Hi, guys,
This thread is a follow up to my thread from the other day asking about liquid calcium I could give my hen that won't eat oyster shells. My vet looked at the two options that were suggested to me and said to go with the one that is formulated for birds rather than the one that's for cows, so I ordered it.
https://morningbirdproducts.com/pro...liquid-calcium-formula?variant=18032110108731
It came in the mail now, but I'm struggling to understand the dosage. (The bottle doesn't even list the concentrations. Had to get them off of the product webpage).
So, let me just give you my stream of consciousness here and you can tell me where my gap in understanding is:
Google says: Today's commercial laying hens lay an egg almost every day and therefore require about 4-5 grams of calcium per day.
My hen is a bantam (and doesn't lay every day), so I'm guessing her calcium needs are 2-2.5 grams per day or less. If someone can say what her actual needs are that would help a lot. She weighs 2 lbs.
These are the concentrations listed on the website, as well as the use directions:
Calcium Borogluconate 33g/L
Vitamin D3 25000 i.u./L
Magnesium (MG++) 2g/L
Add four teaspoons of CALCIUM PLUS per quart (32 fluid oz., 4 cups or 0.95 Liter) of clean drinking water, or one teaspoon (5 ml) per 8 oz. cup (.23 Liter) of fruits, vegetables, soaked seed, or softfood, or administer directly to the bird at the rate of one drop per two ounces of (57 grams) body weight. Feed once or twice per week to non-breeding birds and five times per week to breeding birds. One level teaspoon equals 5 ml.
Now, I'm guessing that this supplement was designed for "fancy" birds like parrots and cockatoos and whatnot, because of the way the directions talk about breeding vs. non-breeding birds. Chickens lay eggs all the time regardless of breeding status, so I'm treating her as a breeding bird for dosage purposes.
I'm estimating my hen drinks about 500 mL per week, so she'd be getting 10 mL of the supplement per week.
Now, this is the part where I feel like I must be being an idiot. The website says the supplement is 33g/L of Calcium Borogluconate. I bought a 4 oz bottle. 4 fl oz = 0.118 L. So, the amount of calcium in the entire bottle would be 33 g/L x 0.118 L = 3.894 g. And if we go by my extremely rough numbers from before stating her daily need (2-2.5 g/day) the entire bottle wouldn't even be enough for two days.
Am I supposed to be assuming that the 33 g/L is the concentration AFTER it's diluted in her water? So, if she drinks 500 mL of water a week she'd be getting 16.5 g of calcium per week (or 2.357 g/day) if she drinks it every day (instead of just the five days that the bottle recommends for breeding birds)?
Long story short, I'm just trying to figure out:
A. How much calcium does my 2 lb bantam hen need per day?
B. How much of this supplement am I supposed to be putting in her water to make sure she gets what she needs?
Thanks so much for any insight. I'm so grateful to be a part of this community.
Update: I managed to reach someone at the company that makes the supplements, and he said that the 33 g/L is the concentration of the calcium as it sits in the bottle (prior to being added to the water), so it seems that there really is only 3.894 g of calcium in the entire bottle. I mentioned that that doesn't seem like nearly enough for a chicken, and he said that he dumps a 2 oz bottle of the stuff into his chickens' water and he doesn't have any issues with soft shells. (He feeds scratch and vegetables and doesn't offer oyster shells, so this is their only form of calcium unless they're eating a ton of bugs on the side or something).
I don't see how this can possibly be enough for his chickens or for my hen. He said they've been selling the product for 20 years and I'm the first person to ever ask about this and that he's never gotten any complaints from anyone.
I'm feeling really overwhelmed. The math doesn't math in my mind and I don't want my hen to suffer because of my decision paralysis. (I'm still dusting her daily apple pieces with calcium gluconate [and worrying about overdoing it]). After the soft egg near death experience I just went extremely liberal with it and didn't even measure. She laid an almost normal egg after that. Shell was a bit translucent, but it was at least all the way hard. I was worried about damaging her organs though, so I cut back, and her next egg was soft, so I'm back to dusting liberally again. I just don't know.
My extremely rough estimate is that she's probably getting half a teaspoon of this powder a day, which would be 126 mg of actual calcium. This also isn't anywhere near to 2-2.5 g/day, so maybe I'm just vastly overestimating how much calcium she needs?
