CalciBoost - Liquid Calcium For Birds
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CalciBoost
Liquid Calcium. Calcium, D3 and magnesium. Add to
water or soft foods. Do NOT use every day! Use
2X/week year round and 4-5X/week during breeding
season.
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CalciBoost is a liquid calcium
supplement for breeding and growing birds. CalciBoost
has been found to be very effective as an emergency
product for egg-bound hens. CalciBoost is easily
absorbed and quickly gets to the bones, nerves and
muscles where it is needed. If birds have not been on CalciBoost before or are showing signs of calcium/magnesium deficiency use five days a week for the first 1-2 months. Usage: In water (10-20 mls per litre) or on soft-food 0.1-0.2 mls
per 100g bodyweight. Use the lower doses in hard water areas.
Active ingredients: Magnesium, Vitamin D3, Calcium.
Shelf-life: Normally 18-24 months.
Critical calcium
Of all the nutritional deficiencies in modern bird
keeping calcium is by far the most common. Sadly it is often missed
by both bird keepers and vets. To understand calcium we firstly need
to have an idea of how important it is to the bird so lets look at
all the different roles of calcium in our birds:
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Calcium is the primary building block of the
skeleton. So calcium deficient birds have a greater tendency to
break bones or have bones bend (rickets).
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Calcium has other structural roles in claws,
beaks and feathers so calcium deficiency can affect these things
too though other deficiencies and illnesses are more common
causes of these problems.
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Egg shell is nearly all calcium carbonate. Lack
of calcium in the diet of breeding hens leads to thin shelled or
soft eggs. These tend to dehydrate (or waterlog) during embryo
development so few babies in thin shelled eggs will ever hatch.
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Diverting calcium to egg production leads hens
to run out of calcium in two other important organs - nerves and
muscles. This leads to egg binding which is caused by the
calcium deficient hens simply being unable to push the egg out
of the reproductive tract. Such hens tend to be found on the
floor with droopy, shaking wings looking very unwell. Many die.
This is probably the primary reason why hens tend to be more
vulnerable than cocks in most bird collections.
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Two other groups of birds have bigger than
normal needs for calcium these are:
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Rapidly growing young chicks in the nest who
will show problems like rickets or breaks (lack of bone
calcium), or splayed legs and stargazing (lack of
nerve/muscle calcium)
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Nearly fully grown babies who are pumping
large quantities of calcium into the bones to harden them up
and so they suffer nerve/muscle deficiencies that lead to
poor co-ordination, twirling, inability to fly etc. Some of
these birds will die too.
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In pet birds the most common physical symptoms
are poor co-ordination, fits and seizures. These are so
frequently blamed on things like epilepsy that few of the birds
get the correct treatment - good calcium supplementation.
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All the symptoms and problems listed above are
physical but the biggest issue with calcium deficiency is
actually behavioural. In small birds like finches, canaries and
parakeets excessive fear and aggression may be hard to pick but
in pet parrots these symptoms can be severe.
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All sorts of psychological problems have calcium
deficiency at their heart:
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Feather plucking and other forms of
self-mutilation
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Biting and other forms of aggression
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Fear and difficulty being trained
Why is calcium deficiency so often mis-diagnosed?
Both vets and bird keepers tend to assume that calcium carbonate is
a good calcium source - so they tend to assume that a 'balanced
diet' will provide enough calcium. If they do look for calcium
deficiency vets regularly miss the problem. There are two reasons
for this:
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Nearly all the blood tests that are used to produce the 'normal
ranges' are from birds that are sick. Most are calcium deficient!
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Most vets test 'Total Blood Calcium'. TBC measures all the calcium
in the blood but much of it is bound to protein molecules and is
unavailable for nerves, muscles or bones to use. As blood protein
levels tend to rise in sick or stressed birds the calcium level
rises too. This compounds the problem. Ask your vet to measure
'Ionic Blood Calcium' !
Bird keepers (and vets) have been brought up on the myth that cuttle
bone, oyster shell grit, bone and limestone are all good sources of
calcium. This is rubbish. Yes they are all made of calcium
carbonate, which is 40% calcium, or calcium phosphate, but the
ability of the bird to absorb the calcium from these inorganic
sources is severely limited. You simply don't see wild birds
munching away at a limestone cliff - and would owls regurgitate
bones if they were a really good calcium source? Both wild and
captive owls often suffer calcium deficiency. Look at your parrot
pellet ingredients list and these are the calcium sources you will
find listed! Over the years loads of calcium deficient birds have
been found eating diets with high levels of these traditional
calcium sources.
Wild birds get their calcium from fresh green and sappy plant foods.
In these foods the much smaller amounts of calcium are bound up with
molecules like sugars and amino acids which are actively absorbed by
the gut into the bloodstream. The calcium goes with them. So calcium
supplements that work mimic this process. This is the principle
behind CalciBoost.
The calcium/phosphorus myth
Occasionally you will read that it is important that the bird gets
the right balance of calcium and phosphorus in its diet and so this
or that food or supplement has added calcium and phosphorus. In an
ideal world the bird will ingest t units of calcium for every one of
phosphorus so you will find supplements and pellets that have these
two minerals added in this ratio. But all seeds and grains are
packed with phosphorus and have very little calcium. So to redress
the balance you need a supplement with NO PHOSPHORUS!
On the other hand magnesium should always be supplemented with
calcium so don't buy a calcium supplement without magnesium - like
cuttle bone!
How much and how often?
The bones of birds act as a vast storage reservoir for calcium. It
is one of their most important jobs. So calcium does not have to be
given every day. In fact we believe that it is best given less
frequently than that. Giving breaks from calcium supplementation
forces the natural system that regulates blood calcium levels to
work properly. So for most birds we recommend giving CalciBoost just
twice a week. If you live in a very soft water area or you use
bottled or filtered water you may need to increase this. But for
most people twice a week should be perfectly adequate.
When hens start to lay we increase the frequency to five times a
week. This prevents depletion of their reserves and generally
increases clutch sizes. It certainly helps keep them fit and
healthy. This frequency is maintained, for the benefit of chicks and
weaned youngsters, right through the breeding season.
The rule of thumb is that every pound of bird weight needs about 0.6
ccs of CalciBoost. Here are some number of birds that weigh about a
pound:
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40 Gouldian finches
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20 canaries
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10 parakeets
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5 cockatiels
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1 grey or Amazon
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1/2 a macaw
In an ideal world the best way is to add CalciBoost to food. For
small birds this means soft foods like Feast or sprouted seeds. You
may need to add a little water first to stop it forming a solid
gooey ball or use CalciBoost powder. MAKE SURE ALL THE FOOD IS EATEN
OTHERWISE THE BIRDS WILL BE UNDER SUPPLEMENTED!
For these birds (and pet parrots that don't eat fresh foods) you can
add CalciBoost to water but this tends to be more expensive as most
bird keepers throw a lot of water away. When adding CalciBoost to
water you must add it in proportion to the amount of water - not the
weight of birds. Large birds drink more and small bird drink less so
they work out the dose rate for you. 11 ccs per pint is about the
right amount.
For parrots eating fresh foods add it to finely chopped fruit and
vegetables (the smaller the pieces the less will be thrown around).
DO NOT ADD CALCIBOOST TO THE WATER when birds are eating fresh
foods. They get their water from the food so drink very little! |
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