brooder bedding

[NewChkinTown]

I am only 2 weeks into this, with 7 peeps, but here is what I did and it has worked. First week: paper towels...on top of textured shelf liner (prevents leg injuries, easy to clean)...but, after the first week, I switched to wood shavings. Why? Poop was sticking to their toes, even with changing paper towels 3 x a day (yes, I hoarded paper towels)….I now use newspaper on the bottom, topped with a 1-layer of paper towels and then a layer of soft natural wood shavings (from Petco)….Now, I have clean feet, they can scratch and clean up is a breeze. I just roll up the paper and shavings and throw in the compost bin. Wood shavings are a bit dusty and light, but it helps the chicks to scratch off the poop so they don't get issues with that. After 2 weeks, I read leg issues shouldn't be a problem as their feet are more developed and they are more agile. I have my chicks in my master bathroom. It is clean, fan kept on....window open occasionally when I go in to do my care and no smell so far. Best wishes.

I don't have textured shelf liner so I'm assuming I can jump straight to newspaper with shavings on top? How thick do you do the shavings in the beginning? I also have puppy oee pads i thought of using for the first week as they would provide foot support as well as make it easy for them to find their food. Does this sound like the right thing? So new to this! Lol

 

[Cheery]

So I've been searching the threads and I can't seem to find a definitive answer to brooder bedding. I know it is mostly personal preference, but I like clarity. I have a friend who only uses newspaper in her brooders (but then I read it's too slippery), I google bedding and read that someone else uses plastic shelf liner and paper towel (paper towel is like gold right now, along with TP so I don't want to waste what stock I have and I don;t have shelf liner), more people on google seem to use sand (I research and find that most sand has silica, which is a carcinogen, so i dont want to use that). HELP.
Someone please lay it out for me lol. I read people like shavings/wood chips but that they are a pain to clean. I want/need something easy and simple to clean and use.

I used old baby nappies. When they’re dirty they go in nappy San soak, and then rinse and wash.
chicks get excellent grip on them. So their legs don’t slide apart.

 

[FenDruadin]

Heyo. I just use wood chips, but I wanted to address the question of silica. Silica is an ingredient in most sand in most of the world. It's also known as silicon dioxide.

Yes, it's a carcinogen... if you encounter it in certain ways in certain quantities. It's a little like H2O, in this regard. If you inhale H2O, you'll probably die, especially if you inhale a lot of it. Does that make H2O toxic? Well... I mean... it's water, so you kind of have to have it.

Same with silica. You actually eat silica all the time. It's in many of the plants you eat. Science is out on the matter, but it may be that we even NEED silica in our diets.

So, why is it classified as a carcinogen? Because when it is inhaled as a dust, it causes inflammation in the lungs and other parts of the body that can lead to cancer. This is especially a problem in construction fields because many many many building materials contain silica, and during demolition efforts, it is often turned to dust and aerosolized, to be breathed in large quantities by construction workers.

It can be dangerous in other scenarios as well, but this is the most common one.

So, in short, if you are using sand YES there will be silica in it. Sand is simply very tiny particles of stones, and most stone in most of the world contains silica. But it's probably harmless, because your chicks are not going to be turning it into sand dust and then breathing it in. Unless things have changed a good deal since I was last in the incubating/raising chicks business, I don't think they're much into power tools and demolition work.

Your results may vary, of course, but since many experienced folks use sand successfully to raise multiple generations of birds, I strongly suspect the risk is extremely minimal.

Hope that helps!

(Credentials: I don't have any, but I write for an environmental engineering firm, and we talk about the dangers of silica fairly often in their blog, so I have some passing familiarity with when it is and is not dangerous. YMMV, this advice is not medical advice, take what I have to say with a big huge grain of salt and absolutely do not accept my or anyone's advice without doing your own due diligence. )

 

[redeyenc]

I agree, pee pads for the first couple of days, then shavings. For my goslings, I switched to cut straw which seems to be working out.

 

[Amber C]

So I've been searching the threads and I can't seem to find a definitive answer to brooder bedding. I know it is mostly personal preference, but I like clarity. I have a friend who only uses newspaper in her brooders (but then I read it's too slippery), I google bedding and read that someone else uses plastic shelf liner and paper towel (paper towel is like gold right now, along with TP so I don't want to waste what stock I have and I don;t have shelf liner), more people on google seem to use sand (I research and find that most sand has silica, which is a carcinogen, so i dont want to use that). HELP.
Someone please lay it out for me lol. I read people like shavings/wood chips but that they are a pain to clean. I want/need something easy and simple to clean and use.

Pine shavings worked the best for us. It really isn't too messy if you keep up with it. I would just use a shop vac and re place the bedding every 5-7 days or so.

 

[lavacaw]

I usually set my brooder up by pouring a couple of inches of pelletized wood (used for horse bedding) and cover it with a layer of paper towels. I do not put feed directly on the paper towels because I want the chicks to eat out of a feeder. I think the idea of old diapers as a covering would be great if you don't want to give up the paper towels right now. After a few days, remove the paper towels completely. The wood pellets turn into sawdust as they absorb spilled water, poop, etc. When the chicks are moved to a coop, the sawdust can be dumped into your compost bin. I have had no problems with this method for lots of batches of chicks!

 

[CyndieRauls]

I'm approaching week four with my 10 chicks indoors... you'll find many differing opinions about bedding - which is why it's hard to pin down the perfect brooder bedding. We know cedar shavings are toxic to their respiratory system, but I had read that pine shavings also produce hazardous emissions (in smaller amounts than cedar.)
https://www.forloveoflivestock.com/blog/toxic-chicken-coop-pine-shavings
So just to be safe, I steered clear of pine as well. I am using puppy pads with chopped straw on top. It's not perfect, and as they get older they've become destructive little dinosaurs who enjoy finding the puppy pad corners and pulling them up... but it keeps them busy and it's fun to watch. The pads have done a great job absorbing the the runny bits and the straw is the compostable, catch-all, additional layer. This has worked really well for us.

 

[MLG1900]

I always use the pine bedding flakes. I don't like the "fine" bedding. I think it makes for lots of extra dust. Just a layer of about an inch in the bottom, when it starts to get dirty or stinky, I add more bedding on top and keep adding bedding a little at a time until I am ready to empty the bedding and start with fresh. You can do this every week or several weeks. It really all depends on how many chicks and how big of a space there is and how dirty and stinky things get. You will figure it out!

 

[twoquinns]

I started out using indoor/outdoor carpeting cut to fit my brooder. I changed it every day, taking the dirty one outside and hosing it off using a bit of Dawn dish soap, and hanging it in the sun to dry. After a few years of doing that successfully, I frankly got tired of having to hose them off. So now I cover the carpet with old T-shirts (which we have tons of) that I can throw in the washing machine. Same effect as those who use old diapers. You could also use old towels. Just be careful there aren’t loose strings on whatever material you use. I once had a guinea keet get a thread wrapped around the back of its tongue and had a heck of a time getting it loose. Had to call in a vet tech friend to help. Other than that, I’ve had no problems using this method for years. If I have the chicks more than a week or so, I switch to wood flakes (large ones so the chicks won’t eat them), but they will make the room the brooder is in awfully dusty.

 

[cate1124]

Softwood (pine) shavings, covered with paper towels for the first couple of days, until all are all eating well (and not mistaking litter for food). I use the same material in my coop, as do most chicken people I respect. Gail Damerow's "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" answers this question and many others. Invaluable for new flock keepers, still valuable for those of us who have been at it for years.