grit

[nicko]

Making my own charcoal, limestone, mix & wondering what size to crunch them down too, thinking to around white sugar granual size, does it need to be smaller, bigger or about right.
Also making my own eggshell, shell mix as well but not as small.

[Tiaris]

I think a bit of a range of sizes is best, especially for a mix of species. Some species (not just the well-known ones) will use fine pieces of charcoal, cuttlebone, etc in the nesting process as well as for food items.

[finchbreeder]

Like T says. I find most prefer about sugar granule size, but particularly with charcol have some pieces they can pick up in their beaks and take and put in the nests. So fingernail size. Eggshell mixed size too, but about 1/2mm seems most popular.
LML

[MuzzaD]

I used to put egg shells in aviaries as they came. Had a lot of wastage. Now use a mortar and pestle and grind the egg shell fairly fine. Place in a small container with egg and biscuit or green seed heads etc, and find most goes. Any remainder goes into the compost bin to recycle.

[starman]

I may be overcautious but ground oyster shell has always worried me a bit. Some of the coarser particles look like broken razor blades and appear to have crop-piercing potential. I've never read or heard of this being a problem but I like to grind it down really fine "just in case"...although this does involve a bit of labour.

[Greg41]

Hi Starman, any easy way to crush the oyster shell?
Cheers

[starman]

Hi Starman, any easy way to crush the oyster shell?
Cheers

Hi Greg,....If there is an easy way I am yet to find it. Because I have so few birds, I can wait until family or friends order oysters-in-the-shell while dining out and then wrap the shells in a paper serviette for future processing. After washing and drying, I start by spreading an old bed sheet on the backyard lawn and using a club hammer and a short length of 'I' beam, I hammer the shells, crushing them into smaller and smaller pieces. (I could not have imagined how messy and tedious this would be until I tried it). When I've gone about as for as I can with that, I collect the bits in the sheet and put them into a mortar (and pestle) and grind them down to a coarse powder. It's a painfully slow and arduous process that makes me doubt its actual value (and my sanity)...but I keep doing it regardless... it seems the birds hold all the power

[STUART WHITING]

I may be overcautious but ground oyster shell has always worried me a bit. Some of the coarser particles look like broken razor blades and appear to have crop-piercing potential. I've never read or heard of this being a problem but I like to grind it down really fine "just in case"...although this does involve a bit of labour.

Yep I quite agree me freind, I often think the along the same lines as to this,

I'm quite lucky though here in England as the oyster shell we get here is pretty much fine, however if I'm not happy I'll just simply use a morta & petor

Remember that birds only need to eat " shells " and not grit, birds don't actually need grit as being small seed eating birds they de husk the seed and eat the seed, not the shell aswell, mineral grit can in affect cause catastrophic affect to finches if fed as they can at times have difficulty in passing the grit and can become stuck in the crop, gizzard and intestines because grit simply does not break down,

However the use of shells is not because the birds can't digest there food because all seed eating birds that de husk the seeds will easily be able to digest, reason being that the shells will be able to break down as the birds body acids will dissolve the shells but can't dissolve mineral grit,
the only reason why many breeders like to feed oyster shell, lime, and other shells is because of the calcium content which helps the birds receive the calcium throughout the year and more importantly when the birds are breeding so the birds don't produce soft shell eggs aswell as increasing a better and healthier bone structure,

Only large game birds IE chicken, pheasants, ducks and other poultry need to eat a small amount of grit because these family of birds tend to eat seeds whole as aposed to de husking the seed, the birds being considerably bigger can generally handle consuming a small amount of grit at a time

Be lucky

[starman]

My thoughts on the subject are very similar to yours, Stuart..... the main reason I go to so much trouble with the oyster shell powder is that I believe (perhaps erroneously) that oyster shell contains a few trace elements, absorbed from sea water, that are not readily procured from other sources. I once saw a breakdown of the elements in the shell's make up that I remember being impressed by, but unfortunately I can't reference the source as I have long forgotten where I read it.

[STUART WHITING]

My thoughts on the subject are very similar to yours, Stuart..... the main reason I go to so much trouble with the oyster shell powder is that I believe (perhaps erroneously) that oyster shell contains a few trace elements, absorbed from sea water, that are not readily procured from other sources. I once saw a breakdown of the elements in the shell's make up that I remember being impressed by, but unfortunately I can't reference the source as I have long forgotten where I read it.

Yea I know exactly what yer saying mate

To be honest the salt water content doesn't really seem to bother me, in a way I'd say that it's probably a good thing if anything,

Take seaweed for example as it's full of nutrition, here in England I've often seen linnets flocking up during the winter and early spring and they are feeding all along the the coastal estuary salt mashes, they are feeding on the very edge of the mudflats and marsh salting's and I believe that they are feeding on various minerals from the ground aswell as other stuff that clearly has salt content, we've tried in vein here for many years to gain the linnets colouration in captivity but just simply cannot be done and it's my belief that its something to do with the stuff that there feeding on from the ground that the world population of captive linnets simply haven't been able to sus out yet,
I'd say that salt content and minerals is a very big part of it