pine pellets for horse bedding safe to eat?

[alessadry]

I found natural pine pellets for horse bedding and am using it in my chick's brooder. They are working great, and I love that they are free of any chemicals and are unlikely to causes mold and dust. However, my chicks have fun in the water a lot and the water spilled is causing the pellets to become like saw dust and I noticed some of my chicks go to peck it and some also ends up in their water... is this safe to eat?

 

[dianaross77]

It says on the bag that it's safe if ingested. I use them too and haven't had any trouble.

 

[bluere11e]

I don;t think anything other than feed is good for chicks, however, they'll soon figure out that it just isn't tasty.
However, if YOU want to eat them, you might need to soak them in some BBQ sauce..

 

[alessadry]

lol! no they will not be covered in bbq sauce...yes, the container says safe to be ingested but it refers to horses of course...

 

[dianaross77]

I think the problem with eating it would be if the chick ate the whole pellet, it would swell up, but a tiny chick isn't going to eat anything that big. By the time they'd be big enough to eat a big pellet, they'd know it doesn't taste good. I dont' think tiny bits of sawdust will hurt. Plenty of chickens survive eating much worse.

 

[flowerchild59]

I have used these under my roosts and have observed them pecking at them but spitting them back out. I really like to use them so will monitor them for any problems, but for the past several months it has not been a problem.

 

[silkiechicken]

And it will just go right through as roughage. Fiber anyone?