Calciboost Powder can be used in your birds drinking water or sprinkle on softfoods/eggfoods, fruits and vegetables. Calciboost Powder is great for adding to eggfood/softfoods and/or hand rearing foods.

During the breeding season increase Calciboost to five times a week (after egg laying has started) to replenish the hens' bone calcium reserves and provide the calcium required for chick bone formation, nerve and muscle function. We also recommend using Potent Brew gives the chicks a brilliant start by ensuring that their digestive system operates very quickly.

Directions for Use:
Feed twice a week to non breeding birds and five times a week to breeders. 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. Do not feed Calciboost Powder daily.

Active Constituents per kg:
Magnesium 12g, Calcium 100g, VitaminD3 75,000 ius.

CALCIUM ARTICLES:

Egg-Binding: There are lots of old wives tales told about egg-binding in cage and aviary birds. Whilst a few cases have medical causes the majority of cases have calcium at their root. This article is intended to explain how calcium is involved in egg-binding and how proper calcium supplementation can prevent its occurrence, increase clutch sizes and improve hen health.

When a hen manufactures an egg she draws calcium from her bones to make the eggshell. In a healthy, well-fed bird the bones contain about three eggs worth of calcium. A number of problems can stop the bones from providing enough calcium to make the shell and when this happens the hen has three options. In reality most birds will select a combination of these three:

1. Stop laying – calcium deficient hens lay smaller clutches. The reverse of this is that diets rich in bio-available calcium enable hens to lay larger clutches.

2. Produce thin or soft shelled eggs – these eggs cannot control their moisture content so most dehydrate and a few (in humid conditions) may water log. Whichever happens - they die!

3. Steal calcium from other organs – when this happens the calcium is removed from nerves and muscles. These organs need calcium to work properly. So when the calcium is removed they stop working properly. The hen is partially paralysed and cannot expel the egg. This is egg-binding.

The traditional veterinary treatment for this problem is an injection of calcium. This works very well though it is expensive, invasive and risky. Oral treatment, with a highly bio-available liquid calcium/magnesium/vitaminD3 supplement like CalciBoost, works equally effectively but is far cheaper and less stressful for the bird.

Old-fashioned remedies like applying oil to the vent and holding the bird over a hot kettle do not address the fundamental problem are risky and unreliable. As usual prevention is better than cure. This is achieved by addressing two factors:

1. Ensuring the bones are full of calcium – this simply involves a weekly dose of CalciBoost to all non-breeding birds. For Eclectus and African Greys we recommend twice weekly administration.

2. Exercising the bones' ability to quickly pump calcium into the blood – the above regime ensures this is achieved as well. By feeding both high and low calcium levels in the diet the bones are regularly forced to move calcium in both directions. This ensures that the hormonal functions involved in this process are working optimally.

Perversely providing good quality calcium every day can actually have the reverse result to that you desire. If all the birds' maintenance calcium requirements are satisfied from the gut then the bones slowly lose the ability to quickly pump calcium back into the blood (simply because they have not neede to do so for so long). Egg-binding can result from this over supplementation. So we never use CalciBoost seven days a week.

When the hen starts to lay she needs to replace the calcium removed from the bones so we increase the of CalciBoost administration to five days a week. This keeps the bones topped up. We continue this frequency until the chicks have reached full size.

It is easy to see why this technique increases clutch sizes as the hen always has plenty of calcium and she is storing it and releasing it very efficiently. Remember that CalcoBoost is designed to be used with other products such as one of the Essentials range, ProBoost SuperMax, Feast eggfood and a probiotic such as Potent Brew.

Feather Plucking and Calcium: The problem with stress and environmentally induced plucking is that the behavior often continues despite the removal of the source of stress. Diet can often be a key factor in treating this chronic problem. The first dietary issue is calcium. Because calcium is involved in nerve and brain function a shortage of calcium can lead to many nervous disorders including plucking. Often it is the key "missing" ingredient. CalciBoost is now always a part of our recommendation for feather pluckers as it has a calming effect.