Babies eating bedding!

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TwoCrows

TwoCrows

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Mar 21, 2011
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Hello everyone! I am a new member to this forum although I have over the years tuned to many of the topics for information. I am new to raising chickens although I have been hatching, brooding and raising Bobwhite Quail for years.

I have always raised quail on wire and I have never had a single outbreak of coccidiosis in babies or adult birds. When the babies finally were put out in the growing pens, none of them ever came down with cocci. But I have been doing much reading on the raising of chickens and now I am concerned about having an outbreak of cocci when I transfer them to the coop.

My babies, 4 Australorps, are 2 weeks old today and so far I have been raising them on wire. But now that I am concerned about this, I have switched them over to pine shavings as bedding. Of course they are thrilled to have something pick and roll around in, but they are also eating it! They won't stop.

So my question is, will they eventually stop eating it and will it hurt them to ingest any of it?
 
sounds like they might be bored also.. you could try picking a handful of grass and throwing it in for them, they love that! also do you have the feeder up on a piece of wood so they don't get shavings in the feed?
 
Wow, that was a quick response!
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I put a box of bermuda hay in the brooder a few days ago and that has been occupying their time lately. But I wasn't sure it would work well enough for them to build up any immunity to cocci.
 
Oh and yes, the water and feeder is up on a block out of the way of the new bedding.
 
I have been frequently "sending" them over to the feeder to get some "real" food and it does seem to help them to not eat as much of it. Hopefully they will get the picture soon. Thanks
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How big are your shavings? My feed store carries large flake (which is like 1 to 2 inch squares) and fine (which is more like wood fluff than shavings). I use the large flake so that it produces less dust, but I would imagine it would also reduce eating it.
Otherwise, they'll get bored of it eventually. Every time I add something new to my coop, the first thing my chickens do is try to eat it. I think your chicks will get over it with time.
Oh, and
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Thank you all for responding to my questions here! One that last question about how big the shavings are, I bought a bag that said large flakes also, but of course there are tiny itty bitty pieces in the mix. And I think you are right, seems like every thing I put in there they must investigate. After an entire day of laying around on them, I think they have grown bored of actually eating them and just pick and play with them.

I still have a question though about coccidiosis. As I had mentioned I have only done raising of quail on wire and never had any trouble with it. Am I getting paranoid about this coccidiosis thing or do you thing that using wire with chickens is ok. My quail are exposed to a dirt floor covered in hay and do plenty of picking, eating and scratching and coming in contact with each others droppings. . Why would my chickens need to be raised any differently? If I stick to wire will they become immune or is shavings the only way to go?
 

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