wood shavings, newspaper, paper towels

[daisy40258]

Hello! I am the new mommy of 26 new chicks! They came in yesterday afternoon and so far seem to be doing ok. We have a large wooden box for them to live in for now and we have put wood shavings in the bottom as bedding for them. (Upon the advice of the local feed store) My husband is saying that we should have them on newspaper - but I have read that it can hurt them because it is too slippery - all of the chicks seem to be pecking a lot at the bedding (and the feeder too) and I am worried that they will eat the bedding - should I have them on another type of bedding? Am I being too over paranoid? They are so sweet I just want to make sure they are ok! Thank you!

 

[Jsto]

Hi! A lot of people recommend laying some papertowels over the shavings for the first few days so the chicks recognize their feed as feed, rather than munching too much on the shavings. I did it for 2 days and everyone pretty much leaves the shavings alone now, with the exception of a few nibbles here and there.

You may want to try that, though if they're eating from the feeder and not getting too many shavings, I'd leave it as is. Only because they know of shavings and may try to get at them by pecking at the paper towel.

Newspaper is supposedly a definite no-no because it's not very absorbant and creates a slippery surface.

 

[daisy40258]

Thank you so much for the advice! We are totally new to this so I am not sure of a lot of things! I am going to try paper towels over the shavings and see if it helps any - there just seems to be one spot they really like to peck at so I will see if that helps. I have a couple more questions....they should be on grit already right? Or do I wait until they are older for that? Also, the floor temp in their box is reading between 91 and 99.5 degrees, depending on the weather outside (this morning it was raining and had cooled off a little so it was closer to 91 degrees.) I have read that it needs to stay at 95 for the first week - they seems to be pretty evenly scattered around the box and some even sleep under the light - others closer to the edge of the box and others right next to the waterer....so they don't seem to be cuddled together or spread to the edges - do you think the temp is ok? Or should I keep lowering and raising the heat lamp for those couple of degrees? Thanks for putting up with my paranoia!!!

 

[Jsto]

I've found that lowering and raising the lamp can be a real chore if you try to go directly by the books as there are going to be weather dips and rises. Watching what your chicks do is the best way. If they're scattered around, that's great, if they're all piled up under the heat lamp they're too cold, and if they're keeping away from each other and the light at all costs, it's too hot. They'll let you know

 

[Judymae]

They won't need grit unless you give them treats. That is if you have them on chickstarter. It is suppose to be a complete feed. I started giving mine grit at about 2 weeks old when my kids (human) started bringing the other kids (chicks) earthworms. By the way they LOVE earthworms!

 

[nala143]

wee-wee pads make a great lining too!

 

[BIDaBIRD]

I use shavings for my chicks, not cedar, just the plain ones.

I did learn a lesson the hard way about baby pheasants and shavings, DO NOT use them, they will eat them and they will die. Hatched 12 of 14 eggs and lost them all, found a web site that said DO NOT use for pheasants..