at what age is it appropriate to swap the bedding type in the brooder?

[ksukristin]

Hello all you wonderful BYCers!

I have four amazingly awesome coturnix that will be 3 weeks old this coming weekend. I plan on building their enclosure over the next week or two to move them outside and as you can imagine they are feathering and getting bigger every day.

I was using paper towels in the beginning because the wonderful local gal who sold the chicks to me was using the paper towel. I am anxious to improve their living situation as they seem to be outgrowing the paper towel bedding.

I bought some pine shaving bedding but thought that I should ask before I put it into their brooder. They would only be on it for 1-2 weeks until I can move them outside, but in the meantime should I stick with the paper towels or would the pine shavings be ok? Will they try to eat it? will it hurt their feet? Is it OK for their respiratory systems? (I have read that cedar is no good for them but I wasn't sure about the pine...)

So I am also open to other bedding in the meantime but since I already bought the pine I'd prefer to use that-only if it will be OK for the birds.

As a sidenote when I was searching for info on this I found a very cool sounding post about weaning them to a bottle waterer from the trough-style mason jar waterer...how do you do that successfully? Water will be very important for my guys/gals because of the extreme desert climate.

thanks in advance for your input!

 

[monarc23]

I didnt read this all because im in teh middle of watching a movie, however you do not need to have them on paper towels at all.


I use aspen shavings from the very begining..and at 3 weeks they are put out in wire pens. Theres no science to it like people try to make you believe promise ya!

Also stay away from newspaper it's slippy and can cause splay leg.

Pine is bad on their respiritory systems, but you *CAN* use it. Just be aware that even though it's better than cedar it's still risky. I use aspen for that reason as it doesnt have the strong pheno-oils.

yes they will peck at it. Do they eat it? never seen them, but if they do it does not harm them apparently...been breeding coturnix for almost ayear now this way and have not had a death that I didn't expect (meaning ive had deaths but i knew they were coming and always involved having a rough hatch not bedding).

No it wont hurt their feet, if anything it will feel better on tehir feet than paper towels having to walk around in their wet doodie as aspen bedding (shavings) are able to be kicked over the poo so they dont have to walk in it which avoids poo drying on their feet causing balls of poo that are hard to remove.


As for a water bottle, fill one up, put it in the brooder, as long as they are not newly hatched weak babies they will start getting curious of it when tehy are thirsty. Take out their original water source and only offer the water bottle. Once you see some wlaking near it squeeze it lightly so some drips out... one will get curious then two then three...then eventually they all teach eachother. IN the mean time you can offer them their normal water-er back for a day or two but to be honest they learn in teh first day.

if you didnt notice i did read it all even though i skimmed through it

 

[ksukristin]

Thanks! there is nothing wrong with skimming

Perhaps I'll go back to the feed store since I haven't opened the pine shavings and see if they'll let me return it and look for some aspen...

I wanted to have them on wire already but I've been working too much to have any time to build them an enclosure (I want to build it myself cause I am stubborn LOL)

Anyways thanks again!

PS If I can't find aspen is there anything else I could use?

 

[QuailKeeper]

i put them on 1/4" wire as hatchlings. just my preferance

 

[Emilys3guppies]

I plan to use "Yesterdays News" small animal shavings. It's pine free and cedar free.

 

[ksukristin]

thanks so much for the input!

With regards to the water bottle- I see the ones with the "red ball to attract birds" is this necessary? Is there a bottle specific for birds that I should buy? I don't want to buy the wrong one...

thanks again!

 

[Highland Moongazer]

I just use regular jumbo sized rabbit waterers... In fact, I use multiple rabbit cage kits for my breeders.

 

[monarc23]

I use normal silver balled colored water bottles

and yes if you cant find aspen, you can use carefresh, yesterdays news (which is newspaper in pelleted form which is perfectly fine i love the stuff it's just too pricey for as many birds as i go through lol)! Aspen bedding is pricey enough for me

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
Nothing wrong with that at all!!!! Don't let anyone tell you differently either theres some that think wire all together is cruel I completley disagree. I'd have a wire flooring for mine if my set up was different but my brooder I use is solid floored and I don't mind cleaning out the bedding once a week

 

[ksukristin]

Quote:
Nothing wrong with that at all!!!! Don't let anyone tell you differently either theres some that think wire all together is cruel I completley disagree. I'd have a wire flooring for mine if my set up was different but my brooder I use is solid floored and I don't mind cleaning out the bedding once a week

The great gal who sold me the chicks told me to put them on the coated wire as it's easier on their feet than the plain ol' wire...would you guys agree or does it seem to make a difference?

I went into the local big box hardware store the other day and they didn't have the coated wire

so I figured I'd look at a different place this weekend. But I already have some 1/4" wire so if it's cool to use that I can go ahead and build, but if the coated wire is better I don't mind getting that either

so many decisions!!!

Thanks again so much for the input!