Grit & dust baths

[Chicklover96]

New to chicks this year, they are 3 weeks old. My local stores only have one type of silica grit. It’s very finely ground. I don’t know what size would be appropriate or what size I should be getting for when they are bigger.

Also, is regular sand ok for dust baths? I have one chick who is always rolling and fluffing around in the shavings and we want to get her some sand for a bath.

 

[DobieLover]

Welcome to BYC!

I would just give her some plain dry dirt. If you can't dig some up from their future run/pen site, you can buy the cheapest topsoil being sold near you and use that.

You should use chick size grit for chicks and adult sized crushed granite grit. You could even get scrap pieces of granite from a yard and smash it up to use for grit. Just screen it through 1/4" hardware cloth to remove the larger chunks.
Grit is not expensive to buy. Do you have a farm store nearby?

 

[Chicklover96]

Welcome to BYC!

I would just give her some plain dry dirt. If you can't dig some up from their future run/pen site, you can buy the cheapest topsoil being sold near you and use that.

You should use chick size grit for chicks and adult sized crushed granite grit. You could even get scrap pieces of granite from a yard and smash it up to use for grit. Just screen it through 1/4" hardware cloth to remove the larger chunks.
Grit is not expensive to buy. Do you have a farm store nearby?

We have a farm supply, it’s where we got the original grit but they don’t have anything else besides the chick sized grit.

 

[DobieLover]

We have a farm supply, it’s where we got the original grit but they don’t have anything else besides the chick sized grit.

Tell them to order it. It would be far more needed than the chick grit.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you're in the US you could just order adult grit from Amazon or Chewy or whatnot.