Should I be worried?

[PanosGR]

Yeah, those are usually hit or miss with their sales. Once I had asked for the RC Cavalier recipe kibble and I was given RC


Japanese chin.



I'm fairly confident you were given coarse aquarium sand

It is somewhat bigger than normal sand you see in the beach not too much though. Point is, should I stop giving it to her? Is it bad for her health?

 

[K0k0shka]

Point is, should I stop giving it to her? Is it bad for her health?

I would stop giving it to her. At this size, it's too small to help with digestion, and there's no point in her filling up on inedible materials that give her no benefit. She can get clogged or malnourished because her body is filling with sand instead of nutrients.

 

[PanosGR]

I would stop giving it to her. At this size, it's too small to help with digestion, and there's no point in her filling up on inedible materials that give her no benefit. She can get clogged or malnourished because her body is filling with sand instead of nutrients.

The shell it contains which can be seen in the photos, won't give her the calcium she needs?

Also, will this "sand" leave the gizzard easily?
My hen fills her crop with it almost every day so if she would get clogged, wouldn't this have happened by now? She still eats it like she can digest it!

 

[K0k0shka]

The shell it contains which can be seen in the photos, won't give her the calcium she needs?

Also, will this "sand" leave the gizzard easily?
My hen fills her crop with it almost every day so if she would get clogged, wouldn't this have happened by now? She still eats it like she can digest it!

I don't know what type of shell that is (if it is in fact shell, and not a thinner piece of rock), so I can't say if and how well it will get digested to give her calcium. It looks harder than the crumbly standard oyster shell, which makes me think that it's not as easily digested and the calcium not as readily available for her. And if she isn't getting proper grit, she won't have what to digest it with, to grind it up effectively, so that makes it even less likely that this unknown type of shell is useful to her at all. So, if she's getting anything from it, it's probably not enough. Her behavior of eating large quantities of this, plus her behavior of seeming to be looking for something, indicate that she has a deficiency she's trying to meet, but if she's still doing it, then it sounds like she isn't meeting that need - this material isn't doing it for her and she's still looking and trying.

Clogging isn't an exact science... Some chickens are more prone to it than others. They can live in the same space and eat the same stuff, yet some will get impacted crop (clogging) while others won't. I just had to have one of my favorite chickens euthanized because of impacted crop of unknown origin, so maybe I'm extra cautious because of that, but I wouldn't personally risk it. Especially if the risky thing she's eating isn't clearly beneficial for her. Even if it doesn't clog her, it displaces actual feed. Her body is filling up and wasting time moving this inedible substance through, when in that time it could've been digesting actual food. So over time she may get malnourished, just from filling up and passing through sand instead of actual food.

People have been raising chickens for thousands of years without needing to buy supplies from a store. Both rocks and calcium can be found without going to a store. If you can't find commercially sold grit or calcium at a store, go outside and look for rocks of roughly the size in my picture. Or go to a landscaping or gardening company and see if they sell coarse sand or gravel with particles of about this size. I grew up on a farm in your general area (bordering Greece) and nobody had heard of grit or calcium sold at a store back then. There weren't any such stores, even! We gave the chickens construction sand/gravel that was about the right size, or substrate collected from the nearby river. And we saved the shells from our eggs and fed them back to our chickens. And they did fine. That's what I still do for calcium, by the way - I've never used oyster shell. I bought a bag for "just in case", but never used it so I gave it away. I save the shells from the eggs I eat, dry them, and feed them back to my chickens. They don't lay in the winter so I buy eggs, and I save the shells from those eggs as well, to build up my stash. Chickens far prefer eggshell over oyster shell anyway.

