Ice shelves are formed by the viscous flow of inland ice into the ocean, they are floating and loosing mass by iceberg calving. There are two different kinds of calving: large tabular icebergs detach as singular events in time, and small scale calving occuring on a rather continuous time scale. Three visco-elastic approaches are discussed, in order to derive a general law for calving rates applicable to small scale calving. The results are highly dependent on the termination criterium for each approach, hence the computed calving rate has to be adapted and validated with measurements to get the most qualified value.