Not Peepers, they are POOPERS!!

[Baymule]

My 6 chickies are getting to that funky stinky stage. I change their paper twice a day, fresh water, feed and treats in the form of broccoli blooms. Ok, ok today they peeped so cute, I shared my mac'n cheese with them.........obviously so they can POOP some more!

 

[froggiesheins]

Ya know what they say "what goes in- must come out"... in this case it just seems like twice as much comes out than goes in.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Chick poop can be funky. Especially the cecal poop. And, perhaps, the brocolli treats are adding to it. How old are they? You said they were on paper, have you thought about using pine shavings? You won't have to change things out as often.

 

[NonnasBabies]

If your feeding them all that kinds of stuff I'd definetly have them on shavings and not paper!!

 

[txhomegrown]

I have a bunch of chicks that just hatched, and I have them on paper towels on top of pine shavings. How long do I need to use the paper? I think I heard it's a couple of days. I don't want them to have messed up legs, but I am already tired of messing with the paper towels. I can't believe all that poop comes from a few tiny chicks.

 

[NonnasBabies]

Quote:
I think I left the ones I just hatched on paper towel for about 5 days, but that's only cause I went out of town when they were 2 days old!! I'd say you could put the on shavings now!!

 

[Reyvaughn]

So... I could have potentially messed up my chicks' legs when I put my day olds from TSC right into the shavings? Oh noes! "I swear, Officer ChickenLaw, I didn't know! I just did what TSC did!"
Seriously, though... Should I have kept them on paper for awhile? They are 3 days old now, so I think it's a little late now, but for future knowledge...

 

[srolle1lsu]

i thought the paper towels were to encourage them to eat food and not the substrate. reading on here, some folks seem to do fine with pine right off the bat.

 

[Judy]

It's newspaper that can mess up their legs, or anything they can slide on. Paper towels are fine. Lots of people say they have no trouble using pine shavings from day one. Pine shavings do help control odor a little better.

 

[Chick Charm]

Shavings are good. My experience with 1 day old to 3 day olds is to put them on shavings. Yes it deffinately helps with the poo smell.