Help 19 month old laying eating shavings

[circlemfarmny]

As @Wyorp Rock mentioned, lack of suitable grit is often the problem when a chicken is overindulging on bedding. They have an instinct constantly to be picking up grit, and when there isn't any, they make do with what they do find easy to pick up. If you provide granite grit sprinkled all over the ground of the run, I think it may solve the problem.

Oyster shell is not grit, by the way. It's water soluble. You need non-water soluble grit.

I use both I know oyster shells aren’t grit it helps with the eggshells they have a station of both with having 2 cups of grit in the station and one 1 cup of oyster shell in the other station they never go without grit in their runs

 

[azygous]

The key is to sprinkle the grit over the ground among the shavings so she will productively scratch and seek grit in a natural way to satisfy this instinct which can be as consuming as your search for the perfect form of chocolate.

 

[circlemfarmny]

I use both I know oyster shells aren’t grit it helps with the eggshells they have a station of both with having 2 cups of grit in the station and one 1 cup of oyster shell in the other station they never go without grit in their runs

Crushed oyster shell is not the same as granite poultry grit. Do you have both? Okay, I see that you do. Some think those are the same thing. I once had a loner hen who had access to grit and good all flock and layer feed. She still would eat tree algae, dried grass, and other unsuitable things. Eventually she starved to death and when I opened her gizzard and crop, it was full of dried things. She was active, roosting, and seemed normal even going for treats up until she died. I think that some birds may need something in their diet, such as minerals that they cannot get, and they may develop a weird type of pica. Who knows, but this chicken doesn’t seem like she will survive too long.

That’s what I’m afraid of she’s young and was good up until a week ago them this all happened I know theoriginal problem was the long grass she kept eating even with it then when the vet showed me the picture of all that was in her you could see some bedding and feed and scratch the second time they just called and told me and said she had some of her slurry food and shaving in her I use the large shaving from Tsc well she was in her living world cage had no access to anything else so to get a strange habit of needing shaving idk what could have happened to her when she was originally blocked to want to eat them it gets real cold up here in winter and they need to be deep bedded so sand won’t work in winter as it gets cold in the coops

 

[circlemfarmny]

The key is to sprinkle the grit over the ground among the shavings so she will productively scratch and seek grit in a natural way to satisfy this instinct which can be as consuming as your search for the perfect form of chocolate.

To try that may just be bringing her back in for crop surgery again as she may eat both

 

[azygous]

There is a disorder of the brain called "pica". Heard of it? It afflicts individuals of many different species. The brain compels the body to eat non-food items such as paper, shavings, metal, dirt, etc. Medical professionals don't know precisely why some people and animals engage in this aberration. In some instances it's behavioral, and in other cases it can be sourced to nutritional deficiencies.

Here on BYC, I've seen a few extreme cases of crop disorders where pica was discovered as the cause. When taken to the vet and X-rayed or upon necropsy, gizzards full of screws, safety pins, paper clips, staples, etc were found, and in some instances, shavings.

When a chicken has this disorder, nothing you do will mitigate it. The chicken always ends up dead. This is something you may want to consider.

 

[circlemfarmny]

There is a disorder of the brain called "pica". Heard of it? It afflicts individuals of many different species. The brain compels the body to eat non-food items such as paper, shavings, metal, dirt, etc. Medical professionals don't know precisely why some people and animals engage in this aberration. In some instances it's behavioral, and in other cases it can be sourced to nutritional deficiencies.

Here on BYC, I've seen a few extreme cases of crop disorders where pica was discovered as the cause. When taken to the vet and X-rayed or upon necropsy, gizzards full of screws, safety pins, paper clips, staples, etc were found, and in some instances, shavings.

When a chicken has this disorder, nothing you do will mitigate it. The chicken always ends up dead. This is something you may want to consider.

Uggghh I was hoping it was just a phosphorus deficiency or other type of mineral deficiency that I could remedy