FINCHforum

Hello Everyone.

What is your experience with Crushed Oyster Shell & "Hatched" Egg Shell. Which do you prefer ?
I have used both and Cuttle Bone but I'm interested in opinionc between these two.

Thanks.
G.

Sorry George, but have not used either... I use crushed eggshell from boiled eggs and cuttlebone.

*I have used abba mineral grit in the past but no longer breed so do not supply it

I have used both, and love both. For everyday purposes, I use oystershell grit or Abba's mineral mix or a combination of the two. I love the Hatched eggshells, but I only give my birds extra eggshells when they are breeding, and I go through enough chicken eggs for myself that I have a plentiful supply of eggshells. But my homemade crushed eggshells are never as pretty as Hatched!

When I give my birds eggfood (breeding birds and juveniles), I mash the eggs shell and all, so they are also getting eggshell in the eggfood.

I have used both and the birds like them both the same. I always have a dish of charcoal and oyster shell available. Another dish available at all times is eggshells from the hard boiled eggs I feed. I also put in large pieces of eggshell and they spend hours playing with and dragging them around the aviary, breaking off little pieces. The "hatched" I got as a sample from Laraine once and they liked it fine but with all the hard boiled eggs I feed it's kind of silly to pay for more eggshells.

I also use both and the birds love them. They also always have charcoal, ABBA Mineral Mix and cuttlebone available - and the eggshells are in their eggfood, too.

I have found that if these items are always available, they pick and choose what they want and seem to never have an issue with over or under-indulging. If I run out of something and add it back in at a later date, they will gorge on that thing as if they had missed it terribly (although there certainly is enough other stuff that would seem to satisfy).

Many people mix their minerals. I believe there is a sticky somewhere with a recipe for Cando's mineral mix.

It may not be necessary to provide all of this when one or two items would suffice, but I always feel they know best and let them pick and choose wherever possible.

Thanks Everyone for your input.
My bird eat the oyster shell and the Hatch egg shell about the same. I just ran out of Hatch that I've been using for the last 6 months. I open a container of the oyster shell and realized how much prettier the white color of the Hatch egg shell is. The birds don't care I just like it better

G.

I give them, egg shells and cuttle bones.
The cuttle bones, they have all the time.
The egg shells I give them once a day for a treat(Leave it in there for a couple of hours
I mixed egg shells in a food processor(with a hard boiled eggs) and they weren't that fond of it.

I give my birds a mixture of egg shells, bits of oyster shell, and some Ecotrition sand mix. They really love the egg shells but not so much the oyster shell. The sand mix usually disappears.

I haven't exactly found a good place to hang any of their cuttlebones in their cage. The hooks they come in aren't really all that great and I am not exactly sure how to fix that. I might work with a bit of those tie wraps to come with a crazy concoction.

Then for a tiny extra, I sprinkle some sea salt on their minerals. I am not sure if they really eat that but they probably liked that little extra taste when they eat their egg shells.

I decided to add sea salt into their mineral diet after reading the stickied topic here.

Kamoodle wrote:I give my birds a mixture of egg shells, bits of oyster shell, and some Ecotrition sand mix. They really love the egg shells but not so much the oyster shell. The sand mix usually disappears.

I haven't exactly found a good place to hang any of their cuttlebones in their cage. The hooks they come in aren't really all that great and I am not exactly sure how to fix that. I might work with a bit of those tie wraps to come with a crazy concoction.

Then for a tiny extra, I sprinkle some sea salt on their minerals. I am not sure if they really eat that but they probably liked that little extra taste when they eat their egg shells.

I decided to add sea salt into their mineral diet after reading the stickied topic here.

I bought metal treat holders and attached the cuttle bones to the branches in the aviary

Kamoodle wrote:I give my birds a mixture of egg shells, bits of oyster shell, and some Ecotrition sand mix. They really love the egg shells but not so much the oyster shell. The sand mix usually disappears.

I haven't exactly found a good place to hang any of their cuttlebones in their cage. The hooks they come in aren't really all that great and I am not exactly sure how to fix that. I might work with a bit of those tie wraps to come with a crazy concoction.

Then for a tiny extra, I sprinkle some sea salt on their minerals. I am not sure if they really eat that but they probably liked that little extra taste when they eat their egg shells.

I decided to add sea salt into their mineral diet after reading the stickied topic here.

I just wedge the cuttlebones in between the bars at the end of the perches - where the perches are wedged between the bars.

L in Ontario wrote:I just wedge the cuttlebones in between the bars at the end of the perches - where the perches are wedged between the bars.

This is what I do as well! I actually bought metal cuttle bone holders but heard of at least one horror story where a bird got its foot stuck in it. I now just wedge the cuttle bones in between the bars and my birds eat it just fine.

For the OP: I offer both oyster shell and crushed egg shell, as well as cuttle bone. As mentioned by Martie, I am a follower of CandoAviary's "Cando Mineral Mixture" and offer that to my birds to pick and choose from. Recipe and directions here --> http://finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11830

She has mentioned that she now uses ground food-grade limestone as well and is testing that with her birds with 50/50 results. The perks of the food-grade limestone, according to Cando, is that it is economically cheaper and still has everything that the birds need, including calcium. Hopefully she will create a thread detailing the benefits of limestone vs. her Cando Mineral Mix.

I personally love the way her mixture looks and make it a event to make big batches of it when I run out. I grind the oyster shells, cuttle bone, egg shells, ABBA mineral mix, and add the other additives for a beautiful calcium mixture for my sweet birds to choose from. The only thing I do slightly different is I omit the sea salt, as the ABBA mixture already has some salt, as well as the oyster shells, I assume. Good luck!!

I use egg shells, because it is a byproduct of the egg food I make.
That way I don't have to go out and buy yet more stuff for the birds.
Free is good.

Mine have had egg shells for so long, that they don't know what to do with the cuttlebone that I recently put into their cages.

Putting cuttlebone through the bars is a great idea if you have cages with long vertical bars. Most of my cages, however, are 1/2" x 1" welded wire - so no sticking cuttlebones in there! I, too, always struggled with the best way to hang the darn things until Cindy (I'm pretty sure it was Cindy?) shared her way of doing it. She uses a screw driver to make a hole in the center and then ties them on using twist ties or string or whatever is available. It works really, really well. The screw driver goes right through and makes a great hole and the cuttlebone is securely fastened wherever I want it to be!

Thank you Cindy!

I tie 2 veggie ties together (to make it longer) then run it around the cuttlebone and the wires on my cage. Only problem is I put it on the front of the cage, so I can't see how much they are or are not eating it.

I also use both egg shells (Hatched and also fresh shells from when I make them hard boiled eggs) and oyster shells. They love both - I feed extra Hatched/egg shells to my birds who are breeding, to give them an extra calcium boost.

I also feed Abba Mineral Grit - my birds absolutely LOVE this stuff. I've tried buying store-bought mineral blocks but the birds don't really touch it in one piece. I have tried smashing it to smithereens and giving to them powdered. While they DO like it this way, it's terribly hard to break up effectively.

I offer cuttle bones to my birds. Some use it often and others never touch it. I have found that when I ground them up, all the birds enjoy them.