chicks eating pine shavings....

[dwegg]

My almost 4 week olds love to scratch around and eat the pine shavings in their brooder? They love to scratch through their food and find the shavings that have fallen in...is this safe to eat? They eat quite a bit of them....

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Remember that a chick's beak is their hands and everything is going to go in the mouth - just like little kids - so they can find out what's edible and what's not.
Try a bit of chopped hard boiled egg with them. Once they realize it's food they usually have a blast playing keepaway.
You have to leave new foods in with them for awhile; long enough for them to get the idea that it's not something that's there to kill them. Use the same bowl every time, preferably a brightly colored one. They'll learn to expect good things from that bowl.

 

[bigdawg]

i line my brooders with rubber shelf linner that you would use in kitchen cabinets. gets nasty just take them out give a shake and you good to. no more spraddle legs either

 

[dwegg]

GREAT! Thanks everyone...I will go home tonight and give them scrambled eggs again...and some sand to dust bath in and eat(?). They do already bath in the shavings which is funny. Someone said I can just get play sand from HomeDepot...is that right? and this will be fine for them to eat as well? for grit.

I did put half a strawberry in with them the other day but they huddled in the corner shacking with fear!!!

poor babies so I took it out! I only have two babies but they are fascinating to watch and are really loving and love to be held and fall asleep when I hold them.

Even when I am teaching in the classroom, no matter how loud I am, if i am holding them they will fall asleep or sit there and preen and seem to be very happy even with all the noise.

Just want to say that I am addicted to chickens and I don't know how this happened? I am NOT the person who you would think would have chickens let alone LOVE chickens!

P.S...I am also addicted to BYC...I love all the pics, stories and info. on here...thank you for having this community!

 

[RM44]

I would say at 4 weeks they can have veggies, scrambled eggs, small amounts of bread (I think I saw somewhere a suggestion of crushed cherios too, but be careful on the cereal as it has salt and sugar added). If you do give them treats, be sure they have some chick grit (not chicken grit; it seems to be a bit large for chicks). I got my chick grit at tractor supply. I just put it in a clip on bowl on the side of their pen and they have free choice.

If you can't get to tractor supply, or if they're out, you can use playground sand or another coarse grain sand as a temporary solution. I went to walmart and bought a simple plastic cat litter box and filled it with play sand and put it in the cage with the chickens. It's so fun to watch them dustbathe in it. Mine are also dustbathing in the pine shavings too.

Good luck and have fun. BTW, Grant Park isn't that far away from me! Well, by ATL standards it is (about 30-35 miles), but by BYC standards, we're neighbors!

 

[k9baron]

I recently put pine shavings down to cover the mud in my hen run, the hens starting pecking at the shaving, couldn't tell if they were eating it; but I quickly put some scratch grain down in their feeding area and they obviously ran over to get the grain, forgot all about the shavings I had put down lol. They never did go back to the shavings.

 

[dougieee]

I normally start my newborns on aa puppy pad for 48 hours, just so i know they have all got the hang of eating and drinking, then i switch to shavings.
If you watch them closely you will see that they dont actually eat much wood at all, they do scratch through it and peck at things but they dont actually swallow much.

 

[TheFarmMama]

Well, I've got 15 5-6wk olds and they're healthy as horses despite eating the shavings so my guess would be they'll be okay. I'm sure someone else will have better advice, maybe a better type of bedding for them or something

 

[RM44]

I doubt it will hurt them, but are you sure they're eating the shavings and not just pecking stuff out of the shavings? My 24 x 6week olds peck through the shavings, but I don't think they actually eat the wood.

I've never heard of the shavings being bad for them though. And they eat dirt and gravel, so I can't imagine a little wood hurts them.

 

[dwegg]

yes it doesn't seem to hurt them? should I/ can I put other small foods in there as treats? What treats are safe for 4week old chicks?