 

[PanosGR]

I don't know what type of shell that is (if it is in fact shell, and not a thinner piece of rock), so I can't say if and how well it will get digested to give her calcium. It looks harder than the crumbly standard oyster shell, which makes me think that it's not as easily digested and the calcium not as readily available for her. And if she isn't getting proper grit, she won't have what to digest it with, to grind it up effectively, so that makes it even less likely that this unknown type of shell is useful to her at all. So, if she's getting anything from it, it's probably not enough. Her behavior of eating large quantities of this, plus her behavior of seeming to be looking for something, indicate that she has a deficiency she's trying to meet, but if she's still doing it, then it sounds like she isn't meeting that need - this material isn't doing it for her and she's still looking and trying.

Clogging isn't an exact science... Some chickens are more prone to it than others. They can live in the same space and eat the same stuff, yet some will get impacted crop (clogging) while others won't. I just had to have one of my favorite chickens euthanized because of impacted crop of unknown origin, so maybe I'm extra cautious because of that, but I wouldn't personally risk it. Especially if the risky thing she's eating isn't clearly beneficial for her. Even if it doesn't clog her, it displaces actual feed. Her body is filling up and wasting time moving this inedible substance through, when in that time it could've been digesting actual food. So over time she may get malnourished, just from filling up and passing through sand instead of actual food.

People have been raising chickens for thousands of years without needing to buy supplies from a store. Both rocks and calcium can be found without going to a store. If you can't find commercially sold grit or calcium at a store, go outside and look for rocks of roughly the size in my picture. Or go to a landscaping or gardening company and see if they sell coarse sand or gravel with particles of about this size. I grew up on a farm in your general area (bordering Greece) and nobody had heard of grit or calcium sold at a store back then. There weren't any such stores, even! We gave the chickens construction sand/gravel that was about the right size, or substrate collected from the nearby river. And we saved the shells from our eggs and fed them back to our chickens. And they did fine. That's what I still do for calcium, by the way - I've never used oyster shell. I bought a bag for "just in case", but never used it so I gave it away. I save the shells from the eggs I eat, dry them, and feed them back to my chickens. They don't lay in the winter so I buy eggs, and I save the shells from those eggs as well, to build up my stash. Chickens far prefer eggshell over oyster shell anyway.

Searching myself for rocks would be a good idea. I have a holiday home not very far from my regular home, just 1 and a half hour to reach it with the car. Anyway there I have a garden with plants and trees where I can search for rocks. Let me add that I have seen many snails in the garden so, could land snail shells do the job? I have heard that snail shell is rich in calcium carbonate and maybe this would help.

Giving my hen egg shell wouldn't be the best idea in my opinion because she might start breaking her eggs to eat the shell which I am afraid is going to happen.

So what do you think of land snail shell?
Here is an image of the species I have seen in my garden.

 

[K0k0shka]

Let me add that I have seen many snails in the garden so, could land snail shells do the job? I have heard that snail shell is rich in calcium carbonate and maybe this would help.

Yes, snails would do the job, and as a bonus the chickens love eating the actual snail, too, not just the shell, so it would be a great snack in addition to the calcium. However, are you going to be able to keep a steady permanent supply, for as long as your chickens are laying? You'll eventually run out of snails, or may decide it's too much work to keep up if that's your main source of calcium... Also, it will be hard to figure out if your chickens have had enough calcium. With something like eggshell, you know they eat it when they need calcium, and when they've had enough, they'll stop. With snails, they may keep wanting more and more because the meat is tasty, even after they've had enough calcium for the day/week. So you won't know when they legitimately just need more calcium. Sometimes you can find empty snail shells lying around, but that would be quite a bit of work to go hunting for empty shells regularly, and trying to find enough to meet your chickens' needs... It would be fine as an occasional supplement, but you'll need something more reliable as their main source of calcium.

Giving my hen egg shell wouldn't be the best idea in my opinion because she might start breaking her eggs to eat the shell which I am afraid is going to happen.

