Ellyhutch
Songster
- Dec 15, 2020
- 113
- 163
- 101
I have a healthy, energetic, active Ancona duck, about 9 months old. He grew out his lovely flush of adult tail feathers around July 2020 (pic 1); however, they quickly started breaking about halfway up the shaft (pic 2). Some of them break much closer to the bottom of the shaft. Since then, whenever he grows a new feather, it rarely gets "full size" (meaning, the feather still has the papery skin protecting the bottom of the feather and you can't see the hollow shaft yet) before it breaks. I can't tell how this is happening. He does do a decent amount of jumping around but the feathers themselves just seem kind of weak. They end up falling out or I can pull them out easily without him hardly noticing. He hasn't had one of those cute curly tails in six months 
is there anything I can do to beef up these feathers? Has anyone else had this problem? He's never broken a wing feather and he does plenty of flapping and flying attempts. He's currently going through his first nuptial molt.
is there anything I can do to beef up these feathers? Has anyone else had this problem? He's never broken a wing feather and he does plenty of flapping and flying attempts. He's currently going through his first nuptial molt.
