FINCHforum

I have supplied cuttle bones calcium for my gouldians. Is it also necessary to add liquid calcium to their water when they are breeding???
Kindly let me know if you have done this and there are no side effects of adding liquid calcium..

Thx..

In my opinion using liquid calcium prevents them from regulating the amount they need. I have oyster shells in a dish so they can get what they need when they need it, adding cuttle bone is fine also. Too much calcium in their diet is as bad as too little.
I'd skip the liquid calcium but keep it on hand in case of emergency.

I agree with Debbie, shell grit, baked egg shells and charcoal as a mix would be sufficient in most cases. Liquid calcium would be best used on an egg bound hen or a dose after breeding season. You could also add a vitamin and mineral powder to soaked seed, these will contain some calcium.

I do add liquid calcium to the drinking water of breeding pairs twice a week until they are incubating the eggs. On other days I add liquid iodine. I rotate them with clear water on alternate days.

I keep liquid calcium on hand for emergencies (egg binding), and if I have a hen that keeps laying way too many eggs, I may add some to her water tube, but I no longer add it on a regular basis. I have just started using Hagen's Living World Clay-Cal, which is bentonite clay, calcium carbonate, and charcoal. My birds really seem to like it, though I haven't been using it long enough to say whether it makes a difference. For breeding birds, I add crushed eggshell.

i used to use it on all the aviaries and gave it away as i could not see any benefit from using it under normal cicumstances. However I keep it on hand for egg bound hens and if applied orally direct to the beak in these circumstances the result can be miraculous and instant.

The advantage of liquid calcium is that most bird formulated calcium products also contain the vitamin D3 needed for the birds to absorb the calcium in the first place
I like to go natural with natural sources of calcium, cuttle bone, egg shell, mollusk shell, limestone and on and on. I prefer natural sunshine for the vitamin D but I offer free choice of a mineral supplement that contains this vitamin in the case of birds housed indoors require it. I use powdered vitamin D3 mostly but liquid supplementation at times when more or quick absorbtion is needed, as in the case of eggbinding or hens housed indoors and producing large clutches.

When they are laying eggs, I give them liquid calcium at 1/2 strength. This lets them have a base level of calcium and they can get the rest from the egg shells.

Intresting.. But mostly the view seems to be not in favour of adding liquid calcium unless its emergency(egg binding). Thanks for all your replies and views..