Painted Brooder

[SarahBee]

I asked a guy who works as a builder at my company for some scrap wood for me to make a larger brooder box for my six 3 week old chicks (currently they are in a dog crate and they are running out of room). He went all out, and made me a 3x4 box with a chicken wire top and even decorated it with little chicks painted on the side!!! My concern is- it's painted with commercial exterior paint, that I assume would be toxic if ingested. Should I line the inside of the box with cardboard or something to protect them from the paint? Or am I overthinking this?

Here's the brooder box:




and my two favorite girls, Lemon and Cucumber, at the edge of their current brooder sitting on my hand

 

[SarahBee]

anybody???

 

[richey1978]

I personally would not let the chickens peck at the paint. It looks very cute, and would be a shame to scrape off the paint job or have to put a cover of some type either on the outside or inside of the box. However, if you give your chicks a chance, they are going to peck at the designs...you know how chickens can be. Make sure you find out if he used non-toxic paint. You may be safe dependent on the type of paint used.