Cat Litter to keep the Smell Down?

[Chicken Sniffer]

I am curious if anyone has used cat litter in thier meatie pens to keep the flies and smell down? I heard that the plain clay litter can be used for the chicks, but what about 4 week old birds. We have the cornish stinky ones.

I was thinking it would be a cheap way to keep the neighbors happy.

 

[1acrefarm]

Is there any tree service companies in your area? Sometimes they have wood chips free for the taking.

 

[socks]

Hi, haven't tried clay based cat litter but everyone was talking about pellets being good for keeping the smell down so I went out and bought some pine pellets that were meant as cat litter. It worked very well, had nothing in it but pine but cost a fortune, about $25 cdn for the bag.
I went back to the forum to see what other people were paying and it was something like $6-7 a bag for something they referred to as horse pellets i.e. I think used in horse stalls. My local feed store when asked for that (and told that I wanted it for chicks) sold me stove pellets for $7 a bag. I remembered one person saying don't use stove pellets but not why and as they were about 4 weeks old and soon to leave the brooder I used it... and surprise, surprise it wasn't as good as the expensive stuff but still acceptable.

The above info was for laying birds, now that I think of it but not sure why there would be a difference. The horse pellets would probably work but not if they got wet at all.

 

[Kezzie]

The best way to keep the smell down is to tractor them and move them daily.

 

[Chicken Sniffer]

I use pine shavings now, but wondered if the birds would eat the clay based litter. Its not very expensive, and might help with the smell. I can't put them in a tractor because of limited space and a nosey neighbor. The one's that do know are ok with them. The one that doesn't is a royal pain in the grass, and would cause problems for me.

They are the people that have the worst behaved kids and are always causing problems with everyone else.