Common Household Items or Practices That Can Kill Chicks? Is my setup safe? Suddenly afraid to cook / use air freshener anywhere in the house!

[Thirrin]

I'm a brand-new first-time momma of 4 cream legbar chickie babies that arrived one day old from My Pet Chicken last Tuesday. They are running around, cheeping, eating, sleeping, and we already handled one case of pasty butt successfully that has not reoccurred. They have honestly surprised me with how healthy, active, and hardy they seem to be. Needless to say, I'm a worrier.

They seem to be doing well but I've spooked myself reading several threads about people whose chicks seemed fine one minute but then died the next, with everyone in the comments speculating as to the cause.

I saw some things mentioned that I had not read anywhere else, and attempting to google 'common or household things toxic or poisonous to chicks' was surprisingly unhelpful (it was usually not specific about birds and often highly scientific in language).

Bottom line main question: What, if any, common household items/practices/etc could cause harm to chicks?

The examples I'm thinking off the top of my head are people mentioning that air pollution like air fresheners and teflon are deadly to chicks, with one thread suggesting these could have been the cause of several chicks dying within minutes. Also stuff like having recently used lotion and touching the chicks, killing them. There wasn't a whole lot of elaboration in the threads I was reading and I have a lot of new paranoia and questions lol. Is it enough to not use air freshener in the same room as the chicks, to not use it on the same floor, should I ban it all together? As far as Teflon, many modern pans are no longer made with teflon, but are made with very similar chemicals altered slightly to get around the ban. Could cooking with nonstick pans in the room over from the chicks release chemicals that could harm them? I actually use cast iron pans the most, but I also know iron can be bad for chicks, and I went to make them a scrambled eggs like I had read about and realized my options were either cast iron or nonstick. By coincidence, we have mostly ordered out the past few days since their arrival.


My chicks are in a large closet on the first floor of my house, on the floor in a large-ish cardboard box with pine shavings on top of paper towels, water feeder and manna pro medicated starter, a smaller cardboard box inside it that I call their 'house,' and that standing black heater which looks like a flatscreen TV, recently topped by the metal shelves from our oven, as one baby learned to fly/leap a considerably impressive distance at 6 days old and we had to scramble. The light bulb in the closet was replaced with a dim red LED one as we heard that white/yellow light can be too harsh on them. We have the dim red bulb on 24/7, but I also placed a small natural sunlight lamp (like the ones for seasonal affective disorder) on the floor, and it has 3 brightness settings that I cycle through the day and off at night, to get them used to changing light levels & day/night, and also because I felt bad about them being in a closet with no windows and thought the fake-natural sunlight might be good for them. Our first floor is mostly open concept, so the chick closet is technically off our living room but the kitchen is a few feet away & open-air. There is also a bathroom right next to the closet the chicks are in, which I do keep air freshener in (although it has not been used since they arrived home, but again only by coincidence).


So, I've worked myself up to being afraid to use my own kitchen and bathroom, lol. Help me before I make myself afraid of doing anything in my own house! Of course I'm being a bit silly for exaggeration here, but I am curious. What are common household things or practices that could cause serious harm to chicks? What are the most common accidents? We can assume we have already covered the basic care stuff that is easily google-able like temp, wrong food, over crowding, vitamin deficiencies, etc

Thanks so much I've been lurking here for months but never posted

 

[nuthatched]

You're needlessly worrying a tad. What are your temperatures outside and how old are they?

 

[Thirrin]

I tried to acknowledge it, and make it into a bit of a joke of exaggeration to be silly/make fun of myself. I know that I definitely am overthinking this, and am not actually fretting that seriously, but I still want to know! hopefully the tone that I wanted came across but also I just like to know this stuff and am curious, too. I worked in a vet's office for a bit in the past.

It's wild out there in PA. It's gone from near freezing to mid 90s in hot and cold spells. Is there some sort of named average statistic you're looking for, because high and low temp on each day seem to have no correlation to each other here lately!

They are only one week old atm and seem to be doing quite well, I just read about a bunch of healthy chicks suddenly dying and everyone talking about random normal household stuff that could've caused it lol

 

[NatJ]

I've spooked myself reading several threads about people whose chicks seemed fine one minute but then died the next, with everyone in the comments speculating as to the cause.

