eating the bedding

[bschafer5]

So our new chicks arrived yesterday and while they're eating their food they are also eating (or trying) to eat the bedding I put down in the brooder. Its aspen bedding. Will this hurt them??

 

[iwiw60]

So our new chicks arrived yesterday and while they're eating their food they are also eating (or trying) to eat the bedding I put down in the brooder. Its aspen bedding. Will this hurt them??

Aspen bedding? I've never heard of it. I used (and still do out in the coop) pine wood shavings. When they were chicks oh sure, they would peck at the shavings but never actually "eat" any of them. They're just curious and gave them something to do. I think what you're seeing is your chicks pecking at the shavings, tossing them around, etc.

 

[LaFarm]

Our baby chicks did that a bit too. We had the wood shavings and they would try them out (and anything else they found) to see if they were edible. We didn't have any problems with it.

 

[bschafer5]

I should say aspen wood shavings. Same stuff we use for the hamster cage.

 

[LanceTN]

My chicks would attack anything that was a different color then the primary color of the bedding. So any dark pieces would get pecked at, picked up and carried around etc. It was fun to watch and harmless.

Chickens explore their world by pecking at it, so what you're witnessing is totally normal and not risky.