Mussel shell shards

[aliris]

I have a half dozen mussel shells and not a lot of calcium around. I figured I could smash these up and feed them to the girls but... the shards appear awfully sharp. There was an _eww_ thread on here about someone's crop actually having a gash in it. Could these sharp mussel shells actually put a hole in the bird's insides? Is it really safe to feed these untreated shards like this? tia.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Considering how sharp some grit is, I wouldn't think a shell shard would be sharp enough to cause issue... Maybe you could put the broken up shells in a sturdy jar and shake them around for a bit to help wear down any really sharp edges?

 

[aliris]

For followup reference, -- the grit I use at least is kinda rounded so ... that's what got me worrying. Also when I started breaking it up, the pieces I was starting to use were pretty large and some sharp like lancets. What I ended up doing was pounding it far finer. I offered from my hand to see what they would do. And they were interested, but mostly tried and discarded it. I put some on the ground, and the rest in a treadle feeder. It's slowly mixed in with the food there. I wouldn't say it's been a rip roaring success, but 24hours or more later they're still alive at least. I noticed someone on the net pulverizing it, and also chicken egg shells and adding this just as supplement to feed. I've been only cracking up the egg shells and letting them take bites. But perhaps that's also not a good idea.... I may ask this as a stand-along question. tia.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I wouldn't mix it with their feed, but some on the ground is fine.

Optimally you'd want to serve calcium supplement (shellfish, egg shell) in a container on the side so birds can take only as much as they need. You can mix the shell + egg shell though, that may help encourage the birds to try both.