Those cases are quite rare.
Most people can raise chicks in their house just fine.

The speculation about causes is because of the people here who are stumped, and scrambling for any explanation. Having a bunch of chicks just drop dead with no warning is quite rare indeed.

What are the most common accidents?

Common accidents:
"My dog got into the brooder and killed my chicks"
"The heat lamp fell and caused a fire" (or squished the chicks)
"My child squeezed the chick too hard"

(Most of those are things you can avoid, if you know to watch out for them. Supervise pets and children, be careful with anything that uses electricity, and be careful with anything that could possibly fall.)

Bottom line main question: What, if any, common household items/practices/etc could cause harm to chicks?

The examples I'm thinking off the top of my head are people mentioning that air pollution like air fresheners and teflon are deadly to chicks, with one thread suggesting these could have been the cause of several chicks dying within minutes. Also stuff like having recently used lotion and touching the chicks, killing them.

Teflon, and probably other non-stick pans, can give off fumes that kill pet birds. But this usually happens when the pan gets way too hot, not at normal cooking temperatures. (Like when someone turns on the stove to preheat the pan, walks into another room to get something, and gets distracted for way too long.) So a kitchen is not a good place to put the cage for a canary or a parrot that you intend to keep for a long time. But chicks will only be in the house for a few weeks, and you can be a little extra-diligent about not forgetting your cooking during that time.

Cleaning chemicals often are toxic, so exposing chicks to them could be a bad idea. (Example: if the chicks are living in someone's bathtub, they might want to skip cleaning any part of that bathroom with the usual chemicals until the chicks move out.)

Air freshener and lotion are pretty unlikely to cause problems, but they get mentioned when no other ideas come up.

There wasn't a whole lot of elaboration in the threads I was reading and I have a lot of new paranoia and questions lol. Is it enough to not use air freshener in the same room as the chicks, to not use it on the same floor, should I ban it all together?

The threads did not have much elaboration because we just don't know. No-one is likely to try these things in a controlled setting, just to see which ones will actually kill the chicks.

For the air freshener, you could just skip it until the chicks are big enough to move outside.

Could cooking with nonstick pans in the room over from the chicks release chemicals that could harm them? I actually use cast iron pans the most, but I also know iron can be bad for chicks, and I went to make them a scrambled eggs like I had read about and realized my options were either cast iron or nonstick.

Cooking eggs for the chicks should be fine in either kind of pan.

Our first floor is mostly open concept, so the chick closet is technically off our living room but the kitchen is a few feet away & open-air. There is also a bathroom right next to the closet the chicks are in, which I do keep air freshener in (although it has not been used since they arrived home, but again only by coincidence).

I don't think any of those will be a big deal.

But if you are really worried, you can remove the air freshener, and be more cautious with your cooking. Baking with a glass pan in the over should be fine, microwaving should be fine, boiling things should be fine as long as the pan does not boil dry, and frying has more chance to cause issues just because the pan is hotter.

We can assume we have already covered the basic care stuff that is easily google-able like temp, wrong food, over crowding, vitamin deficiencies, etc

This means you've covered all the most common points, so you're down to worrying about stuff that is quite unlikely.

 

[Arelwood]

If you have an air fryer, those are often also non-stick/teflon

 

[Thirrin]

Those cases are quite rare.
Most people can raise chicks in their house just fine.

The speculation about causes is because of the people here who are stumped, and scrambling for any explanation. Having a bunch of chicks just drop dead with no warning is quite rare indeed.


Common accidents:
"My dog got into the brooder and killed my chicks"
"The heat lamp fell and caused a fire" (or squished the chicks)
"My child squeezed the chick too hard"

(Most of those are things you can avoid, if you know to watch out for them. Supervise pets and children, be careful with anything that uses electricity, and be careful with anything that could possibly fall.)


Teflon, and probably other non-stick pans, can give off fumes that kill pet birds. But this usually happens when the pan gets way too hot, not at normal cooking temperatures. (Like when someone turns on the stove to preheat the pan, walks into another room to get something, and gets distracted for way too long.) So a kitchen is not a good place to put the cage for a canary or a parrot that you intend to keep for a long time. But chicks will only be in the house for a few weeks, and you can be a little extra-diligent about not forgetting your cooking during that time.

