Day-old chicks just arrived this morning and one tried to eat paper towel and nearly choked on it-help?

[tweetzone86]

She's fine, which is why I didn't post in emergency thread, but...

I kept seeing posts on putting paper towels in the brooder for a couple of days, but now I'm not so sure...will they be ok if I take the paper towels out and just let them be on the sand I put in there instead? I had planned on paper towels for a couple of days then switching to the sand, but now after seeing the poor thing start choking and her hanging from the paper towel when I picked it up because it was that far in her crop already, I'm not sure I want to

 

[chickenlittle21]

I would put down shredded hay or pine shavings as the bedding instead of paper towels

 

[Crazychickennurse]

Yeah, we’ve only used pine shavings before.

 

[tweetzone86]

Yeah, we’ve only used pine shavings before.

I had seen a post about sand, and I have that under the towels at the moment....

 

[tweetzone86]

It's washed river/play sand, pretty fine so it's small enough for their grit

 

[NatJ]

The sand should be fine.

When I have used paper towel, I just laid it down flat and had no trouble. I would not have expected a tiny chick to be strong enough to rip off a piece and try to eat it. She must be a pretty determined little bird!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Very young chicks can and will try to put anything in their mouths. I've done paper towels before, wood shavings, deep litter... they'll take a nibble at all of it if they can. Had a hard time convincing my current chicks that their feed was better for them than dirt but they figured it out the next day.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Dog pee pads with the edges folded under work well for me the first few days then i switch to shavings

 

[sealer39]

She's fine, which is why I didn't post in emergency thread, but...

I kept seeing posts on putting paper towels in the brooder for a couple of days, but now I'm not so sure...will they be ok if I take the paper towels out and just let them be on the sand I put in there instead? I had planned on paper towels for a couple of days then switching to the sand, but now after seeing the poor thing start choking and her hanging from the paper towel when I picked it up because it was that far in her crop already, I'm not sure I want to

Wow, your chicks started early eating the paper towels. Mine don’t start to eat it until about two weeks of age.
I’ve also use pine large shavings as bedding in the past but they tend to kick that into their waterer and feeder. Newspaper works well also and it’s harder from them to rip.

 

[tweetzone86]

The sand should be fine.

When I have used paper towel, I just laid it down flat and had no trouble. I would not have expected a tiny chick to be strong enough to rip off a piece and try to eat it. She must be a pretty determined little bird!

The corner popped up and she tried to eat it then...