calcium supplement?

what can i use for calcium supplement besides bonemeal? i heard of crushed egg shells but what is the mixing ratio?

I use human calcium carbonate or citrate..

what is the name and where do you get it?

Hunter, just wondering why you need a calcium supplement for your cat. Are you adding it to a homemade diet?

Originally Posted by HUNTER

what can i use for calcium supplement besides bonemeal? i heard of crushed egg shells but what is the mixing ratio?

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To be honest, I found varying instructions on how many egg shells or how many tsp. of crushed egg shell powder was to be added to what quantity of meat (raw or homecooked)..so I don't feel comfortable trying to answer this I did see a good suggestion that free range (or certainly, you'd want eggs from chickens not fed antibiotics or hormones) eggs were best...some instructions included removing the inner membrane when washing the egg shells, some did not.

In many recipes they list using calcium carbonate or citrate, the amount varied depending I think on the amount of protein in the recipe, I saw Strombeck's recipes listing 400 mg. calcium carbonate to the proportions of protein in several recipes (600 in another), and 300 mg. in recipes by Dr. Jean Hofve.

I'd find a good book - Pitcairns, Strombeck, Celeste Yarnell - in the library and do a quick browse

i think i have one of those books, need to check it out, btw, i'm mixing boiled chicken with wet foods twice a day until my cats stool go back to normal and i want to have a calcium/phosporous balanced.

I use Pilgrims , that is a local health food s in store brand ... it also has trace minerals... is a powder and cats likes the taste... I am just learning in the homemade diet so it aint gospel

Hey, I found something re eggshell powder! I can't list the source, because this is from pages my vet copied for me (a past vet from several years ago) and I don't see a name of book or article.

It says to: wash the eggshells right after cracking and emptying, let them dry, accumlate 12 or so. Each whole eggshell makes about a teaspoon of powder, which equals about 1,800 milligrams of calcium.

Bake the shells at 300 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Then grind to a fine powder with a blender or mortar and pestle....be sure to grind well enough that there are no sharp or gritty pieces.

I'd still run this by a published book or your vet, but thought this might be useful.