How soon can you offer a dust bath to young chicks? I bought some DE and thought of putting it in a baking dish or pie plate or something when they're old enough to give it a try. Any thoughts?
Hi, i very well know that you give chicks dust baths when it's really hot. . .and you always have it provided for them, so they can use it whenever they wan't to. -alex
I don't know when exactly chicks can bath but I wouldn't give them streight DE I would mix it with something. (dirt from outside is fine) I've put one in the brooder as soon as a week and could have probably done it earlier. If they don't know what its for they will quickly find out Dusting is an all the time thing. They do it to control pests as well. Crystal
I saw one of Freebie's 3 or 4 week old barred rock chicks dust bathe last week. It was rolling around in the bedding . Maybe he or she was imatating the mama or aunties in the coop.
Mine started dust-bathing at around 2 weeks old. I used play sand and dirt for their baths at that point in time in a plastic flower pot saucer. Now that they are outside and almost 9 weeks old, I use a short -sided cardboard box and fill it with equal parts of playsand, dirt and DE. It doesn't stay in the box for long before they have it spread out into the rest of the run area, which they now have scratched up well enough to use for serious dust bathing.