To Dan & Blue.
Litters for chicks:
Pine shavings are extremely absorbent so spilt water,feces,etc. are soaked up very quickly especially when you use 2-3 inches and they learn to forage in shavings since they are easy to dig in and that way feces aren't always sitting on top they stir it in so overall shavings last longest and only need changing after a couple days.This also not very expensive to get in large quantities.
Newspaper isn't very absorbent and to make a thick layer you would need a lot of newspapers.You would end up spending quite a bit.The poop also sits on top and your chicks get really yucky very quickly.Also if they eat the newspaper that just isn't healthy due to the ink.
Leaves are imbetween them both they are more absorbent then newspaper but not as much as pine shavings.They can be foraged in as well but they are messy looking and if the chicks ate poisonous tree leaves could kill them.Such as cedar leaves.(I don't know why you would want to use those anyhow).But leaves are free.There feces get plastered on to the leaves though and since some leaves are really big they can't mix them up and just get disgusting.
Litters for chicks:
Pine shavings are extremely absorbent so spilt water,feces,etc. are soaked up very quickly especially when you use 2-3 inches and they learn to forage in shavings since they are easy to dig in and that way feces aren't always sitting on top they stir it in so overall shavings last longest and only need changing after a couple days.This also not very expensive to get in large quantities.
Newspaper isn't very absorbent and to make a thick layer you would need a lot of newspapers.You would end up spending quite a bit.The poop also sits on top and your chicks get really yucky very quickly.Also if they eat the newspaper that just isn't healthy due to the ink.
Leaves are imbetween them both they are more absorbent then newspaper but not as much as pine shavings.They can be foraged in as well but they are messy looking and if the chicks ate poisonous tree leaves could kill them.Such as cedar leaves.(I don't know why you would want to use those anyhow).But leaves are free.There feces get plastered on to the leaves though and since some leaves are really big they can't mix them up and just get disgusting.
