Chicks and pine shavings

[jed1154]

So, i have had my chicks for a couple of weeks now. All are doing fine. I have them in a box on newspaper, several pages thick of it, so its not totaly hard. Ive been reading a bit, and i see posts about causing injury to the birds by not using some sort of litter. How much potential is there for this to happen really? The reason i ask is that i used to raise and show chickens as a child, and i never once recall ever putting anything in their box except newspaper for several weeks. Once they were old enough for the coop, they did their own thing.

Mine are probably three weeks old now, and im considering getting some pine shavings for them from TSC. Not sure how hard that is to keep clean, probably not as easy as rolling up the news paper and putting more down though.

 

[dixiechick]

I used to use pine shavings from TSC, but use pine straw now....the main reason for the switch is that the straw will lay down more flat and not interfere with my feather-legged birds.

Plus, my neighbor keeps in pine straw for FREE...which frees up feed $$$

 

[banter]

I am sure I lost 4 chicks to cedar shavings from fumes. I think newspaper shredded or straw is the way to go.

 

[Wynette]

I think newspaper is most dangerous when they are a week or less due it being slippery; but most folks use pine shavings. They absorb more moisture, so they're not that messy, and they smell nice, too!

 

[jed1154]

I have some old documents that i shredded with the paper shredder. It CONFETTI shreds and i dont want to put that in the box with them for fear they will eat it or ingest it and get sick off the ink or chems or something.

 

[ChickenToes]

I agree with Wynette, newspaper is the most dangerous when the chicks are very young. I just talked with a family friend who had several chicks develop spraddle leg from using newspaper. Pine shavings are the way to go. They're not too bad to clean. If you want, you can lay down newspaper and top it with 2 or 3 inches of shavings. Then when it's time to clean, just gather up the newspaper and lift the whole mess out.

 

[Mahonri]

or the expensive way is to use paper towels.

 

[Joy1]

I used J cloths for a week or so ,so that spraddle leg was not an issue. After that shavings as they can mistake shavings for food when first born.

 

[Chirpy]

I use pine shavings (cedar is toxic as mentioned) with paper towels over it for about a week and then remove the paper towels and my chicks have all done great for two years now.

It is accurate that using newspaper is too slippery for baby chicks - it can cause spraddle legs.