Ducks won't touch their gravel type oyster shell calcium

[austroberta]

There's an oyster shell calcium supply problem in Northern California due to permitting issues for the main oyster shell calcium supplier. The only stuff that is available is the gravel type 'oyster shell' and my ducks will not touch it. We've exhausted our crushed egg shell supply. Our ducks are really finicky when we introduce new feed to them, so I'm wondering if that's the case with them. If that's not the case, are there any tricks to get them to eat the new stuff? Mixing it with their Mazuri food doesn't work...they're on to us doing that. Will crushing it work?

 

[DukesDucks]

Could you ask some friends and neighbours for their egg shells? I mix mine with the oyster shell. I don't think you want to crush that oyster gravel too finely.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

My ducks use to like small pet select, but they have been sold out so I switched Mile Four's oyster shells which they seem to really like. Small pets on the left and Mile Four is on the right.
https://milefour.com/products/oyster-shell?variant=19753986555992

 

[austroberta]

Could you ask some friends and neighbours for their egg shells? I mix mine with the oyster shell. I don't think you want to crush that oyster gravel too finely.

I do have a neighbor who buys our eggs and she always returns the eggshells to us. The ducks just seem to go through them really quickly and then we run out.

 

[austroberta]

My ducks use to like small pet select, but they have been sold out so I switched Mile Four's oyster shells which they seem to really like. Small pets on the left and Mile Four is on the right.
https://milefour.com/products/oyster-shell?variant=19753986555992

View attachment 2723121

The stuff on the right is the stuff that they won't touch. The Mile Four type looks more powdery than the stuff we bought recently, so they might be willing to try it. The brand we got is chunky, like big chunks of decomposed granite, and hard. One of my ducks took a bit of it and spit it out right away.

 

[austroberta]

Does anyone know if ground up sea shells would have similar calcium levels as oyster shell (and can be metabolized by the ducks)? I always collect shells from trips to the ocean and if they're usable, I might be able to go that route.

 

[B-Goock]

I use a cheap blender to chop oyster shell finer for quail.

 

[Mutchi]

Chickens are super sensitive to new things, they may be strongly sensitive to new foods. I would let then check it out and see it doesn't hurt them. If they don't eat any in the next couple days then we can do more things about it.

 

[amateur_peasant]

Still no crushed oyster shell available in California. I made the mistake of buying Manna Pro 'oyster shell and coral calcium' from Amazon. It's 99% coarse destroyed coral reef gravel with a few pieces of what appears to be clam shell. The ducks don't touch it. Fortunately, while previously they would generally not touch old egg shells, they're now taking them readily. It seems they prefer that I rinse egg shells thoroughly.

 

[amateur_peasant]

Does anyone know if ground up sea shells would have similar calcium levels as oyster shell (and can be metabolized by the ducks)? I always collect shells from trips to the ocean and if they're usable, I might be able to go that route.

I'm pretty sure mussel shells would work fine. Clam shells are probably too thick.