Official BYC Poll: What Bedding Do YOU Use in The Brooder?

[Lemon-Drop]

Is this for chicks only? I would think (IDK yet) that Ducks wouldn't be able to tear up puppy pads as easily as chicks.
I plan on using straw and pine shavings for Khaki's, but I also happen to have puppy pads that I could use.

Nope! This is just a discussion of what bedding (if at all) you use in the brooder, for any poultry.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

For hatchers a week old or under, I use puppy pads with shelf liner on top to help prevent splayed legs. I also use a small paper towel under their feeder for the first couple of days so any feed that spills out will be easily seen. After the first week or so, I start using a thin layer of large flaked pine shavings, but continue with the puppy pads under this so I can keep a close eye on poops. I use puppy pads underneath bedding throughout the entire time with waterfowl

Edited to add: I go through A LOT of puppy pads and shelf liner.

 

[K0k0shka]

Sand is the best! It’s so good that it appears twice in the answer options

 

[Lemon-Drop]

Sand is the best! It’s so good that it appears twice in the answer options

I accidentally put it twice and couldn’t delete, but let’s just say that’s it!

 

[Bluesamantha26]

I start with puppy pads and at 2 weeks switch to pine shavings! From reading other comments I'm not alone

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Hello. I use hemp in my brooder, from hatch to the coop! Hemp is warm, safe, cheap, and it deters mites and pests. Hemp is also great for scratching around in but creates little dust.
You can also use hemp in the coop, run, nests, and other pets. Therefore you don't need to buy different bedding for everything.

 

[Silexian]

I use crushed corn cobs. They are absorbent and don’t stick together like pine shavings do.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

When growing up with a mama hen, just the usual pine flake.

When raising chicks without a mama, I set them up in my spare bathroom tub & lined it with puppy pads. It's easy to monitor droppings. I guess about 2-3 weeks later, they'll start pecking at the pads, so I remove them immediately, as pecking & eating that would be really unhealthy. I get a lot of oatmeal at the health food store, they sell it loose, organic. They love scratching & kicking it to look for live mealworms. I always maintain a live mealworm "farm" to help teach them...it's not the bedding that's a treat, but rather what's crawling around in the bedding. If the chicks do happen to peck & eat a bit, it's never hurt them.

As they get bigger, I move them from the bathroom tub to a 6x6 room with pine flakes & again toss some mealworms around. They never even seem to care about bedding at all by then.
I learned the oatmeal bedding idea when I had baby Cockatiels in nestboxes. Their poo in the oatmeal was a like a little clump, easy to pick out & keep the nestbox clean. When wet poo meets dry oatmeal, it creates a "poo macaroon" of sorts .

 

[Kelsykin]

We use the pine flakes with paper towels the first several days. We have tried the puppy pads but that can get expensive if you brooder as many batches of chicks as we do a year.

 

[Painted Calls]

For hatchers a week old or under, I use puppy pads with shelf liner on top to help prevent splayed legs. I also use a small paper towel under their feeder for the first couple of days so any feed that spills out will be easily seen. After the first week or so, I start using a thin layer of large flaked pine shavings, but continue with the puppy pads under this so I can keep a close eye on poops. I use puppy pads underneath bedding throughout the entire time with waterfowl

Edited to add: I go through A LOT of puppy pads and shelf liner.

I do the exact same thing, only I go almost 2 weeks before adding pine shavings.