Can Budgies Eat Egg Shells ( Vet Opinion)

Last Updated on April 1, 2022 by Ali Shahid

The pellet food for your budgies can sometimes run out. As a result, new bird parents often worry about how they can feed their bird a healthy diet. The fact that eggs are one of the most common household foods must make you wonder can buggies eat eggshells. Eggshells of all types can be fed to budgies as long as they are sterilized and dried for at least 10 minutes in the oven before use. If you want to enhance your budgie’s calcium intake, make a powder out of eggshells and add it to the bird’s food. 

Providing budgies with eggshells once a week for mineral replenishment is a good idea. As an alternative to powdered eggshells, you can provide your budgie with cuttlebones. Putting out eggshells attracts birds, and many people don’t know about it.

By laying eggs, female birds lose calcium, so they eagerly consume it. To preserve the eggshells, I rinse and bake them at 250° for a short time, but do not let them brown.

Can budgies eat eggshells?

Many budgies swallow use crushed eggshells as grit as well as a source of calcium. You can save the eggshells while you prepare your breakfast. Birds can eat the white, the yolk, and the shell of eggs, which are inexpensive sources of protein.

Companion bird families interested in enhancing their flock’s calcium levels can benefit from crushed eggshell on the market that has been cleaned and packaged. Taking calcium supplements is especially important for budgies that are making eggs, as they are probably calcium-deficient.

During nesting season, nesting budgies are often calcium-deficient, so they enjoy eating eggshells more than other birds. Mother budgies are unable to obtain calcium in the wild, so they must consume eggshells to keep the calcium levels in their eggs healthy.

Because of this, wild female budgies will usually search for eggshells from other birds when they nest. To increase the strength of her eggs, most likely she has adapted this behavior.

The calcium in eggshells appears to be well absorbed and has the potential to strengthen osteoporotic bones. You can prepare eggshell powder at home easily.

If the shells are boiled and dried, they can be crushed and added to food or water.

How to Prepare Egg Shells For Budgies

There are only three things you need: two ziplock baggies, a dozen eggs (quantity optional), and a one-cup mini-chopper. When preparing eggs for their family, some people just save the eggshells as they prepare the eggs for the birds.

In either case, you still have the shells left over after you peel your hardboiled eggs (if you did it) or crack your eggs and cook them. In the process of hard-boiling eggs, the shells are already sterilized.

Hard-boiled eggs:

You need to keep the hard-boiled eggshells after you have steamed the eggs. Put them into a heavy-duty Ziplock bag after air-drying them on a paper towel for a few hours.

Cooking raw eggs:

You can use those shells if you’re eating fried eggs or scrambled eggs for breakfast, but not without boiling the shells in a pot of water for at least five minutes, or placing them in a microwave dish with a paper towel over them before cooking.

Put your eggshells in a ziplock baggie after drying them on a paper towel for a few hours and you’ll have them ready for use. Generally, I do not grind the shells until there are a lot of clean and dried eggshells in the bag.

When you have about 1 cup of cleaned and dried eggshells, you can roll the baggie over the back of a skillet or with a rolling pin to coarsely crush the eggs to make them smaller enough to fit in the mini-chopper.

Put the cleaned dried shells in the chopper and pulse the mixture until the bits are the size suitable for budgies. Keep the ground eggshells at room temperature in an airtight container.

Health Benefits of Egg Shells for Budgies

In the wild, bugs are unable to obtain calcium-rich foods. Therefore, they consumed crushed eggshells to prevent calcium deficiencies. A deficiency of calcium in budgie chicks affects their development negatively.

In a study, calcium levels in the bloodstream of small birds were found to be very low. To lay eggs with adequate calcium content, birds need calcium supplements when producing and laying eggs.

In budgies, just like other egg-laying mammals, the calcium content in the egg determines the health of the budgie’s skeletal development. In addition, calcium is crucial to maintaining the health of an adult budgie’s nervous and muscular systems.

Furthermore, budgies require calcium to prevent osteoporosis and to clot their blood when injured. Calcium is required in the diet of more than just nesting hens.

A guide on how to give eggshells to Budgies

Mix mashed hard-boiled eggs with eggshell powder. Over the top, sprinkle enough bread crumbs to cover everything. Once that is done, add some finely chopped vegetables and a tablespoon or two of the seed mix for budgies into it. You can now give this nutritious and delicious treat to your budgies.