FINCHforum

Another in a never ending line of egg food questions, it seems.

FinchInfo recommends not keeping your egg food longer than three days, even refrigerated. But with only five birds, even just one egg isn't gonna go particularly fast. (Especially because only three of the five birds really seem to give a rip about the eggs.) I can't imagine keeping it around longer than seven days, but I know for a fact I've kept hardboiled eggs around for up to a week at my house without any harm done to myself. Anyone have any thoughts as to the shelf life of egg food?

Thanks!

You could separate the chopped egg into small batches and FREEZE the batches. Then thaw a batch at a time.

My egg lasts about 4 days, then starts to get sticky. That's when I know it's gone bad. So I try to get it used up in about 3 days.

My egg food is quite dry, since I mix in a good amount of dry commercial egg food with the hard-boiled eggs. I make up large batches and then put them in plastic containers, enough for 2-3 days at a time. One container I start using right away, keeping it in the fridge, and the other containers go in the freezer. I really can't say how long they could be kept in the freezer, as I go through them pretty quickly.

If one egg makes up more than what your birds can use in three days, I've freeze the extra. My birds don't mind eating thawed-out egg food at all.

That does sound rather a good idea Sally,

Never really thought about freezing egg food but suppose it makes sense

Time for me to start making a few of my mixes and giving it a go

Alright, I've got an additional question about egg food: how long do the shells keep? Do I dispose of leftover shell with the "expired" egg? I've been keeping it beyond the eggs, they seem to eat it just fine, no visible problems. What would you say the "shelf life" is on the shell?

I don't really know the shelf life of egg shell, but there is a brand called Hatched that is crushed egg shell, and it keeps on the shelf for a long time.

My prep area is a long work bench in the garage. I have an egg cooker, a food processor and a separate (dedicated) refrigerator close by. Once a week I take 5 lbs of commercial "nestling food" (a Volkman product loaded with vitamins and dried eggs), add 7 cooked chicken eggs, a hand full of quail eggs and sometimes some canthaxanthin for the red canaries - then process it all together shells and all and refrigerate it for a full week of feeding.
My egg food servings along with plenty of fresh veggies are probably more than they need but the egg food mix provides plenty of nourishment for molting canaries, feeding moms and the finch fledglings, still fed by their parents but trying to figure it all out. The two 5' long feed trays are cleaned every other day and the 30 button quail get all the leftovers.

So goes a mixed species outdoor aviary...

Paul

Paul's Amazing Birds wrote: My prep area is a long work bench in the garage. I have an egg cooker, a food processor and a separate (dedicated) refrigerator close by. Once a week I take 5 lbs of commercial "nestling food" (a Volkman product loaded with vitamins and dried eggs), add 7 cooked chicken eggs, a hand full of quail eggs and sometimes some canthaxanthin for the red canaries - then process it all together shells and all and refrigerate it for a full week of feeding.
My egg food servings along with plenty of fresh veggies are probably more than they need but the egg food mix provides plenty of nourishment for molting canaries, feeding moms and the finch fledglings, still fed by their parents but trying to figure it all out. The two 5' long feed trays are cleaned every other day and the 30 button quail get all the leftovers.

So goes a mixed species outdoor aviary...

Paul

Plenty to do then pual

I mix up me egg food and green food pretty much the same way as I prepare it all with a generous dose of cod liver oil and then seal it in a Tupperware box and refrigerate for up to 1 week with no problems

Celeris, I use refrigerated hardboiled eggs for 1 week without issue. I only have a handful of finches as well, so I'd boil 2 eggs to use throughout the week, and then "chop" a piece of egg off with a fork daily to mix with my dried egg food & vegetables. I'd also write the date I boiled them on the plastic bag so I'd know to chuck any remainder on the 7th day (cause I would never remember otherwise, ha).

I make sure to seal them up really well and ensure no air is in the baggie. I've been doing this for about a year without any problems.

Sally wrote: I don't really know the shelf life of egg shell, but there is a brand called Hatched that is crushed egg shell, and it keeps on the shelf for a long time.

@Sally

Would you happen to know if they do anything to sanitize their egg shell? I feel as though it's liable to have bacteria, thanks to being in rather close contact with the egg itself. But I wouldn't know how to tell if it had gone bad.

Am I overthinking things, perhaps?

Celeris Here is the description of Hatched! egg shells. Twin Beaks is known for their two products, Hatched! and Herb Salad, both of which are top of the line, IMO.

https://ladygouldian.com/Hatched-Eggshell

Celeris wrote: Another in a never ending line of egg food questions, it seems.

FinchInfo recommends not keeping your egg food longer than three days, even refrigerated. But with only five birds, even just one egg isn't gonna go particularly fast. (Especially because only three of the five birds really seem to give a rip about the eggs.)

I only have 2 finches. I did try "real" mashed eggs but my guys reject any "wet" food, including most fruits I've tried so far.

However they LOVE Cece dry egg food. They won't eat it if its been moistened, they will only eat it dry. My guys are weird.

So that is what I feed them, and incidentally, my guys like the canary version better than the finch version though they WILL eat either.

I like it because I can fill a thumb cup with it and just leave it, just like seed. They like it because - well, they just like it. Apparently because it is not gooey and its high protein.

Another way to make your egg food go further is to make egg bread. Basically a cornbread mix with a ton of eggs. Again, I don't bother because I only have the 2 birds, but that's a cheap way to get egg food into your birds without it spoiling. You can make a big batch of egg bread and freeze what you won't use soon.

I think the HATCHED! crushed egg shell is not very useful and really expensive. I just free-feed ABBA Mineral Mix and keep both a cuttlebone and a mineral block in the cage at all times. Since I started offering the ABBA Mineral Mix, they pretty much ignore the cuttlebone, but I leave it in there anyway as more sources of calcium is better than fewer. If you offer a mineral block, knock the corners off and rough it up a bit as they are generally too hard for little finchy beaks. They use it regularly though slowly.

If you are making egg food its easy to crush the egg shells - I do crush egg shells left over from baking or making breakfast by first rinsing them well and then microwaving them to sterilize. Since I have so few finches I just crush them up with the back of a soup spoon, you know, like we do for our kids - the HUMAN ones - if we have to give them a pill. Works fine.

There is another pretty recent thread somewhere about different ways to crush egg shells easily if you want more ideas along those lines.

I did buy a box of the HATCHED! egg shell but in over a year and a half my guys totallly ignored it, until very recently. Unfortunately my hen, Pyewacket, has decided to go into the egg business. So I think she ate that same thumb cup of HATCHED! egg shell that's been in the cage for over a year, untouched, because she was feeling the need for extra calcium.

All calcium sources are pretty equivalent for birds, but if they need extra, if there are more sources, its better to have them. I would NEVER suggest relying on the ABBA Mineral mix alone because there is a LOT more stuff in there than just calcium, so having some sources of pure calcium - such as crushed egg shells, whether out of your kitchen or something commercial like HATCHED!, or crushed oyster shell, and cuttlebone and mineral blocks is just good sense. Then if they need the extra calcium for any reason, there it is, without having to take in more of the extra stuff in the mineral mix just to get enough calcium.

Sojourner

I just recently started adding commercial egg shell to my egg food...I think it's the HATCHED! brand. They seem to like it so far!