Pine shavings and Poop... what to do??

[BenAnnaMama]

I have been cleaning my chicks brooder as needed by scooping out little piles of poop! This was fine until yesterday... I think they are starting to poop a lot more on day 7! They now are getting poop stuck to their feet so today I was planning on replacing the pine shavings. What should I do? Replace or add more on top? I'd hate to throw out perfectly clean pine shavings... What are people doing at this stage? The poop is only an issue where they hang out under the heat. Should I just replace that section? I'm not trying to be cheap about it, I'm just trying not to be so wasteful! Let me know your thoughts on this!

 

[Emmalion]

I noticed mine poop a lot by their CD so I put in a new clean paper towel down so I can easily clean it when it needs to be done.

 

[NickyPick]

When I moved from paper towels (daily clean) to shavings, the chicks were 4 days old. 3 days later, I added more shavings and pretty much kept that schedule up. Once a week, I'll dump the lot on the compost pile. I've got 14 in a wading pool sized brooder, so there is a LOT of poop, but we don't smell much of anything but warm shavings on entering the room. It works for us. The chicks LOVE coming back in from their afternoon outside play time to a brooder with deeper shavings. They'll spend the next couple of hours digging down and flinging it all over the place.

 

[allpeepedout]

For my 7, after week one I used flat newspaper. For complete bedding change every day, simply roll up all sheets as one unit, fold over, and put down new, plus lay fresh sheets on top as "diaper changes" in between. As they have gotten older, I have put down more layers so they can scratch up and play with the top. Free, quick, clean, easy for me, but I have only a few.

 

[BenAnnaMama]

Thanks, I think I'll add to the top too and see how that goes. Mine isn't smelly either I just don't like seeing it stuck to their feet!

 

[BenAnnaMama]

Quote:
I'm using pine shavings and I only have 4... My "diaper changes" involved me picking up poop as they did it! I spent the first 5 days staring at them anyway so as they pooped, i scooped it out!

 

[Chickengal505]

I clean my brooder shavings daily for the first few days because 1) I use VERY little shavings first few days 2) The first few poops are trial runs for a chick digestive system, and all the have in them is yolk so its gooy and stinky

After that I clean every two to three days. Also every week I scrub off the poop on their feet with hand soap/ Foot scrub (depining on how sticky hard ect. the poop is ) and an old tooth brush. The scrubs reduce chances of bumble foot as if they cut them selves it will become infected because of bacteria already on their feet.


Edited to add:

 

[BenAnnaMama]

Good to know.. I'll check their feet when I add the shavings. Thanks!

 

[AlienChick]

I do not clean out the shavings... just keep adding more on top.

Kinda of a deep litter method in a brooder.

I noticed if they do step in wet poop, it eventually dries quickly enough to where it gets scraped off their feet naturally through all the shavings.

They absolutely LOVE the deep bedding of shavings!

 

[BellevueOmlet]

I usually do not use shavings until they are older since they always want to hunt and peck the shavings and end up eating a lot of them. Is that a concern for anyone else or do you think they will be ok with shavings?