Using eggshells...

[peaches08]

I'm going to start using eggshells for meals slightly different than Dr. P's recipe. Two of the cats went crazy over the raw pork last night, but I suspect the one that didn't just wanted to be lazy about chewing chunks. Anyway, my Tasin grinder won't make a powder so I'm in the market for a coffee/herb grinder. I've read about blades vs burrs...talk to me about your grinder preference and why!

 

[ldg]

I don't know about burrs. :dk: I bought a Mr. Coffee grinder with blades from Walmart. I haven't used it to grind eggshells, but it completely powders the capsules and tablets I use to make the vitamin mix - and I put the capsules in there whole, I don't empty them out. I'm pretty sure any coffee grinder will turn those eggshells into dust. :nod:

 

[denice]

I have a burr grinder but I only use it for coffee so I don't know how it would work for what you want to use it for.  The main difference is with the burr grinder you can adjust the grind and get an even grind.  Also has an extra bonus in the morning for coffee, it has a bin for the beans and measures for cups so just push a button.  For what you're using it for I don't think it matters and the burr grinders cost more.

 

[vball91]

I use my Magic Bullet which has two grinding attachments. The flat 2 bladed one works better than the 4 bladed one. I do think any regular coffee grinder will work.

 

[peaches08]

I have a baby food making Magic Bullet...may have to give it a shot!

The dosage is 1/2 teaspoon per lb of meat and liver, correct?

 

[vball91]

I have a baby food making Magic Bullet...may have to give it a shot!

The dosage is 1/2 teaspoon per lb of meat and liver, correct?

Correct! The key to fine grinding for me was making sure the eggshells are really dry.

ETA - well, it's actually 1/32 tsp per oz of meat and 3/64 tsp per ounce of organs.

 

[peaches08]

How much eggshell do I add per pound? I'll be doing a few lbs at a time so I can add Dr. P's stuff too.

 

[vball91]

It depends on how much organ is in your mix, but say 10% of your pound is organ, the rest meat. I would add the 1/2 tsp plus a rounded 1/64 tsp.

 

[ldg]

It depends on how much organ is in your mix, but say 10% of your pound is organ, the rest meat. I would add the 1/2 tsp plus a rounded 1/64 tsp.

I feed organs daily, actually. So the cats that get 1.5 ounces of food at a meal: 4.5 ounces a day. 5% liver, 5% kidney is 0.5 ounces (roughly) of organ, fed in one meal as 1 ounce of meat, and 0.5 ounce of organ (more or less). At that meal, I just make the 1/32 part of the one ounce rounded; same for the 1/64 part (it takes 1/32 to balance the 1 ounce of meat, and some ridiculous ... ok, I went and did the calc :lol3: ... it takes 3/128ths of a teaspoon to balance the 0.5 ounces of organ). I just round the amount on the little partial teaspoon. :nod:

 

[peaches08]

OK, thanks! I want to try alternating meats a bit, and it finally hit me that eggshell calcium will allow me to do it!

I baked the eggshells so they're pretty dry.

ETA the baby bullet did a great job on the eggshells!

 

[ldg]

ETA the baby bullet did a great job on the eggshells!

Great you don't need to buy anything additional!

 

[peaches08]

Great you don't need to buy anything additional!

Right?! I don't know how it will handle capsules, but we'll see when I make boneless raw. I can always just soak capsules in water like I have been.

I may experiment with the different die on the Tasin for boneless...

 

[peaches08]

Just checking about dosage again...in the thread about using eggshell and MCHA all the spreadsheets say 0.5 teaspoon per lb of meat...should something be mentioned or changed on the liver and secreting organ spreadsheets?

 

[ldg]

Why? They take more. Is there an error? :dk:

 

[peaches08]

I may have misunderstood, but if 10% of the lb is liver, then I add more than a level tsp of eggshells? Again I may have just misunderstood vball91.

 

[ldg]

Oh! Ok, I get it. No, there aren't instructions up there for a pound of meat with the 10% organ.

 

[peaches08]

That's where I got confused. From what I understood I was to give 0.5 tsp to whatever the lb was. I'm wanting to feed complete meals each feeding and will be making and portioning out the food like I do Dr. P's. That way I can just defrost what I want to feed during the week rather than arranging meals at that moment.

Basically I'm trying to give some variety with proteins.

 

[ldg]

I'm sorry for the confusion. ...But not everyone will want to make 1 pound batches, or will want to use a 90% / 10% split (some assign part of the 10% bone to both meat and organ).

My initial goal was to determine how to balance each meal; because of the measures available (1/64, 1/32, 1/16, etc), that required a Ca ratio slightly higher than many target as "ideal." In the meat table, you can see that 1/32 teaspoon of eggshell powder per ounce creates a Ca ratio that ranges from 1.2:1 to 1.4:1.

The bottom line is that sites giving recipe directions don't bother breaking out that 10% organ portion, because using using the 1/2 teaspoon for the combined meat and organ probably brings the Ca down to 1.0:1 or 1.1:1, which many consider ideal.

So the tables indicate the amount of eggshell to use per ounce. Going through the math to scale up...

1/32 teaspoon of eggshell powder per ounce of meat

3/64 teaspoon of eggshell powder per ounce of organ

If you're using 90% of 16 ounces of meat, and 10% of organs, that's 14.4 ounces of meat and 1.6 ounces of organ

Round to 14.5 ounces of meat and 1.5 ounces of organ.

14.5 ounces of meat: 14 ounces x 1/32 is 14/32 (7/16 teaspoon) plus the amount needed for the one-half ounce, or 1/32 divided by 2, which is 1/64.

If using the Norpro Mini-measuring spoons, that is 7 of the "pinch" and 1 of the "drop."

That's for the meat portion.

For the organ, 1.5 ounces is 3/64 for the one ounce, plus half of that for the half ounce: 3/128ths teaspoon. Using the Norpro mini measuring spoons, that's basically three and one-half "drop" measures.

That's for the organ portion.

BUT

The total for both technically adds up to 67/128 teaspoons of eggshell powder. Rounding slightly up, you can see it's just a slightly rounded teaspoon: 68/128; which is 34/64 or 17/32 - basically 9/16 teaspoon of eggshell powder. But that will maintain the Ca ratio in the range of 1.2 - 1.4:1, where the 1/2 teaspoon for both meat and 10% organ will just bring that slightly down.

So if someone uses 1/2 a teaspoon, it's not going to hurt their cats, as it still balances the batch.

 

[peaches08]

Thanks for that!

 

[peaches08]

I ground pork today and other than adding eggshell calcium I followed Dr. P's recipe. I stir often when I make batches of food, but I was disappointed to see eggshells in the bottom of the pot despite my constant remixing. Oh well, it's only to be served a couple of times a week and my chicken thighs batch tends to be bone heavy so I'm thinking that they will be OK.