Chicks Still Eating Pine Bedding

[Glimmerofhope]

Hi! I noticed that my chicks since I got them at 2 days old were eating the pine bedding. So I switched to paper towels and also tried the puppy pad method. That helped them. Now they are almost 4 weeks old and I decided to give it try and switch back to the pine bedding. They went back to eating the pine bedding all over again! It looks like they're eating more of it than their actual chick starter food (looking at the food level throughout the day). I want to be able to use pine bedding when I move them to their coop. Any other suggestions?

 

[azygous]

Give them chick grit. It will serve two purposes. It will help them digest the shavings, and it will satisfy the instinct to pick up grit. I provide grit from day one as an insurance policy.

 

[azygous]

Also, they may be bored. At four weeks they should be spending days outside in their future run as long as it isn't ten below zero.