FINCHforum

I save up all of my egg shells from breakfast etc, and then once every couple of weeks, I throw them in a pan and boil them before crushing them for my zebras.
Well the last time I did it, I put them on the stove....and forgot about them. So they boiled for quite awhile; all but about an inch of water boiled away.
If they boiled for this long, have They lost much of the nutritional content?

I have never boiled the eggshells....I microwave them for 2 minutes to kill all the bacteria.....I am not sure if boiling removes nutrients or not?

Boil?...That's a new one on me... Microwave on full for a minute or two does it for me.

I boil lots of eggs to make eggfood with. I always remove the shells and then place them in the microwave to become dry and brittle...much easier to crush. If I have raw egg shells it is important to heat in order to kill any salmonella, if present.
The shells contain calcium and minerals, these will not cook away. It is the vitamins that can be depleted with overboiling. No worries, the shells only contain minerals

Then try breaking them up or grinding to a powder and serving it up in a treat cup...my birds love it!

I've always boiled eggs for egg food and just cooked the shell that way. I never figured on placing them in the microwave, figured the hot boiling water was enough. My birds have never had a problem.

I guess you could burn the shells and the might not taste as good, but I don't know about anything being depleated from them.

Yes, boiling will kill all germs and is enough to make the shells safe for bird consumtion. The reason I place mine in the microwave afterwords is to remove the moisture that the boiling water has added. Once dry they crush much easier and into finer peices. Just a tip

Well, if I am boiling eggs for the birds, I just leave the shell on and chop it up all at once. The shells that I boil are from the raw eggs I use for cooking, baking, etc. After boiling, I just lay them on a paper towel to dry for an hour or so, then crush them up. They end up nice and crunchy this way.
I read about boiling the shells on here, a while back, so that's why I've doing it this way. I have never tried microwaving them. I was afraid that without moisture in the microwave, it wouldn't work very well....
So those of you who microwave the shells, do you just put them on a plate dry?

I just mash up a hard boiled egg for my birds. I don't bother saving the shells from other eggs I use.

Queen_Bee wrote:I just mash up a hard boiled egg for my birds. I don't bother saving the shells from other eggs I use.

I don't give them fresh eggfood except as a treat or when breeding. They have dried eggfood the rest of the time, but they always need eggshell for the calcium.

I don't have a microwave so I've put them on a glass baking dish at 200 degrees until they are dried out, about 20 minutes or so. Then I put them in a coffee grinder used only for shells. Seems my children think I need a new coffee grinder every Christmas so I have them in abundance. Works great for this!