Feeding cuttle fish bones to peahens?

[Peafowlssssssss]

I thought it better to start a new thread, i know many people that raise canary's or parrots feed their birds cuttlebones, can i give my peahens cuttlebones too? I live by the sea and there are many of them on the beach, if it safe to feed them should i crush them?

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

By the way i can see some oyster shells in the grit mix i'm using, if these are oyster shells

 

[KsKingBee]

After reading the comments in the 2015 Breeding thread I got curious about calcium requirements. On the UPA site they talk about studies that peas only need about 1% calcium. I feed about half and half alfalfa pellets to gamebird breeder/starter in a wet mash. Alfalfa has about 1 1/2% calcium and the gamebird feed I use has 28% protein has a guaranteed min of 1.2% to a max of 1.7%. I take it that there is no need to supplement with more calcium, and this makes me wonder if the problems some have noted with leg development problems in young chicks is not the percentage of protein as they had thought, but more of an overabundance of calcium.

 

[DylansMom]

After reading the comments in the 2015 Breeding thread I got curious about calcium requirements. On the UPA site they talk about studies that peas only need about 1% calcium. I feed about half and half alfalfa pellets to gamebird breeder/starter in a wet mash. Alfalfa has about 1 1/2% calcium and the gamebird feed I use has 28% protein has a guaranteed min of 1.2% to a max of 1.7%. I take it that there is no need to supplement with more calcium, and this makes me wonder if the problems some have noted with leg development problems in young chicks is not the percentage of protein as they had thought, but more of an overabundance of calcium.

Funny, last year I had a chick that I got from a friend, he had only 1 hatch and it was lonely and I had some that were 1 day older. This chick started off seeming fine, but developed what I can only describe as a weakness in the legs and hock joints. This was not the Twisted Tibia, it was different. I could only find 1 reference to anything similar and it recommended supplemental calcium, which I provided in a liquid form. It didn't help, I still have her and she still has weak legs. Most times when researching leg issues I find them calling for supplemental calcium, I've not really come across much that warned about too much calcium.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

After reading the comments in the 2015 Breeding thread I got curious about calcium requirements. On the UPA site they talk about studies that peas only need about 1% calcium. I feed about half and half alfalfa pellets to gamebird breeder/starter in a wet mash. Alfalfa has about 1 1/2% calcium and the gamebird feed I use has 28% protein has a guaranteed min of 1.2% to a max of 1.7%. I take it that there is no need to supplement with more calcium, and this makes me wonder if the problems some have noted with leg development problems in young chicks is not the percentage of protein as they had thought, but more of an overabundance of calcium.

When i had chicks with leg problems last year it wasn't from too much calcium, i'm sure of this, it was from too much protein in their feed because i didn't change their feed, i just reduced the soy in their feed(which is the main source of protein in my feed), after that i didn't get any leg problem in the next chicks.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

I bought a bag of oyster shells today, only found it in one store, and he only had the last bag, its 7 kg and cost almost $45, pretty expensive, also i took a walk on the beach today and collected almost 90 pieces of cuttlebones, so far most people said its safe to feed them cuttlebone.

 

[KsKingBee]

Read the part of this article that relates to calcium.

http://unitedpeafowlassociation.org/CaptiveBirdDietsVersesWildBirdDiets.html

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

Read the part of this article that relates to calcium.

http://unitedpeafowlassociation.org/CaptiveBirdDietsVersesWildBirdDiets.html

The part which they talked about the protein level and how many exercises the birds are doing is definitely true, last year i only got leg problems in the chicks that were in small brooders, the problem usually starts at their third or fourth week, while the first 7 peachicks of the season were in the big brooder, they didn't get any leg problem, even so they were on 28% protein feed until they were 3 months old.

 

[DylansMom]

Read the part of this article that relates to calcium.

http://unitedpeafowlassociation.org/CaptiveBirdDietsVersesWildBirdDiets.html

It is an interesting article, I did notice that the author appeared to be a breeder of ornamental pheasants. I wonder if there is any difference between the smaller ornamentals and the Peafowl, as far as the calcium requirements. I do know that I have fed commercial feed for 20 years now, I feed layer during breeding season and maintenance during off season. I supply oyster shell, and many additional seeds/nuts as well as fruits and veggies. We never had a single chick with leg problems until I incubated and hatched, that tells me it wasn't the feed it was something I was/wasn't doing. And my answer, which feels right to me, was overfeeding leading to rapid growth, high protein is also said to promote rapid growth. I also have quite a few older birds, the calcium in the commercial feed hasn't killed them, and about half of my birds are over 10 now. I did just lose a 4 year old hen, but she wasn't fine one day and dead the next like the article spoke of, she lingered looking "off" for 6-7 weeks, during which I treated her for everything I could think of. She responded to nothing, and died. I lean toward hardware disease on that one.

 

[connerhills]

I am of the belief that birds can eat all of the calcium they can ,but if their vitamin C is low they can not absorb it into their system and most people just give them more calcium . Many have eggs that are soft shell and the problem is the same, they draw from their resources and cant replenish them for like of another problem. connerhills