Soft Shelled Eggs

[CascadiaRiver]

I have a hen who has consistently laid soft shelled eggs during these past few months I've owned her. I'm not breeding currently because of the cold weather here but come warmer weather in spring, is there any tips on what I could do?

I've been giving their breeding enclosure extra red grit and now that they're in general population they're still getting a steady supply, I have it set out with food.

She's not an extremely important part of my breeding projects but I am quite fond of her markings, size, and gentle personality. I can always find another blue bar or blue checker hen to go with my almond cockbird, but I'd prefer to keep her especially now that they've been paired for a while.

Do I just need to wait for the grit to do it's job and hope by spring she'll lay a good egg? Or am I missing something else that she needs?

 

[gtaus]

I believe soft shelled eggs is due to a lack of calcium in their diet. Red grit may, or may not, contain calcium so I would suggest reading the ingredients label. I have chickens, but I always have a side dish of calcium for the girls to eat in addition to their layer feed which contains calcium. I also crush up left over egg shells and feed them back to my girls. They prefer crushed egg shells over the calcium I get in a bag.

Does your pigeon feed have calcium in it? I'd check that too, but, as I said, I always have a side dish of calcium for my chickens that want it.

 

[CascadiaRiver]

Red grit is I believe around 30% calcium, it's mostly oyster shells. I don't feed them pellets because they don't eat them, instead I feed seed which if it does contain calcium it's probably very little. I always have red grit available to them, a dish out for general pop and added into the food dish of the breeding enclosures.

 

[gtaus]

Red grit is I believe around 30% calcium, it's mostly oyster shells.

From what I have read, red grit comes in all kinds of mixtures. Some red grit does not contain calcium, oyster shells, etc... so you have to look at the tag on the bag for the ingredients. But if your red grit does contain 30% oyster shells, I would expect that would resolve your soft egg shell situation.

 

[CascadiaRiver]

Mine is 30% calcium with almost entirely oyster shells and some limestone I believe. I'll keep feeding as I'm doing and hope come spring she'll lay a good egg ^^

 

[Qwerty3159]

Maybe try some mixing some layer pellets?
My hen doesn't really bother with the oyster shell unless I stop adding small amounts of layer pellets to the feed.

 

[CCUK]

You can add zolcal d into the drinking water. It's a calcium supplement.

 

[aart]

I have a hen who has consistently laid soft shelled eggs during these past few months I've owned her.

Do pigeons stop laying when days grow short and/or molt in the fall/winter after a certain age, like chickens do??

 

[jak2002003]

Hi. The red grit does have some calcium, but its not very high in calcium, and if you bird is deficient then it would have to eat a heck of a lot of it for it to help!

I suspect your bird has vitamin D deficiency too. They need this vitamin to get the calcium processed in their bodies. They get this vitamin from sunlight and sunbathing. Now it's winter, short days, weak sunlight, and you birds are housed indoors, I think she is deficient in vitamin D and not able to absorb the calcium from the feed.

I recommend you house her in her own cage, get some vitamin D supplement from the vets, and feed her only chicken layer pellets (she will eat them when eventually when hungry and she only has these and no seed to fill up on).

Also provide a better calcium source, crushed oyster shell grit, crushed chicken egg shells, bite sized bits of cuttlefish bone.... these are all better then the red grit for calcium content.

You could get a full spectrum light bulb to hang over her cage... to help her body produce the vitamin D she needs to absorb the calcium. I use these for my reptiles for that reason.

If you do nothing, and keep her on the same diet and red grit, she will likely deteriorate, the calcium leaking out of her bones, and she may get very sick and die from complications from egg binding or retention / breaking inside her.