Oysters And Their Shells

[chickenlady]

This is a bit of a weird question I'm afraid.

I keep poultry and one of the items we feed to them is crushed oystershell (to provide calcium) and this is soluble in the chickens' gizzard and so we give it to them in their feed every so often. Now, if this is soluble in a chickens' insides - why doesn't the shell of the oyster dissolve when it's in the sea, with a live oyster inside it.

How does the oyster keep its' shell ??

Any advice much appreciated.

I was asked this question by another poultry breeder and had to confess that I didn't know the answer so I thought maybe you marine experts would know.

Many thanks.

 

[Fighterfish]

I keep chooks and also feed shell to them. Probably the wrong place the post this and a mod will most probably move accordingly.
Anyhow, in a chcickends stomach there is acid just like ours. So firstly it is dissoloved by this and also it is ground down by other food types.
The reason you feed shell is because it helps them lay and strengthens the eggshell. So also the shell probably gets used by the hens in some other way to. You could just google it.

 

[Fighterfish]

I keep chooks and also feed shell to them. Probably the wrong place the post this and a mod will most probably move accordingly.
Anyhow, in a chcickends stomach there is acid just like ours. So firstly it is dissoloved by this and also it is ground down by other food types.
The reason you feed shell is because it helps them lay and strengthens the eggshell. So also the shell probably gets used by the hens in some other way to. You could just google it.

 

[14gtr14]

siamese fighter- she was not asking about why it is fed to chickens, but rather why the shell doesn't dissolve in sea water.

chickenlady- i don't know, but i could guess! Maybe the shell does breakdown, but at a slow enough rate that the oyster has time to create new layers of shell. it's a guess though!

 

[SkiFletch]

Easy . Calcium carbonate (oyester shell), is only soluble in solutions of an acidic pH (usually 7.5 and lower). Above that level it is not soluble in water. Since seawater has a pH of 8.2, calcium carbonate will not dissolve in it. And since the stomach of a vertebrate land-dwelling animal is acidic (usually well lower than 4), calcium carbonate dissolves in the stomach, allowing the chicken to metabolize the calcium.

 

[chickenlady]

Fantastic - that's answered my question.

Much obliged.