Best Bedding For Chicks?

[Shelz]

What do you all use for bedding with your chicks? When mine arrived, I used paper towels for a little over a week.....now of course as most of you already know.....that just isnt "cutting" it anymore!!!! Too messy!! lol

Ive got pine shavings in there now, but they fling it everywhere...its in the water-even though I have raised it off the ground...and it covers their food. Im afraid they will go hungry not knowing the food is under the layer of pine.?

My plan is to get some nipple drinkers and make a hanging bottle,,,any other tips? Will they know to dig around for their food and not eat the pine shavings?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I toughed it out with newspaper underneath and paper towels, by 4 weeks got them out to the coop. I did add shavings the last week and elevated the food and water.

 

[debid]

I used a hanging water bucket with nipples and stuck scrap wood under the feeder to raise it above the litter a bit. They still got some litter in the feeder but it helped keep it from getting buried. As they got a bit bigger, I kept raising the food and taped a cone made from a cereal box to the top to keep them from perching on the feeder...

 

[mulelover1999]

My chicks soon learnedly where and what there food was. They peaked the bedding a few times but I never had a problem with it. I used ceader shavings. They smell so much better they were cheaper and last a long time

 

[Shelz]

My chicks soon learnedly where and what there food was. They peaked the bedding a few times but I never had a problem with it. I used ceader shavings. They smell so much better they were cheaper and last a long time

Im not for positive , but I heard Cedar shavings isnt safe for chicks? The cedar oil can cause respiratory problems. I might be wrong... ????


I do like the smell of the fresh cedar though...

 

[KnobbyOaks]

I used paper towels for the first week too and it worked great. Then I switched to pine shavings and they loved it. I did elevate their food and water up a couple inches and spent extra time running my finger around the water dish to get the shavings out and blowing the shavings out of their starter feed. But they love scratching around in the shavings which they didn't get to do with the paper towels. Surprise, surprise there's food under those shavings too!

 

[Fur & Feathers]

mine are spoilt kids.

in he bator they have a thin enough bath towel cut to size,to hell with everyone the chicks come first.
in the brooder they had half shavings [non toxic,and dust extracted] and half 'nedz bed pro'; its a brand of rapeseed straw -it in small pieces so more comfortable, especialy designed for animals with respiratory problems,plus it tastes bitter which discourages eating [plus the bog standard non toxic to chickens and other animals,dust extracted etc], woud recommend it as an alternative to shavings but dont know if it sold outside uk,get mine from chelford farm supplies in cheshire.

in the coops they all have shavings at the moment,apart from the cochin coop who have shavings in the nestboxes area and some sort of straw from our farm on the poop tray as they still like sleeping there and have ran out of shavings at the moment we dont have anywhere very near that sells the **** things.

we also put the waterer and feeder on some sort of stand, we had the waterer on a round baking dish wish fitted perfectly and was just perfect for the chicks height,and we put the food on a square wooden perch thing that came with the chicube house.
it didnt stop all the rubbish from going in but it was a lot better than not raising them up.
because am in all day/every day,am able to change the water quite a lot so made a habit of that plus woud routinely pick all the bits out of the feeder.


just want to confirm shelz on cedar shavings-avoid using them for any animal whether chicken,rabbit or hamster the oil is really heavy stuff on the lungs.

 

[mulelover1999]

Im not for positive , but I heard Cedar shavings isnt safe for chicks? The cedar oil can cause respiratory problems. I might be wrong... ????


I do like the smell of the fresh cedar though...

I herd that too but I haven't had any problems with my chickens so I have no clue where it came from. I know a lot of people who have used ceader and never had a problem. So I would trust someone with a first hand experience instead of what other people tell you. Not trying to be mean or anything but I still use it and have had not one single problem with respatory.

 

[TXchickmum]

We always use fluffly white towels in the brooder boxes. It eliminates all of the issues with shavings/paper getting into the food and water containers. We do scoop often and change the towels several times a day. The chicks love the soft, warm towels. After the chicks transition to the coop, they have sand/dirt on the floor (over buried hardware cloth). The fluffy towels transition to the nesting boxes! The girls love 'em! -nice clean eggs with no expense of straw, hay, or shavings. -simply wash the towels every other day and it is all good!

 

[KnobbyOaks]

We always use fluffly white towels in the brooder boxes. It eliminates all of the issues with shavings/paper getting into the food and water containers. We do scoop often and change the towels several times a day. The chicks love the soft, warm towels. After the chicks transition to the coop, they have sand/dirt on the floor (over buried hardware cloth). The fluffy towels transition to the nesting boxes! The girls love 'em! -nice clean eggs with no expense of straw, hay, or shavings. -simply wash the towels every other day and it is all good!

I'm just trying to visualize washing all those poopy towels. Do you have a method to reduce how much poop gets run through the washer? I kinda like the idea of towels for the little birds and in the nesting box but need to get past the "picture is worth a thousand words" thing.