Feeding bone meal

[Rox]

I was reading an article about feeding bone meal to the more insectivorous/carnivorous garden birds and how great a calcium source it is. The fresh grounded bone meal (from the butcher) is molded into balls and put into the freezer to set. The ball is then put out for the birds who break into it. I looked into it a bit more and see that the egg laying industry uses bone meal as a calcium source for their laying hens.

This got me to thinking about your more insectivorous waxbills and if feeding bone meal could be an option. My concerns would be as follows though:

1. How clean should the bone meal be for our aviary birds? Ie, should it be just ground bone or would having ground meat in there be of benefit as a protein source?
2. How to keep serve the bone meal to our birds? I’m more concerned here about freshness of the bone meal throughout the day, especially in the heat of summer.

I would appreciate any thoughts/comments on this. While I can see it being of great benefit to those who keep Robins or Starlings etc, I’m not sure how beneficial it would be for the smaller birds and if it’s worth trying out.

Thanks
Roxanne

[matcho]

Roxanne,

I was a butcher by trade and the bone meal I think you are referring to is the grindings from the band saw which cuts all kinds of meat. Beef, pork, veal, lamb, chicken, offal fresh and frozen. We had to clean it every day because after eight or so hours it became rank and in hot weather even had to clean twice a day. The reason bone meal is used in processed feed is that it is ground bones without much flesh, cooked, not raw, dry and becomes sterilized but retains it nutrition. Personally, for humans, NO in the fresh form. For birds, I might use it if they were dead set insectivores but would be wary of the putrefaction side of things because of the marrow and meat contained in it and only feed small amounts so it was eaten pretty well straight away. On the other hand would be a great lure for bush and blow flies. Makes great fish berley, by the way. If you think it is fresh and smells ok give it a try.

Once again, thinking outside the square, love it.

Ken.

[Craig52]

We have a product called blood and bone here and it is mainly used for fertilizer for plants.In the early days of bush fly production here many were using it to grow their maggots with dire results (mould ect) I don't think i would like to feed it to my finches as the get plenty of calcium from cleaner sources. Craig

[KENTUCKY]

Sterilized Bone Meal, or Flour, is the finest Source of Calcium, Minerals and Trace Elements you can feed to your birds but, it MUST BE STERILIZED or you are asking for massive Trouble,
Iodized Mineral Salts, among other ingridienses, is Sterilized Bone Flour,an Additive thought up by the late Percy W Teague of England who passed on to Ray Murray and he in return passed it on to other Breeders,
fed dry and during the Breeding Season, all Birds will take to it, especially when rearing youngens, an almost must have, perhaps Gomer would like to look into it and make up a batch, broken down into 500gr units,stored dry, it will last a very long time. Sterilized Bone Flour was freely available many years ago, from my inquiries
to date, there is only Company that still Produces Sterilized Bone Flour is in Queensland who Exports the stuff to India.
In regards to Blood and Bone,I have been feeding my Gouldians Sterilized Blood and Bone for a number of years, once again it must be STERILIZED,while still working in Hospitality I approached a Trout Farmer for some Blood And Bone Pellets, at first he refused,when I told him what he can do with his Delivery of sixty Trout he came around to my way thinking quick smart (its called Black Mail) he never refused me again.
I have powderized these Pellets and offered it to my Birds, they are feeding it to their chicks,not in large Quantities but,it is not being ignored either.

[Rox]

Thank you so much for the replies!

I think I am going to investigate the dry, sterilized route and see what product I can come up with here. I have decided against the fresh bone meal, purely because there is no way I can guarantee freshness throughout the day and quite frankly, I don't want the flies that will come with it.

I use a commercial bone meal in the garden for planting, so I will look into that product some more (sounds similar to your Blood and Bone) or see if I can find a supplier of dried, sterilized bone meal.

My birds already get egg shells and cuttlefish bone, but I am a huge fan of variety and giving the birds a choice. I will see where it takes me

[Tiaris]

A mate of mine who is a very good finch breeder annually digs a fire pit & gets a hot bed of red hardwood coals going & then places a pile of large cattle bones onto the coals & shovels up the pile of white bone ash the next morning & this is stored dry & goes into his fine mineral mix for his finches. He gets the bones from a local butcher who does home kills & the large bones are a waste material.

[E Orix]

There is no way known that I will touch any animal by products. No one will say they are free of contaminants or offal.
I will not risk it, a decent live food program is quite adequate. Especially the species we keep here in Aust.
Why so many people want to fiddle with diets under the guise of giving birds more calcium is beyond me.
If your birds are in an outside aviary and you feed a balanced diet inc. baked egg shell you shouldn't get single
bird down with egg binding. On the other hand if you allow your birds to breed in the cold months you will risk
the loss of females. The females can suffer from muscle contraction when it's cold but that is not due to
calcium loss because in the majority that egg which the bird is having difficulty passing is fully formed.
The first thing I think of when I read the wanted adds and the person is after several species and all hens.
Her/she are generally not looking after those birds in the colder months.
This is my opinion only and I may be old school but I run close to 500 birds with little problem with the lack of calcium
and egg binding. I do not encourage my birds to breed in the cold months though.

[matcho]

Rox,
Do NOT use the blood and bone fertilizer or the commercial bone meal you mentioned for plants. It is a dirty filthy concoction made to decay and promote plant growth just like the chook sh.t pellets and powder. (Dymanic Lifter) It is fertilizer for plants. PLANTS/Vegetation being the operative word. Not warm blooded animals. I have some spirulina tabs I use for my big Plecostomus in my fish tank. Been thinking of grinding them up and feeding but my water containers have algae in them so in all reality no benefit. The bone meal from the butchers is ok, if you feed it to wild birds, they are opportunists and will take easy food sources but in all reality if not fresh and slightly warm is just maggot food. Have seen dogs scoff it down and then bring it up a couple of minutes later, not pretty. Go for the processed stuff if that is want you want.

Sorry to seem like a rant but no, not for me. Greens and grains, sprouted/soaked seed, fresh greens (dandelion, thistle) and any green seed you can find does it for me daily.

Ken.

[Rox]

Again, thank you so much for the feedback!

I am the type of person who likes to look into new/alternative ideas, research them as best I can and then come to a conclusion. Honestly, about 95% of the time I end up deciding not to go ahead with the idea but at least I know I have done some homework before scrapping the idea too quickly.

Based on all the feedback received, unless I can find a source of quality, dried and sterilized bone meal fit for bird consumption (perhaps I need to look more into the chicken laying industry here?) I will drop the idea. The last thing I want to do is endanger my birds in any way.

I have full confidence in my current feeding program and the results are showing. But as Ken mentioned, never be scared to think outside the square

[Tiaris]

There's nothing at all wrong with providing extra variety in the mineral food component of your finches' diet just as with the green, livefood or dry seed parts of the diet. This is provided we are not posing extra obvious health hazards.
Whilst I too believe eggshells are a very important part of the mineral supplements which can be offered to finches, so too are many other items. Cuttlebone, Canunda shell, crushed oyster shell, charcoal as well as various commercial mineral foods (eg. pickstones, biocal, PVM powder, etc.) are all excellent supplements which if offered as a variety allow the birds to pick & choose what they want & need.
I see absolutely no problem at all in offering mineral supplements derived from animal bones as long as it is totally dry, clean and free of meat.