where do you buy it? I bought the big pack from Tractor Supply, and most the pieces are so small the sweet little 5 day old gals peck in it... I am pretty sure they're swallowing! I have been putting paper towels down, but today tried the shavings. They are loving to scratch... so I'd like to put that down instead of the towels... but what I have seems too small. TIA!
I get mine from Wally World. I get the same size from Wally World that I was getting from TSC and it is only $5 here. The shavings are MUCH bigger too. Wally World had them with the dog food??? Not sure why they weren't with the pet supplies??
Use the Pine Pellets available at TSC. Much safer for chicks. Never a lost chick from impaction from eating the shavings.
My little ones didn't stop eating the shavings until about 2 weeks old. If you can't find the bigger shavings, you might just want to keep them on paper towels a little longer.
I've been using pine shavings with my 41 chicks since day one, they are 4 1/2 weeks old now, they've always pecked in the shavings so I drop some of their crumbles in there to give them something to scratch for. They've always pecked in the shavings and still do, but they seem ok and all act healthy. They know what their food is but I've never been able to get them to stop picking the shavings. I can't find the large shavings anywhere - everywhere I've looked has them but they are small enough for the chicks to eat. Has anyone had chicks with impaction problems from eating shavings?
i will try walm... I sure hope to find some... these paer towels are yucky looking, and the chicks want to scratch! I'm also interested in knowing if anyone's had problems with impactation from eating shavings... and how would you know that's what killed them if it's internal??
I get mine from the feed store. Not only does size/type/quality of shavings vary between brands, it can vary *within* a brand too, from batch to batch. Very annoying, but whatcha gonna do. I have not had any problems with chicks eating shavings in my two (2) whole batches of chicks thus far; but I do put down papertowels for the first couple days to make sure there is no initial confusion between the chick crumbles and the bedding. Good luck, Pat
I also put down paper towels (over the shavings) for the first three or four days with day old chicks and then take them away and the chicks are just on the shavings. They love to scratch around in the shavings... but they are supposed to, they are chickens after all. I've only two batches of chicks and not had any issues with any eating the pine shavings. I agree with Pat that you can get different size flakes even from the same company, batch to batch. My feed stores sell three different size flakes, I get the medium as the large are 1 - 2 inches in size and the small is dust-like. My feed store sells them cheaper then Wally World also.
