Egg Eaters

Did you know that calcium supplements don’t only come in the form of cuttlebone or powdered calcium carbonate? It is very important that birds have access to calcium, especially females, for if they start to develop eggs. Usually the easiest thing we can do is stick a cuttlebone in there for them to chew on whenever they need to boost their system, but in the wild they would never encounter a cuttlefish, so how do they keep their calcium levels up to prevent eggbinding? Calcium is naturally found in a lot of dark leafy greens, broccoli, clay licks, almonds, chia seeds, etc. Egg laying is very taxing on their body, and depletes a lot of nutrients. Sometimes birds even eat their own eggs for various reasons, potentially to get calcium back in their body. Esther pictured here, ate her very first egg she laid, I think because she didn’t know what the heck she just did, but potentially it could have been seeking out a calcium source. Egg shells can be used for calcium intake. I have seen people save their chicken egg shells, boil them (to sanitize) and crush them into a rough powder, which is very similar to the powdered version you can buy in store. We even use eggs with the crushed shell in our birdie muffins that you can buy in store! It’s always great to think outside of the box a bit and see what works best for your bird.