Don't worry, it won't make her break her eggs. Oyster shell and the other store-bought supplements are a very new, very modern thing. For the rest of chickens' domestic history, farmers have been feeding them their eggshells for calcium. That's what they'd do naturally, too - a broody will eat the empty shells after her chicks hatch, so her body can get back lost resources, but then she doesn't go on to break and eat eggs after that. People worry about this a lot, but don't consider the fact that their broody hens do eat the shells and that doesn't become a problem. Egg breaking and eating is rare, and can happen whether or not you feed your hens eggshells. People who only use oyster shell also report the occasional egg-eater, who didn't get the idea from being fed eggshells. And the vast majority of people who exclusively feed eggshells don't report any egg eating among their chickens. If an egg gets accidentally broken in the nest, and the chickens see the tasty inside, that would make it a lot more likely for them to develop the bad habit, than if they only saw the shell. They seem to have a built-in safeguard when it comes to the shell - nature ensuring that the mother hen who eats the shells of her hatchlings, doesn't go on to eat whole eggs as well. So don't turn down this excellent source of calcium, which is easy to get (free if you have chickens!), and which the hens will love to eat. Crush the shells to about the size of a fingernail, and it will be totally fine.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Yes here it is. It's the same sample but zoomed.

Shells, & bits of red coral.

 

[PanosGR]

Yes, snails would do the job, and as a bonus the chickens love eating the actual snail, too, not just the shell, so it would be a great snack in addition to the calcium. However, are you going to be able to keep a steady permanent supply, for as long as your chickens are laying? You'll eventually run out of snails, or may decide it's too much work to keep up if that's your main source of calcium... Also, it will be hard to figure out if your chickens have had enough calcium. With something like eggshell, you know they eat it when they need calcium, and when they've had enough, they'll stop. With snails, they may keep wanting more and more because the meat is tasty, even after they've had enough calcium for the day/week. So you won't know when they legitimately just need more calcium. Sometimes you can find empty snail shells lying around, but that would be quite a bit of work to go hunting for empty shells regularly, and trying to find enough to meet your chickens' needs... It would be fine as an occasional supplement, but you'll need something more reliable as their main source of calcium.


Don't worry, it won't make her break her eggs. Oyster shell and the other store-bought supplements are a very new, very modern thing. For the rest of chickens' domestic history, farmers have been feeding them their eggshells for calcium. That's what they'd do naturally, too - a broody will eat the empty shells after her chicks hatch, so her body can get back lost resources, but then she doesn't go on to break and eat eggs after that. People worry about this a lot, but don't consider the fact that their broody hens do eat the shells and that doesn't become a problem. Egg breaking and eating is rare, and can happen whether or not you feed your hens eggshells. People who only use oyster shell also report the occasional egg-eater, who didn't get the idea from being fed eggshells. And the vast majority of people who exclusively feed eggshells don't report any egg eating among their chickens. If an egg gets accidentally broken in the nest, and the chickens see the tasty inside, that would make it a lot more likely for them to develop the bad habit, than if they only saw the shell. They seem to have a built-in safeguard when it comes to the shell - nature ensuring that the mother hen who eats the shells of her hatchlings, doesn't go on to eat whole eggs as well. So don't turn down this excellent source of calcium, which is easy to get (free if you have chickens!), and which the hens will love to eat. Crush the shells to about the size of a fingernail, and it will be totally fine.

I just enjoyed 2 of her eggs fried with cheddar cheese on top! It was so delicious . I kept the egg shells and broke them in small pieces. Tomorrow morning she is going to enjoy calcium carbonate
Thank you!!

PS: Should I give feed her the membrane too? Does it have calcium?

 

[saysfaa]

The membrane is nearly all protein, if I remember right. And, yes, feed that too.

She will need more than the shells of her own eggs. Sometimes people save the shells from store bought eggs for me. Sometimes mine get calcium I buy for them... so far, oyster shell or the calcium added to feed for laying hens. Maybe one of these options will work for you.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I feed my chickens a non-layer feed and they still have plenty of calcium to make strong egg shells. This is because I feed them oyster shells. Grit isn’t necessary except in small amounts, oyster shell is the one that should be offered free choice.