Chicks eating paper towels for dessert! Help!!

[bantyshanty]

I have some 3 & 4 week old d'Anver chicks in a brooder pen with some 2 week old silkies. The d'Anvers seem happy & curious.
They have 2 branches to roost on & the same really good organic starter feed I've given all my other chicks.
They've always had two feeders of starter crumbles & fresh water.
Last week they started tearing off strips of paper towelling & carrying them around like a prize worm.
I caught one trying to eat her strip of towel, so I changed out the torn towels & put the new towelling under 2 " of pine shavings.
I figured it was time for this. Today, lo & behold, another chick tore a long 2" strip of towel,
ran around like it was a worm while the others chased it, and proceeded to gulp down the whole long thing!
I removed all the chicks immediately to a wire floor cage with some mayonnaise & a bowl of grit. I figure mayonnaise may make the paper mushier?

Has anyone ever had chicks do this and survive? Does the paper come out?

 

[gamebirdsonly]

They should be fine. I have had mine eat styrafoam and be fine.

 

[MaKettle]

I would just get rid of the paper towels entirely. Based off of a lot of reading that I did, I followed the advice of using paper towels for only the first couple of days & then switched them over to pine shavings. Unless you're using the towels for a specific reason, I think you would be fine without the paper towels & just doing the pine. The only reason I've heard about for putting the towels under the shavings is to wick moisture & there are other ways that you can go about preventing that if its an issue.I thought I read somewhere that eating the paper can mess with their delicate systems..maybe someone with more experience can shed some light on this??