Soggy underside?

[fatedfaithfulfatal]

My khaki campbells are 7-8 weeks old, and despite being nearly fully feathered and it appearing their oil glands are working (as I see water rolling off), their undersides are always soggy when I pick them up. They do have a small (6x8) pond that they swim in all day, but I thought the water wasn’t supposed to soak in like that, at least not at this point anymore.

Is this normal? Just because they’re still young? Or is there a problem?

They don’t seem cold. They only ever hop out of the water for a few minutes and then get back in. Have no desire to go warm up. Don’t huddle. Nap floating in the water even.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Are they wearing down or adult feathers on their belly?

 

[fatedfaithfulfatal]

It seems to be feathered to me, but this is my first keeping ducks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They look fully feathered. Do you notice them preening these feathers? Maybe they are spending too much time in their pond. But I have a hard time thinking a duck could spend too much time in water unless they have wet feather

 

[fatedfaithfulfatal]

They do immediately after jumping out of the water, but only for a few seconds usually before going to forage in the grass for a few minutes or come to me for peas and bedtime. I’m not sure what the normal amount of time is supposed to be.

 

[fatedfaithfulfatal]

And yes they really do spend most of the day in the pond since I finished it and let them out in the run daily. It was the Saturday before Memorial Day. But I noticed it even first thing in the morning getting them to bring outside (they only just moved to the outside coop two nights ago, so I was bringing them out and then in every day) after they spent the night on mostly dry bedding. only the bedding by their water was wet, yet they still felt like they’d just been swimming. That’s when I started keeping an eye on it and after a few days of them being consistently soggy whenever I handle them, I became concerned if it was normal.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm not sure what to tell you sounds like they are getting soggy and just not drying out. Is there anyway to keep them from getting in and staying in the pond most of the time? I know ducks love water mine sure do but they don't get in and stay.