Cleaning chemicals often are toxic, so exposing chicks to them could be a bad idea. (Example: if the chicks are living in someone's bathtub, they might want to skip cleaning any part of that bathroom with the usual chemicals until the chicks move out.)

Air freshener and lotion are pretty unlikely to cause problems, but they get mentioned when no other ideas come up.


The threads did not have much elaboration because we just don't know. No-one is likely to try these things in a controlled setting, just to see which ones will actually kill the chicks.

For the air freshener, you could just skip it until the chicks are big enough to move outside.


Cooking eggs for the chicks should be fine in either kind of pan.



I don't think any of those will be a big deal.

But if you are really worried, you can remove the air freshener, and be more cautious with your cooking. Baking with a glass pan in the over should be fine, microwaving should be fine, boiling things should be fine as long as the pan does not boil dry, and frying has more chance to cause issues just because the pan is hotter.


This means you've covered all the most common points, so you're down to worrying about stuff that is quite unlikely.

Thank you so much for this detailed reply! You gave specific, blunt answers that put my mind at ease.

We actually have a baby gate in the closet threshold in addition to the closet door as an extra barrier to the dogs, and at night we lock the dogs in the bedroom with us. So far they have had only polite, passing interest in the chicks. Our indoor cat is "on vacation" and living the life with my parents, about 10 min away, until the chicks go outside.

I do tend to be 'that person,' with my 2 year old dog's hip dysplasia, everyone was telling me I was crazy, that she was acting totally normal. I said fine, it's probably nothing, but I'm taking her to the vet and paying for xrays just to make the paranoia disappear. behold, bilateral hip dysplasia and arthritis in my sweet active young dog. the vet said she could tell by wear on her ankle/toe bones and certain harder to see atrophied muscles that she'd been walking different to avoid pain/discomfort but now she's got a whole plan of physical therapy exercises, supplements, and pain meds and it hasn't progressed much since.

anyway tangent aside, I really appreciate your speedy reply <3

 

[Sunshine_Amy]

Congratulations on your girls! I got my first girls at the same time from the same place, so we are starting the journey in sync!

I'm glad your girls are all healthy. I now have four healthy girls from last Tuesday's shipment, too, but I started out with 6, and we actually lost two! One didn't make it in shipping, and the other passed away after four days, following a mysterious lethargy. (It was heart breaking.)

I was thinking that she got mold exposure from one of the sticks I had in the brooder as a roost; it was an older stick and the bark was coming off at the end, and when I later lifted it up, I could see fungus under the bark. I learned that some molds are toxic to chickens, and she was very into pecking around the roost, more than the other birds, so I though it may be that.

Retrospectively, I wished I'd given them all Nutri-Drench in their water right away, because when she was lethargic, it was the first thing I gave her, and had I already had her on that, I would have tried something else right away. My next step was going to be to give her ground charcoal, which is excellent at soaking up toxins (even toxins from mold). I didn't give it right away, because it can also soak up nutrients, and I wanted to give her time to assimilate the vitamins. By the time I was going to give her charcoal, it was too late.

I'm still not sure about what made her sick ––it could be that they all were sick from something communicable, and just reacted differently––but in any case, I think my new protocols are better. We got 4 more birds from MPC today, and I've already got them on vitamins (in addition to the electrolytes and probiotics that seem standard.) I am careful about inspecting sticks that I'm giving them (no mold, no wild bird poop.) I boiled the rocks that go into their waterer, in case they were carrying something. And at some point this week I'll give them free access to charcoal as well. The book I'm referencing,"The Chicken Health Handbook," by Gail Damerow, recommends this, generally, saying that "Little chicks will readily pick at char, and studies have shown that chicks fed char during their first 4 weeks of life grow better." It's also good for full grown birds. She has two full pages on the topic.

 

[scotchmegs]

From one overthinker to another, a hearty thank you! My three girls (including a cream legbar!) will arrive next week and these are all the kinds of things I’m thinking and researching. You sound like you’re doing an amazing job.