This thread is a follow up to my thread from the other day asking about liquid calcium I could give my hen that won't eat oyster shells. My vet looked at the two options that were suggested to me and said to go with the one that is formulated for birds rather than the one that's for cows, so I ordered it.
https://morningbirdproducts.com/pro...liquid-calcium-formula?variant=18032110108731
It came in the mail now, but I'm struggling to understand the dosage. (The bottle doesn't even list the concentrations. Had to get them off of the product webpage).
So, let me just give you my stream of consciousness here and you can tell me where my gap in understanding is:
Google says: Today's commercial laying hens lay an egg almost every day and therefore require about 4-5 grams of calcium per day.
My hen is a bantam (and doesn't lay every day), so I'm guessing her calcium needs are 2-2.5 grams per day or less. If someone can say what her actual needs are that would help a lot. She weighs 2 lbs.
These are the concentrations listed on the website, as well as the use directions:
Calcium Borogluconate 33g/L
Vitamin D3 25000 i.u./L
Magnesium (MG++) 2g/L
Add four teaspoons of CALCIUM PLUS per quart (32 fluid oz., 4 cups or 0.95 Liter) of clean drinking water, or one teaspoon (5 ml) per 8 oz. cup (.23 Liter) of fruits, vegetables, soaked seed, or softfood, or administer directly to the bird at the rate of one drop per two ounces of (57 grams) body weight. Feed once or twice per week to non-breeding birds and five times per week to breeding birds. One level teaspoon equals 5 ml.
Now, I'm guessing that this supplement was designed for "fancy" birds like parrots and cockatoos and whatnot, because of the way the directions talk about breeding vs. non-breeding birds. Chickens lay eggs all the time regardless of breeding status, so I'm treating her as a breeding bird for dosage purposes.
I'm estimating my hen drinks about 500 mL per week, so she'd be getting 10 mL of the supplement per week.
Now, this is the part where I feel like I must be being an idiot. The website says the supplement is 33g/L of Calcium Borogluconate. I bought a 4 oz bottle. 4 fl oz = 0.118 L. So, the amount of calcium in the entire bottle would be 33 g/L x 0.118 L = 3.894 g. And if we go by my extremely rough numbers from before stating her daily need (2-2.5 g/day) the entire bottle wouldn't even be enough for two days.
Am I supposed to be assuming that the 33 g/L is the concentration AFTER it's diluted in her water? So, if she drinks 500 mL of water a week she'd be getting 16.5 g of calcium per week (or 2.357 g/day) if she drinks it every day (instead of just the five days that the bottle recommends for breeding birds)?
Long story short, I'm just trying to figure out:
A. How much calcium does my 2 lb bantam hen need per day?
B. How much of this supplement am I supposed to be putting in her water to make sure she gets what she needs?
Thanks so much for any insight. I'm so grateful to be a part of this community.
Update: I managed to reach someone at the company that makes the supplements, and he said that the 33 g/L is the concentration of the calcium as it sits in the bottle (prior to being added to the water), so it seems that there really is only 3.894 g of calcium in the entire bottle. I mentioned that that doesn't seem like nearly enough for a chicken, and he said that he dumps a 2 oz bottle of the stuff into his chickens' water and he doesn't have any issues with soft shells. (He feeds scratch and vegetables and doesn't offer oyster shells, so this is their only form of calcium unless they're eating a ton of bugs on the side or something).
I don't see how this can possibly be enough for his chickens or for my hen. He said they've been selling the product for 20 years and I'm the first person to ever ask about this and that he's never gotten any complaints from anyone.
I'm feeling really overwhelmed. The math doesn't math in my mind and I don't want my hen to suffer because of my decision paralysis. (I'm still dusting her daily apple pieces with calcium gluconate [and worrying about overdoing it]). After the soft egg near death experience I just went extremely liberal with it and didn't even measure. She laid an almost normal egg after that. Shell was a bit translucent, but it was at least all the way hard. I was worried about damaging her organs though, so I cut back, and her next egg was soft, so I'm back to dusting liberally again. I just don't know.
My extremely rough estimate is that she's probably getting half a teaspoon of this powder a day, which would be 126 mg of actual calcium. This also isn't anywhere near to 2-2.5 g/day, so maybe I'm just vastly overestimating how much calcium she needs?
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