Anyone else using sand and it stinks like rotting fish?

[ChrisisaGirl]

I'm using Sam in the toddler crib that I am keeping all nine babies in and oh my God it smells like a V worst rotting fishy smell. It is seriously so fing nasty.
We do sift there sand and clean out the poo poo but it still smells so god-awful

 

[hysop]

Never used sand before but I kinda don’t want to now

Is the sand otherwise wet? I know water makes anything smell ten times worse

 

[bobshere]

If it stinks that bad I would get rid of it

 

[ChrisisaGirl]

momma dumps the damned water dish out and soaks the sand but no, otherwise everywhere else is dry

Never used sand before but I kinda don’t want to now

Is the sand otherwise wet? I know water makes anything smell ten times worse

 

[Ruby Rogue]

Gross. Where did you get your sand?

 

[ChrisisaGirl]

Home depo, I wanted construction or river sand but I literally couldn't find any in small buyable quantities. every result was for a quarry, who wants a minimum order of two tons, or was a dead end. I spent literally like 5 hours one day over a course of the whole day searching.

 

[K0k0shka]

That is very odd. I used sand from Home Depot (play sand) in my brooder and loved it. Never had any smell. My bet is on the dampness from the spilled water, especially if there was spilled feed as well and it got wet and started rotting. You can't clean it out of the sand by scooping because the crumbles break down into dust and pass through the scoop holes, so the powderized spilled feed will stay in the sand even after scooping/cleaning. Some feed has fish byproducts in it, hence the fishy smell. Get a nipple waterer and teach the chicks to use it. No more spilled water and smell!

 

[Ruby Rogue]

I wonder if actual river sand from the river would produce similar results.

 

[K0k0shka]

I wonder if actual river sand from the river would produce similar results.

I would imagine sand from an actual river would smell on its own even without spilled feed, just because it probably has organic matter caught among the grains of sand and that's what will smell when dampened. Sand by itself doesn't smell, it's what's in it. And even what's in it won't necessarily smell if it's dry. So I'm still thinking it's the dampness from spilled water, combined with dampened spilled feed and poop.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Rotting feces would be my guess, does it have an ammonia smell? My coop brooder has sand in it, and I sift it every few days to let out the trapped ammonia. Once aired, it smells fine. Sand will get clumpy from spilled water and from urates.