Grit or oyster shells?

[legit chickens]

Hey guys I was wondering if I can feed my chickens oyster shells as grit? Or should I feed them both?

 

[0wen]

You cannot successfully use oyster shells as grit - they'll need access to a source of grit in addition to any calcium offerings you make available.

 

[Den in Penn]

Oyster shell is soluble, meaning that it will dissolve in the acidic environment of a chicken's digestive tract. A chicken would have to ingest some with each meal. That would put a lot of extra calcium into them. An insoluble grit, like granite lasts over a much longer time before the gizzard's grinding will make it too small to be of use as a chicken's teeth.