I've been told from day one. That's what I use when mine are young. Also aspen shavings are a good choice as well.
When we got our chicks they were on a COLD cement floor with pine shavings. Gads, to the cold cement floor .... We've continued the pine shavings and all is very well. We also give our girls old socks to sleep on which they go crazy for each time I give them new ones which is twice a day and turning inbetween.. Yeah, so I'm a first time mom . They even started scratching around in their shavings yesterday, way to sweet....
They had pine shavings since they were put in the brooder. It was messy sometimes, I also put some newpaper down covered with pine shavings.
I had mine on paper towels for maybe a day. Way too much poo going on there. Off to the store I went to get pine shavings. I will never go back to paper towels!
I like paper towels, a few layers of them, on top of pine shavings. I figure by the time I've removed all the layers of messy paper towels, they have figured out where their food is, and will be less likely to eat the shavings, or eat a lot less of them JMHO.
Pine shavings are a must. I did paper towels on top of them for the first day and after seeing the girls go right for the feeder went to straight pine shavings after that. I keep a garden trowel next to the brooder and turn the bedding every day. Keeps the smell under control, and I'll change the bedding when the turning doesn't help anymore. I also found you need at least a couple inches of pine shavings on top of plastic bin floors, otherwise the little critters slip around too much.
