Bedding for Peachicks?

[xlboergoats]

I have two set of peachicks. They are a little over a week old and three weeks old. They are all still living in inside the house in box type brooders for now. They have been on shreaded paper since they moved out of the hatcher. I clean the boxes everyday. As they get older, the shreaded paper does not seem to be absorbant enough. Is there any reason that I cannot put them on fine wood shavings? I am worried that they may eat some of the fine saw dust out of the shavings. It stands to reason that if they were free ranging with adult peafowl, they would be eating anything they could come across.

I hope to be able to move them into the barn on wire cages in a few days. The cages are off the ground and they peachicks can be housed there until they are old enough to put down on the ground in a grow-out pen.

Thanks,
Ernie Haire
Arp, Texas

 

[Glenmar]

I have one on pine shavings.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

delete

 

[klcvt]

Mine are in a brooder on carpenters wire so droppings fall through. It is a box that is built in the corner about 3' off the ground so I can easily clean under it. I keep a piece of chicken wire over the top to keep them from flying out. Mine is a day old in with 2 chicks and under a heat lamp. Tomorrow I am adding some week old ones in with them. When they are 2-3 weeks old, I will put them in a confined area on the floor of the coop - which is dirt.

 

[TV]

My brooder pen is 6' X 8' with a concrete floor covered with a layer of organic peat moss. it is way more absorbent than wood shavings and dries very fast. It is pathogen free and the babies seem to love running around on it. I have lost chicks after ingesting wood slivers but have never had a problem with peat. I have used it for 40yrs. and learned about it from my grandmother.

 

[MinxFox]

We just use two towels for the floor but always having to wash the towels does get a little annoying, good thing we have a lot of towels!

 

[zazouse]

I used shavings, they eat some but they eat everything even poop so i made sure they had a bowl of grit.

 

[Kedreeva]

I used softwood bedding, they did fine on that- but zazouse is right, they will eat it and everything else on their floor. I didn't give mine grit though- if you're feeding them starter, it should contain some form of grit already.

 

[trailchick]

I use alfalfa hay that is fed to the horses, chickens, and peas. Some of it will be very flaky, so it packs down well & doesn't have a lot of stems. If they eat it it wont hurt them.