PDZ in the brooder?

[ourltlflock]

So my chicks are 2 wks old now, can I use the Sweet PDZ in the brooder instead of the shavings? Seems like it would be easier to clean and not so smelly. Adding it to the shavings doesn't seem to make sense to me. Like all the PDZ would be under the shavings and still hard to clean.

 

[aart]

I used paper towels and puppy pads for the first 3 days,
then I used a mix of Quikcrete fine white sand with some pdz mixed in for brooder bedding.

It worked great for the 3 weeks I had the chicks (I hatched some out for someone else).

Was easy to sift clean once a day with a fine metal mesh organizer basket.

 

[Scifisarah]

I would not use anything with very fine dusty particles for bedding. I had a very bad experience using sand with chicks. They started making wheezing sounds when they breathed after being on it for about 3 days. I'll only be using pine shavings from now on...

 

[ourltlflock]

I thought the PDZ wasn't dusty..?

 

[Scifisarah]

I know there are two different kinds, I have the powder, which is very fine and dusty. I don't have experience using that as substrate, but I personally will not use sand after my bad experience.

 

[aart]

You definitely want the granular PDZ, not the powdered...and a non dusty sand.
The Quikcrete fine white is actually fairly coarse and clean(not dusty).

Course once they start shedding feather sheaths at about 2 weeks everything gets really dusty!

I decided to try it in the brooder after using it on the roost boards in the coop and doing a little research:

advanced search>titles only>sand in brooder

 

[ourltlflock]

Thanks aart! Usually I'm pretty good at the search, apparently not this time, lol. I really didn't think of sand (duh) in the brooder.

 

[aart]

Thanks aart! Usually I'm pretty good at the search, apparently not this time, lol. I really didn't think of sand (duh) in the brooder.

You're welcome...searching here is difficult, hard to find hard info amid all the chat.

Using the advanced search with 'titles only' radio button clicked I've found to be the most direct, still have to sift the chaff from the wheat by reading thru a lot to threads.

 

[Scifisarah]

Maybe I will look into that sometime. Just stay clear of Menard's "white play sand".