This comes down to "when do I change the litter?"
I'm not going to ask how often because I know that depends on the number of chicks (5) and the size of the brooder (20-25sqft or so), the type of litter (pine shavings), depth (currently 3"), etc. What I'm going for is sort of: how poopy should it look? Five minutes after I put in a new layer it looks at least kinda poopy, but a day later it doesn't look all that much poopier because they're working the old stuff down. So maybe what I'm trying to ask is "what percent poop" am I aiming for, int he sense that if I take a random scoop and look at it, how much poop should I see? 1%? 5%? 50%?
Sidenote: I enjoy catching bugs for them to eat, but I'm pretty sure they lose calories on it since whenever I throw one in, a chick will pick it up and then run around like crazy for the next minute or two trying to escape all the other shameless thieves she's suddenly surrounded by.
I'm not going to ask how often because I know that depends on the number of chicks (5) and the size of the brooder (20-25sqft or so), the type of litter (pine shavings), depth (currently 3"), etc. What I'm going for is sort of: how poopy should it look? Five minutes after I put in a new layer it looks at least kinda poopy, but a day later it doesn't look all that much poopier because they're working the old stuff down. So maybe what I'm trying to ask is "what percent poop" am I aiming for, int he sense that if I take a random scoop and look at it, how much poop should I see? 1%? 5%? 50%?
Sidenote: I enjoy catching bugs for them to eat, but I'm pretty sure they lose calories on it since whenever I throw one in, a chick will pick it up and then run around like crazy for the next minute or two trying to escape all the other shameless thieves she's suddenly surrounded by.
