chicks and shavings

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vsmenagerie

vsmenagerie

Songster
10 Years
Jul 23, 2011
339
9
161
MT
So, these guys seem OBSESSED with the shavings under the paper towels. They dig to the bottom and eat I think, the little tiny pieces.

Ive searched and it seems not abnormal but I wonder if they are TOO obsessed? I was hoping to take the towels away soon, but then I worry they will only eat shavings lol Thinking I'll pick up some grit and put some in for them. They totally know where food is and they seem to really like when I sprinkle some on the paper towels. They have done this since day one. I did a test and uncovered a good portion and they all ran to it and went nuts. Its sort of cute, watching them scratch and peck like a big chicken, but I just worry!

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/chinstuff/?action=view&current=video-2011-08-06-10-30-44.mp4

took a video but sometimes when I upload to photobucket, its not working
 
The video had audio but no picture. Chickens scratch and peck, it's what they do. If they know where their food is, I wouldn't worry too much. It's just a new surface and something to do. I got my chicks from TSC. They have them on shavings from day one and mine did fine. You could sprinkle some crumbles on the shavings to give them food to peck at instead of bits of shavings. Mine eat the sawdust from pine pellets with gusto and are all still alive at 20 weeks!
 
Ugh! Im not sure why it does that on some of them but not others! Darn videos!

So long as it wont hurt them, then good! Right after I posted, I went and checked and they were mostly all eating at the feeder. Silly babies lol
 
Ours are over four weeks old, spend most of their day outside and still like to eat the shavings when they are put to bed. I have tried covering the shavings, using sand (mine did not like sand) and changing to bigger pieces. Nothing worked, so I just finally gave up. So far, they seem to be healthy and happy (knock on wood) and don't have any crop problems. I did give them chick grit while they were in the brooder full time and eating most of their bedding
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so maybe that helped.
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I had one get sick from eating paper towels! As long as your shavings are not cedar which is toxic to them, my guess is shavings are safer than paper towels.
 
My little girls have the coop and the side yard fenced to run in and they would prefer pecking in the dirt over the cedar shavings. The love to be out of their cage and peck at anything they can get to. Mine love watermelon rinds to peck at. Any problems with soft foods for young chicks? They would not go near bread??? Go figure.

BAZ...
 
Our chicks (now 7 weeks old) pecked at their pine shavings all day long unless we took them outside when they pecked at the dirt all day long. It's just what they do I guess. We made sure they had plenty of food too and gave them grass torn up into tiny bits just because they loved it. They liked their food much better when we switched from Purina medicated chick starter to Mills Organic unmedicated chick starter. I'm not bashing Purina or making a judgement on using medicated feed. I just noticed that the chicks were much more enthusiastic about the Mills. I had posted a question about treats like bread and fruit because our birds won't eat anything like that. The answer I got was that they can be picky eaters when they're young but will like more of that stuff when they're older. Hope that helps!
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Lol...yes my two batches of chicks also quickly tore through the paper towels and ran around with the shavings like they had found gold! And yes I was sure that they too were eating the shavings some times but it never hurt any of them.
 
Thanks! They seem to not be AS interested now that I took the paper towels off. Maybe some of it was it was "forbidden" and we all know how little kids are when something is forbidden haha They are all doing great, they seem pretty happy, so Im glad
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They are so much fun to watch run and try to fly. And I love it when all 20 conk out for a nap lol
 

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