pine pellets......

[captainmommy3]

my little chickadees spent their first night and day on pine pellets yesterday.......they are AWESOME my little RIR Juliet was having trouble deciding if the pine shavings wold be a good snack so via advice from a BYC member i bought pine pellets and i will not be going back! The pellets soak up cecal poo in like a minute....they r the best and ms. Juliet will not be eating these as they r pretty large

 

[bnjrob]

Are you using the pine pellets that are marketed as kitty litter?

 

[captainmommy3]

No. i am using the pine pellets for farm animals they have no added purfumes no additives and are 100% pine.

 

[wilbilt]

We are using them as well. So far, no odor and the droppings are absorbed quickly. The chicks don't seem to have any trouble walking on them. They do peck at them a lot, but curiosity is my guess.

 

[peepacheep]

Last spring I had a Brahma chick practice taxidermy on herself with pine shavings. She had a close call with death by constipation. (won't gross anyone out with the details but it was a long 2 hours and a lot of intervention while the shavings passed through her

) Had to switch to wood stove pellets for that batch of chicks. I use wood stove pellets for the cat and rabbit litter boxes. Nice how they crumble to saw dust when composted.

 

[wilbilt]

I was going to use wood stove pellets, as we heat with a pellet stove so always have them around. I know here in the west, the stove pellets are all softwood, but I was concerned they probably contain cedar. Some bags smell a lot like cedar, and I have heard bad things about cedar and chickens.

I decided to spring for the extra $2/bag for the bedding pellets. Peace of mind, I guess.

 

[bnjrob]

Hmmm, I didn't see any pine pellets when I was at the feed store. We use pine pellets for kitty litter - no perfumes or dyes in them - so we always have a ton of bags on hand. I didn't even know they made pine pellets for farm animal use. Gonna have to look into that, might be cheaper than the kitty litter pellets we get.

 

[captainmommy3]

the brand we bought is Equine Fresh the guy at TSC said they work perfect for baby chicks they cost 5.99 and you get a pretty large bag.

 

[wilbilt]

Hmmm, I didn't see any pine pellets when I was at the feed store. We use pine pellets for kitty litter - no perfumes or dyes in them - so we always have a ton of bags on hand. I didn't even know they made pine pellets for farm animal use. Gonna have to look into that, might be cheaper than the kitty litter pellets we get.

The ones I bought are called "Equine Fresh" in a brown/tan 40 lb. bag. I got them at TSC and they were about $7/bag.

One of my coworkers has burned these in his pellet stove when nobody in town had fuel pellets. He said they burned OK, but generated more ash than stove pellets.

 

[wilbilt]

the brand we bought is Equine Fresh the guy at TSC said they work perfect for baby chicks they cost 5.99 and you get a pretty large bag.

Beat me to it. They are $6.99 here. Stupid California.