Can I "bathe" my three week old chicks?

[Rainbows Chicks]

I know that they "clean themselves", but my three week old chicks have laid down in their poop and their feathers are dirty now and look really unpleasant. Can I wipe them a bit with a warm wet cloth, spritz them with warm water in a spray bottle or just "dip" their lower parts into a dish of warm water...????

 

[Egghead_Jr]

With real young chicks I use a thermometer to get the bowl of bath water to 90-95 F. We've had to bath a few new hatchlings to get the sticky album off them. They really don't mind baths at all once immersed and warm.

 

[cva34]

4H and FFA kids do it to there show Chicken.Pick a nice sunny hot day( got a few HOT ones going here this week) and they dry fast.My daughter used hair dryer (stink) but worked...cva34

 

[Rock Home Isle]

A few weeks ago we had both chicks an ducklings in our brooder together...the ducks loved the water fonts so much that they turned the inside of the brooder into a beach party and we had a huge mess with some very wet smelly and miserable chicks. We washed the chicks in warm water with a mild shampoo detergent (used a blow drier to dry the chicks and warm them back up), cleaned out the brooder...put the ducklings in their own brooder (with water fonts on raiser platforms) and all was well.

 

[Rainbows Chicks]

Super! Thanks for all the replies, everyone!