Can I use this bone meal as a calcium supplement in my birds food?

[Homo sapien]

I have this bone meal that I was thinking about mixing in with the food of my chickens and ducks to add some calcium and other minerals. Is it safe? I know that there are certain forms of silica that chickens can eat and other that are bad for them I just do not know which ones are safe and which are not. The form of silica used in this bone meal is mainly crystalline quartz silica. The bone meal is made up of "Natural rock phosphate from rich fossilized animal bone deposits (Tunisia). Finely ground (80% through a 100 mesh screen) then regranulated."

 

[casportpony]

Welcome to BYC. @U_Stormcrow is one of the people who might know the answers to your questions.

 

[nuthatched]

Bone meal was a very common feed ingredient 100-150 years ago, I'm not sure if it's the best any more. Probably dropped out of favor for easier and cheaper sources like oyster shells .

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have this bone meal that I was thinking about mixing in with the food of my chickens and ducks to add some calcium and other minerals. Is it safe? I know that there are certain forms of silica that chickens can eat and other that are bad for them I just do not know which ones are safe and which are not. The form of silica used in this bone meal is mainly crystalline quartz silica. The bone meal is made up of "Natural rock phosphate from rich fossilized animal bone deposits (Tunisia). Finely ground (80% through a 100 mesh screen) then regranulated."View attachment 4254165

Define "safe"

That's quartz (the mineral), from the rock they are crushing. Its chemically essentially inert. Your chickens can eat it with no issues. Chances are very, very, very good they re doing so already when they peck at things on the ground. The chances of silica being present in your sand is very very high.

Silica CAN be an issue if it is very very fine and readily makes dust - because it can be inhaled, and while inert, quartz crystals are sharp.

Do you use DE (Diatomaceous Earth)? This is less dangerous than DE (from a silica perspective). DE is also primarily silica, but tends to be finely ground and dusts easily - which is why you are supposed to use a mask when applying it.

As others have observed, Bone Meal used to be used in old recipes - its not done so now in part due to cost, in part to control the amount of other things (trace metals, mostly) that could be introduced w/ the bone meal.

But yes, if you do some math, you can use that. Note that it is NOT a direct calcium substitute in the way that oyster shell is, because that bone meal also contains a lot of phosphorus, and your Ca : P ration is just as important as total CA intake - in some ways, more important. and that ratio may be high - I'm not sure how they are differentiating "available" phosphoric acid from total phosphoric acid, so I can't do the math.

Which leaves me in the default position of "use if briefly if you have no other calcium source, and you need supplemental calcium, but don't make a habit out of it".