# Eggshell Ground Meat Success



## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

Thank you to everyone that has been part of the "our raw adventure" thread.
It's very useful. I always love learning new things especially when I can use it to my advantage to help my pets be healthier!! Healthy=Happy

I saved 12 eggshells, dried them out and put them in a smoothly blender.(blender was all I could think of) I wasted most of the egg shells because they were everywhere in the blender and I didn't really care so I left them.
I got about a tsp out and had to put it in a Ziplock bag and crush it with a hammer. Lol! I know it sounds stupid but it worked!
I scooped 1/4 tsp out and split that in half. Then mixed it up really well with 50grams ground beef.
I only made a small amount with ground beef because I didn't want to waste their food if they wouldn't eat it. 
Last night Both my hogs had: 1/2 table spoon of sweet potato baby food, 1/2 tbsp turkey baby food, a tiny bit of chicken breast, 3 raw duck bites, and 3 grams of the ground beef mix. 
Bruce had some chicken and baby food left over but Nikki ate every last bite and some kibble. Yay!! I'm glad they both ate the ground beef mixed with eggshell. Especially Nikki since she has a few babies to feed she can use the extra calcium. I don't want to introduce anything new to Nikki while she's nursing but she's always been good with new foods so I gave it to her for the benefit of her and her babies. 

Any input on how often to feed them the eggshell beef mix would be great! Maybe 3- 4 times a week? 
They eat twice a day and always have kibble available.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Glad they liked it! 

3-4 times a week sounds good to me. Beef tends to have a bit more fat, so avoiding giving it every night is probably best. I would also make sure you give the other meat sources or insects or something when you give the ground beef mix if you use the same proportions. If I'm figuring it right, it was about twice the calcium needed for the amount of beef, so it'll balance out a little better if you have the other meat/insect sources fed at the same time, I think. Though I see your point with it possibly being helpful for Nikki! I just wouldn't worry about supplementing too much extra, if I remember correctly, Nancy's commented before that it's best to only supplement if they show signs of being shaky from not enough calcium, so you don't accidentally overdose.

I hope they continue to enjoy their food!


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## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

Ok, so it's twice the amount of calcium for beef. I'll remember that and read more. I have a couple different insects I fed and froze. I'll just add something next time. 
Thanks for the input, I wanted to make sure 3-4 times a week was ok. The ground beef they get is 97%, it's the lowest fat % I could find. They both eat a lot of kibble still. I just like to give them a wide variety of healthy foods.

As for Nikki I think I will just hold off on feeding her the mix for now. I can just give her a tiny bit of cottage cheese every so often. She eats better than any hog I've had so she's getting a good mix of healthy foods.

Thanks again
I hope your classes are going well! I know you said you were about to start them.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

If it helps any, this is how the correct dosaging of eggshell would work out - 

1/2 tsp to 1 pound of beef, 1/4 tsp to 1/2 pound of beef, 1/8 tsp to 1/4 pound of beef. 50 grams of beef is about 2 oz, only 1/8 pound. So that'd be only 1/16 tsp compared to the 1/8 tsp you used. (Sorry if that was unnecessary, just wanted to make sure it was clear. Figure it'll help if anyone else reads this & is wondering about it!)

Sounds like you've got a good plan set up for them! I bet Nikki's enjoying her fantastic meals.  I don't think the beef mix would hurt her necessarily, just wanted to mention that I've read Nancy saying that. But it should be fine if you still want to offer it to her a couple times a week, along with some bugs.

And heh, thanks! Yup, started on Wednesday & I've had all of them now. Not too bad so far, most of them should be pretty interesting.  Definitely going to be a lot of work though....sigh. :lol:


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## lilsurfergrlsp (Dec 13, 2013)

Oh yeah, raw feeding is a lot of work and calculations, but I definitely think it's worth it in the end


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