of crushed oyster shell in a side dish always available. they eat it as needed. they know what they need. I also clean and then bake their own shells and crush and feed back to them too. If you know which duck is laying soft shell or shellless you can give her one ml of calcium gluconate, its a liquid you can get a tractor supply or online. Or you can give her a calcium citrate pill, or even a tums!
if you decide to give the liquid or a pill, make sure you read up on how to give medcine to a duck (if youve never done it before)

 

[prestoconfuoco]

That looks like it was a soft shell egg that was hidden a few days like you said. Adding more calcium is the right thing to do. I feed my ducks mazuri maintenance and have a big bowl of crushed oyster shell in a side dish always available. they eat it as needed. they know what they need. I also clean and then bake their own shells and crush and feed back to them too. If you know which duck is laying soft shell or shellless you can give her one ml of calcium gluconate, its a liquid you can get a tractor supply or online. Or you can give her a calcium citrate pill, or even a tums!
if you decide to give the liquid or a pill, make sure you read up on how to give medcine to a duck (if youve never done it before)

Ok, cool. It's weird, every single time I've ever tried to get them to eat crushed oyster shell on the side, they've never gone for it. I'll give it another try because I think that's the best method, to let them determine how much calcium they need. I've bought the stuff from tractor supply before and they just never seem to want it! I have no clue which one laid it yet...hopefully no more soft-shelled eggs and then it's not a problem

 

[Quatie]

From my experience and what a lot of other ducks owners will tell you, is they are picky about oyster shells. The pelleted oyster shells are a mix of oyster shells, clams and coral. Most of them hate it. Pure flake oyster shells, are highly desirable to them. I go through oyster shells so much faster now after I made the switch and their shells are much better. I would check a local feed store and see if they have some. Otherwise you can get the flaked oyster shells on chewy.

I also give my girls some layer feed along with their normal duck feed.

 

[prestoconfuoco]

From my experience and what a lot of other ducks owners will tell you, is they are picky about oyster shells. The pelleted oyster shells are a mix of oyster shells, clams and coral. Most of them hate it. Pure flake oyster shells, are highly desirable to them. I go through oyster shells so much faster now after I made the switch and their shells are much better. I would check a local feed store and see if they have some. Otherwise you can get the flaked oyster shells on chewy.

I also give my girls some layer feed along with their normal duck feed.

Can you post a link to the pure flake oyster shells? I ordered some flaked oyster shell on Chewy, but it seems to be a mix of clam and coral just like the kind I've gotten from Tractor Supply.

 

[prestoconfuoco]

That looks like it was a soft shell egg that was hidden a few days like you said. Adding more calcium is the right thing to do. I feed my ducks mazuri maintenance and have a big bowl of crushed oyster shell in a side dish always available. they eat it as needed. they know what they need. I also clean and then bake their own shells and crush and feed back to them too. If you know which duck is laying soft shell or shellless you can give her one ml of calcium gluconate, its a liquid you can get a tractor supply or online. Or you can give her a calcium citrate pill, or even a tums!
if you decide to give the liquid or a pill, make sure you read up on how to give medcine to a duck (if youve never done it before)

Do you think it would be safe to give both of my girls calcium gluconate, given that I have no eggs over the past week or so other than the 2-3 soft-shelled ones? I suspect the soft shells are all from one duck, but I'm not sure.

Since I don't know which duck is laying the soft-shelled eggs, or if it's both, should I give them both 1ml of calcium gluconate? Or maybe should I give them both .5ml to be safe?

 

[Jenbirdee]

Do you think it would be safe to give both of my girls calcium gluconate, given that I have no eggs over the past week or so other than the 2-3 soft-shelled ones? I suspect the soft shells are all from one duck, but I'm not sure.

Since I don't know which duck is laying the soft-shelled eggs, or if it's both, should I give them both 1ml of calcium gluconate? Or maybe should I give them both .5ml to be safe?

Do they weigh around 5 lbs each? They can have 1 ml per day each , for a week , and it won’t hurt them. Makes you wonder though why did they stop laying? Are they molting? Is it winter where you live?

 

[prestoconfuoco]

Do they weigh around 5 lbs each? They can have 1 ml per day each , for a week , and it won’t hurt them. Makes you wonder though why did they stop laying? Are they molting? Is it winter where you live?

Ok, that's helpful to know. I think they are about five pounds each, one of them might be a little heavier. I'm not sure why they stopped laying. They might be molting a bit—one of my males is molting hardcore right now? It isn't winter. I guess it's possible one of them is still laying and the eggs are hidden somewhere I can't find them, but I doubt it. We did lose one of our girls about a month ago who was closely bonded to my silver appleyard girl, so I don't know if grief or depression would make her stop laying? She has been acting pretty normal, but they went together everywhere so I'm sure it has been hard for her...

 

[Quatie]

Can you post a link to the pure flake oyster shells? I ordered some flaked oyster shell on Chewy, but it seems to be a mix of clam and coral just like the kind I've gotten from Tractor Supply.

Huh. Sorry, they use to sell on Chewy. There are a couple brands you can get. There is one from small pet select. Their website sells the pure oyster shells. Or from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BN39CRR...lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM

Scratch and peck feeds has one that you can find on Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Peck...B00UIM7N0A/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

Purina also sells it straight from their website. https://shop.purinamills.com/products/purina-oyster-shell and amazon carries it too.

 

[zoereef1221]

From my experience and what a lot of other ducks owners will tell you, is they are picky about oyster shells. The pelleted oyster shells are a mix of oyster shells, clams and coral. Most of them hate it. Pure flake oyster shells, are highly desirable to them. I go through oyster shells so much faster now after I made the switch and their shells are much better. I would check a local feed store and see if they have some. Otherwise you can get the flaked oyster shells on chewy.

I also give my girls some layer feed along with their normal duck feed.

I have ducks and had this experience too!! Both my chickens and ducks much prefer the flakes oyster shell. Expensive pallets