How many days before shavings

[imneva]

how old do the babies need to be before they can be on pine flakes? I am using puppy pads 1st. Then will use pines flakes. Thanks!! Monday is the biiiig day!!

 

[Dr.GarryTTucker]

All of mine go straight to “Flakes” the first day. I don’t use pads. They are too big to eat and have all the benifits of pine shavings. Well two they go straight to grass. With grit of coarse.

 

[SweetTea&Chicks]

First two days they were on plain cardboard. Then I added a bit of shavings and after I had to change those it was all shavings. You can go ahead and go all shavings the first day. It’s totally fine. I just did that to keep shavings out of their water because that’s when they’re running around a lot.

 

[CannedMonster]

how old do the babies need to be before they can be on pine flakes? I am using puppy pads 1st. Then will use pines flakes. Thanks!! Monday is the biiiig day!!

I have 6 five day old chicks.
I don’t like doing pine shavings right away.
I do puppy pads for the first 5 days.
Mine had to be changed out daily the last couple of days.
Boy those tiny things can poop!
Then I do large flake pine shavings only!
I get them at Tractor Supply.
I’m kinda paranoid because I had to cull a 4 week old chick with an obstruction in her crop; she was slowly starving. I could feel it and it felt just like a piece of shaving. It was pretty big though. I don’t know how she swallowed it.

Tiny shavings shouldn’t hurt them if they eat them.

 

[IamRainey]

I used pine shavings from the beginning too.

 

[Mimi13]

I use the “fine” pine flakes in the brooder in the beginning. I place paper towels over them the first day or two so the chicks learn to eat the chick food before they start picking at the flakes. Once you see that they are all eating well you can remove the paper towels. At five weeks I put my chicks in the coop on sand. Coarse, construction grade sand, not play sand.

 

[Ms Biddy]

I agree with 5 days on puppy pads before switching to large flake shavings. I'm sure in most cases going straight to shavings is fine, but mine started eating some shavings that got wet from a vertical nipple waterer and it started a feeding frenzy. They were only a couple of days old and I thought for sure they were going to get sour crop or obstructions so I made a crop clearing recipe I found here on BYC and did crop massages throughout the night. They were fine, but I no longer want to risk it. A mama hen would show them what is food and what isn't. When they are in a brooder they have to figure it out themselves and they aren't the brightest.

 

[Zinjifrah]

I won't say that pine shavings from day one isn't fine...

I just know that when I first got my Sebrights, they went straight onto pine shavings when I got them home. Two died in the first couple days, and all were sneezing. I pulled them off the pine shavings, and put them on paper towels. Puppy pads would probably have been easier! They promptly stopped sneezing, and they all looked and acted much healthier. No more died - not until I had to cull one for severe scissor beak, at least. After that, I kept all my chicks off shavings until they were at least a few days old.

 

[ChickNanny13]

We all have our own start ... I use potty pads (not the gel type) for the first week to check poop color & consistency, the stay in a plastic bin brooder with MHP & fed fermented feed. The second week I start them on the horizontal water nipple waterer, still on the potty pads. The third week they go out to the brooder (3 x 8 x 3) out in the patio with wood floor & do a slight DLM. Works great until they go out to the Chicken House between the ages of 10 - 12wk. Works for me with no issues but I haven't been raising very long.

 

[imneva]

Perfect I am using the puppy pads. Thanks for all the insight