Cleaning?

[ShrekDawg]

Yeah, I did notice they seem to pack it down.

Yeah, it wasn't really a mass but there were droppings all over the brooder and.they definitely poop all day long lol I'm not sure if it was moist but idk if it dried out either.

That does sound like a really good system though and it's already beena few days (had them since Tuesday but I didn't put them in Tuesday till later) so I'm thinking maybe I should just replace all the shavings and start with this system? But I'm kind of worried 1" won't be deep enough for them but I guess adding more daily will be.

No condensation on the pool sides.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Oh and also I'll probably stick with pine as it's cheaper but would aspen or any other wood work for that method (the one inch and adding more thing) or just pine?

 

[allpeepedout]

I raised 10 in my house this summer with no odor or visual messes. The first couple of days, I lined the brooder with multiple layers of paper towels, and just peeled off the top layer as needed, actually several times a day, like changing a diaper. After a couple of days and they knew what food was, I added pine shavings on top of th layers of paper.

Then once a day, it was as fast as changing a diaper: fold and dispose of the soiled layer. Then add clean shavings to the fresh paper underneath. When they got older and moved to a large dog kennel, I switched to sheets of newspaper under the shavings and extended the time between complete changes by adding ample fresh bedding daily, several cups, mixed in. I also got them outdoors on grass fairly young.

You need to use enough bedding so that things stay dry or to change the bedding often enough, even daily, so it is dry.

They are not the tidiest critters, and the water thing can be a mess. I changed out water constantly.

 

[ShrekDawg]

That sounds like a good method although with the kiddie pool I probably would have gone through a ton of paper towels haha

I'll definitely have to change it more often though, whether it's just scooping poop out or adding new shavings on top or fully changing it. It gets so nasty so fast haha

I was wondering about the grass thing too but it's kinda cold. Was thinking maybe 2 or 3 weeks old?

I think i have a lot of bedding i just wasn't changing it or anything haha need to do that

And change water. Did that today but gonna start daily though they're good about the water, just stand on shavings and stick head in, get a sip, tilt head back and gulp, drink more. I think the bricks help.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Got some paper bedding and some aspen bedding from the pet store to try. Hopefully it works out. Was going to get it from Wal-Mart, not sure why I didn't. But ah well. My mom was too I think embarrassed? Or thought it was awkward to carry big bags (we're on the bus) so I just got two smaller ones the aspen and a decent sized but still smallish of the paper. But we might get one of my brothers to take us another time. But this should hopefully last a while. Was gonna get one aspen one and one pine (they called it softwood) but don't know why I didn't do that either. Oh well. But the aspen was actually really cheap. At Wal-Mart it was like $2.99 I think and at Petco it was like $4.99 which is maybe somewhat a lot but not that much imo. The pine was $3.99. And for the big bags (2 sq ft compressed, 4 sq ft expanded) it was $12.99 aspen, $11.99 pine. I know the dollar difference might add up eventually but it's not that much of a difference. Maybe for large flakes it is. The paper was what was expensive, $19.99 and it's wayyy smaller.