Girls eating their nesting bedding

[Marilyn61]

I am a first-time "Mother Hen", and my girls are about 4.5 months old. They haven't started laying yet. I have their nesting boxes lined with shredded paper and have found they are eating the paper, especially now that they are spending more time in the coop due to the shorter days. Any suggestions or advice? :/

 

[Free Spirit]

Perhaps you could try and switch their bedding to wood shavings (found at pet stores, Tractor Supply, and some feed stores). The bags are compact so there is a lot more in them than it appears. Some are using sand successfully and love it.

Here is some info from BYC site on common bedding
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/quick-guide-to-common-brooder-and-coop-bedding-materials

Info on one persons use of sand, what kind, and why they switched from shavings
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/09/chicken-coop-bedding-sand-litter.html

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Yep, switch to a different bedding. I had the same experience. We receive a shipment from UPS that was padded with a bunch of shredded paper. While I was gathering it up to throw it away I thought, why not repurpose this somehow? Ding, it'll make great nest box material! Then they started slurping it down like spaghetti.

I don't think it'll harm them, my girls were just fine after, but a lot of the paper had been printed on, and them ingesting the ink bothered me. Needless to say, I had to gather it all back up and put it in the trash anyway :/