Playground sand as a snack?

[IHeartCapnHook]

I have a large plastic bin (you know the kind that go under your bed with wheels and lid) full of play sand for my girls to dust bathe in. I take the lid off the sandbox and the first thing they all do is come running and eat the sand? I have only seen one chicken actually doing the dust bath in there. They have oyster shells next to their food. They range all over the yard, so they get lots of dirt, snail shells, muck from the ground.

Is this bad that they all want to eat the sand? Is there something that I should be doing to discourage them? Or is it okay since grit is a part of their diet?

 

[caralouise1974]

My BO and bluebelle both loved to eat the sand in their dustbath when we first got them. They eventually learned what the sand was really for, but the sand they ate never did them any harm. They love eating earth too, which is really all the same thing I suppose.

Suspect it helps with calcium intake and isn't anything to worry about.

 

[Tala]

My chicks ate sand for a few days, then lost interest. Didn't hurt 'em. I mixed their grit in with the sand and they seem to like fishing it out - I like the fact that it's one less "dish" in the tractor.

They still don't use it for a dust bath though

 

[IHeartCapnHook]

Mine don't use it for a dustbath, either! I put up a separate post seeing how I can "teach" them to use it correctly

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

sand, grit is not oyster shell
so chickens do eat one or the other
sand stays sand and goes from the crop to the gizzard
griet does the same thing
where as oyster shell goes to the stomach and disolves and goes into the bird for calcium

you never mentioned giving grit
so the chickens think it is grit time