egg shells

the Turtle Shepherd

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ground egg shells are some of my sulcatas favorite things to chew on, mine live on all natural diet, and every once in a while they will devour and whole bunch, like a whole shell, and then will not eat them for a while, I just wanted to share, in case anyone is low on their purchased calcium supplements - use your chicken egg shell, all turtles actually go for them, especially when they smell like raw egg :)
p.s. you can chew the egg shells, they are not as hard as you would expect, and if you eat one egg shell yourself every day for seven days - your teeth will get visibly whiter, not kidding :)
happy turtling :)
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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ground egg shells are some of my sulcatas favorite things to chew on, mine live on all natural diet, and every once in a while they will devour and whole bunch, like a whole shell, and then will not eat them for a while, I just wanted to share, in case anyone is low on their purchased calcium supplements - use your chicken egg shell, all turtles actually go for them, especially when they smell like raw egg :)
p.s. you can chew the egg shells, they are not as hard as you would expect, and if you eat one egg shell yourself every day for seven days - your teeth will get visibly whiter, not kidding :)
happy turtling :)
Thank you cause I've been saying this for a long time . ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1495236828.188442.jpg
 

the Turtle Shepherd

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another thing is to fry the shells, just flatten then after you fry the eggs for yourself for example and fry the shells after, they become more brittle and actually tastier being cooked and all with the egg leftovers, you can crush them with a rock on a rocky or cement surface, the torts and turts will do the rest :)
 

seanang168

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My tortoise is Star tortoise. Can she eat eggshell too?
 

MangoKing

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I dont even know you would need to crush them up finely when feeding to a tortoise. The reason the eggs are crushed when feeding back to chickens is so they dont look like eggs. Many also bake the shells at 350 for about 10 min. This does make the shells easier to crush by hand and is supposed to make sure there is no bacterial contamination. I used to bake mine before crushing and feeding to the chickens but have not the past year or so. I only feed shells from my own flock so dont feel the need. If i for some reason was feeding shells from a different flock of chickens i think i would bake them. I also think i will bake the shells before feeding to the tortoise.
 

Ed mitch

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Can't wait to try this especially as I own 30 chickens and ducks!
 

WithLisa

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I use ground egg shells only as a fertilizer for the enclosure. According to what I've heard, they aren't a good calcium supplement for tortoises.
It's a much denser material than cuttlebones and the pH of the gastric juices of herbivorous tortoises is not as acidic as in mammals. Someone even showed photos of tort poo full of completely undigested egg shell pieces.

I guess it's like feeding them sand. A little bit now and then is harmless but letting them eat a whole bowl of it could lead to problems like impaction (and they might eat it, not because they are after the calcium but because it smells delicious!).
 

JoesMum

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Letting them eat a whole bowl of any other source of calcium isn't good for them either.

A tiny pinch three times a week is plenty
 

WithLisa

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Letting them eat a whole bowl of any other source of calcium isn't good for them either.

A tiny pinch three times a week is plenty
How do you know it's plenty if they can hardly digest it?
My torts always have a bowl of ground cuttlebones and don't need restriction. With fresh egg shells they would definitely overeat themselves.
 

ZEROPILOT

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How often and how much egg shells is good to feed?
My 7 adults might eat 4 or 5 whole eggs a month in total. Not per tortoise.
I'm imagining that for forest floor dwelling tortoises such as Redfoot, eating fallen eggs would be fairly common.
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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I use ground egg shells only as a fertilizer for the enclosure. According to what I've heard, they aren't a good calcium supplement for tortoises.
It's a much denser material than cuttlebones and the pH of the gastric juices of herbivorous tortoises is not as acidic as in mammals. Someone even showed photos of tort poo full of completely undigested egg shell pieces.

I guess it's like feeding them sand. A little bit now and then is harmless but letting them eat a whole bowl of it could lead to problems like impaction (and they might eat it, not because they are after the calcium but because it smells delicious!).
How do you see the powder in the poo ? Cause I put the egg shells through a coffee grinder .
 

WithLisa

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How do you see the powder in the poo ? Cause I put the egg shells through a coffee grinder .
I also use a (very old) coffee grinder, it's up to 1mm grain size. Those pieces would be visible, but a fine powder can't be seen with the naked eye.
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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I also use a (very old) coffee grinder, it's up to 1mm grain size. Those pieces would be visible, but a fine powder can't be seen with the naked eye.
I've been feeding my torts ground eggshells for 17 years and they are doing great ! And I have just a few torts . Leopard torts , pancakes , Egyptians, herrmans , marginals, Az desert , Russians, Greeks , and 2 types of box turtle!
 

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