Food Grade DE (Diatomaceous Earth) mixed with Calcium Bentonite Clay

[RoseMarie1]

You can sprinkle food grade DE on their food or put it in their water. They also love to take dust baths in it. It's great for controlling moisture in the coop as well as insects in the coop and on birds. I'm not positive but I think I read somewhere that the DE with the clay in it becomes non-food grade for humans. Food grade DE by itself is very beneficial for both external and internal use. You don't really need the clay in it. I'm pretty sure it's added to DE more for the absorbent properties.

read ^^^^^ there.

 

[realsis]

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/05/diatomaceous-earth-de-benefitrisk.html?m=1 Here is a really great article on DE. Please read it.it has some expert opinions in it. The article also touches on feeding DE. As you will read it would be difficult to actually get a benifit from feeding it to them. This is a really good article and I hope this helps you. Best wishes for you and your flock

 

[Jmamelia]

DE and calcium bentonite clay deliver similar benefits, yet the means for doing so is very different.

DE is fossilized diatoms (single cell algae) that has been harvested from lake and sea beds and crushed to a very fine powder.

As pointed out, it's important to get FOOD GRADE DE, as there are industrial grades used in filtering applications.

Calcium bentonite clay on the other hand, is a mineral comound that is also a detoxifier. Unlike DE, there is little benefit to using it bentonite clay dry, except in lieu of baby powder to relieve diaper rash and eliminate bacteria on moist skin.

Not all calcium bentonite clays are created equally, and they are not all food grade. Adding food grade clay to food grade DE does NOT make it non-food grade.

Both are wonderful gifts from nature that solve MANY problems safely and in a non-toxic way.

 

[bustedchicks]

my cats get a sprinkle of d/e occasionally on their food. they hate it on their fur. interesting points about the dangers of it.

I will tell you this though. D/e was the only thing that was able to get rid of bed bugs. !

 

[silkwormlady]

I decided to use a teeny bit of diotomaceous earth sprinkled on top of new pine shavings after cleaning out 75% of the old accumulated everything on the coop floor. On top of that I sprinkled a bit of sweet PDZ. It turned out to be the powder. I've used the granular which is GREAT on the poop Board!!! I'd forgotten it also came as a powder so when I ordered from my feed store ..oops. I'll see how it works, I.e. how well I like it. It's been so wet here which means their yard is too, I figured the floor mix would be OK. I also kind of stirred it up a bit.