Calcium Plus from Morning Bird?

[tstmard]

I was wondering if anybody has ever used the Morning Bird product Calcium Plus? I went out to my Bird Ladies today and they suggested it to me when I explained my situation. They give it to their breeding birds. So thought I'd ask you opinion on it. Here's the link for it's info.
http://www.morningbirdproducts.com/product_calciumplus.html
They suggested just giving it once a week.

[sweetrsue]

The combination of calcium and D3 is a good idea. The D3 helps them absorb the calcium. It looks like a good product but you must be careful anytime you add something to drinking water as it tends to invite bacteria. I would add it to beans or moist pellets or some other soft moist food. Same thing applies tho. You can't let it sit in the cage for more than a few hours. Less on hot days.

[tstmard]

I'll have to see if they'll eat the soak mix I make up. Right now they are happily munching away on some millet. Thought it'd be good for their systems after the stress of yesterday.

[sweetrsue]

Yes! Millet is comfort food.

[tielfan]

I was wondering if anybody has ever used the Morning Bird product Calcium Plus?

I do. The formula seems to be identical to Calcivet and Calciboost and all the other avian liquid calcium supplements that I've seen. I honestly don't know whether it's doing any good but it makes me feel better.

I put it on their sprouts, but if I use the recommended amount they don't eat the sprouts. It's bitter so I assume the taste is the problem. So instead I use half the recommended amount twice a week. I also add a little red palm oil to help disguise the taste.

P.S. The recommended schedule is once or twice a week for nonbreeding birds and five times a week for breeding birds.

[Solace.]

Can you get it in Pet Shops?

Doesn't sound too bad, I wouldn't mind getting for Tilly & Jasper. Sounds like it helps a fair bit during breeding, and you wouldn't have to worry about any problems that could arise.

[tstmard]

Thanks for your input tielfan. I guess the real determining factor is if they'll eat something other then seed.

[sweetrsue]

The trick to getting them to try it is to let them see you eating it and acting as if it were yummo! You also have to keep trying. they may not touch veggies or beans for months then all of the sudden they eat them.

[tstmard]

Yes hopefully they won't be as difficult as my old men budgies that I rescued.:rolleyes:

[tielfan]

Can you get it in Pet Shops?

There are a lot of different brands but they all seem to have the same formula, namely:

Calcium Borogluconate 33g/L
Vitamin D3 25000 i.u./L
Magnesium (MG++) 2g/L

Petsmart and Petco don't carry liquid calcium (at least not in the stores near me) but I bought mine at a local independent petshop that's a little more focused on birds than the big chains. Calciboost and Calcivet are a couple of other brand names, and you'll find others if you google for liquid calcium along with the word "birds".

I guess the real determining factor is if they'll eat something other then seed.

See if you can get them to eat scrambled egg. It contains both calcium and vitamin D3 (which is important for calcium absorption and isn't found in very many natural food sources), plus lots of other nutrients. The tiels might be put off by the moistness at first, but my birds go crazy for egg. I beat up an egg in a bowl and microwave it for 40 seconds, so there's no oil unless I want to add a little RPO. You can add other things too.

After the egg is cooked I cut it up and freeze the pieces, then take some out as needed. Even with seven tiels, one egg goes a long long way! It's generally recommended to go easy on the egg feeding and I normally give it twice a week. It's OK for breeding birds to eat egg every day, although according to some sources you should only feed egg yolk and not the white when you're offering it this often, because allegedly the adults can get albumin poisoning.

If your guys will eat the egg you might want to offer it a little more often at first, like maybe every other day for a couple of weeks to help with their nutrient intake. And maybe go with just yolks on this schedule to be on the safe side.

Some people like to crush the eggshell and cook it into the scrambled eggs for extra calcium. I've never done this myself because (1) I'm worried about sharp edges and (2) I've heard that the form of calcium in eggshells isn't very absorbable, and eggshells can contain lead and other heavy metals.