How To Prep Eggshells For Your Birds

Birds need to have a calcium source in their diet.

Here is a simple "how-to prep" of eggshells for your birds

All you need is a

2 qt. freezer-type ziplock baggie,

a dozen eggs (qty optional)

and  a 1 cup mini-chopper.

Some folks make eggs just for the birds, and some folks just save the eggshells when they are preparing the eggs for their family. Either way - you still have the shells to use when you are done peeling them (if hardboiled eggs) or cracking them and cooking them for your family.

Hardboiling eggs already sterilizes the shells in the process.

Hard boiled eggs:

Once you have made hard-boiled eggs, save the shells after peeling the eggs.  We rinse them and let them air dry on a paper towel and after a few hours just add them to a heavy duty ziplock bag.

If you are cooking raw eggs:

If you are preparing to cook fried or scrambled eggs for breakfast, you can use those shells as well, but not without boiling those shells for at least five minutes in a pan of water, or microwave them in a shallow dish with a paper towel over tehm. Air dry the eggshells on a paper towel for a few hours and add them to your shell-stash in the ziplock baggie when dried. 

We usually don't grind the shells until we have a lot of the cleaned and dried shells save in the ziplock bag.

Once you have about 1 cup of cleaned and dried eggshells, using the backside of a skillet or a rolling pin, you can roll over the baggie to coarsely crush the shells (with the baggie still sealed) to make the lot of them broken down enough to fit in the mini-chopper.

Pulse the chopper with the cleaned dried shells in it until the bits of shells are about the size of small penciltop erasers.  Store the ground up eggshells in an airtight container at room temperature. 

We put approximately 1 or 2 tablespoons of the coarsely ground eggshells in a treat dish a few times each week - usually on M-W-F to keep with routine. Your birds will eat them. Leaving them in a separate treat dish allows the birds to choose when to eat them - and the shells do not spoil. Eggshells can also be mixed in with their regular egg food.  

Be careful to only serve egg food when you can be present remove the leftovers before the end of the day because it can spoil if left out too long.

Treat trays are perfect for serving eggshells

To read more about eggshells in cage bird diets refer to Christine Kumar's article on eggshells in your bird's diet

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