Safe sand for chicks?

[grandwake]

My little 1 week olds are already trying to dust bathe in the pine shavings. I want to put a little bowl of sand/dirt in the brooder but I want to know what is safe. I have some colored reptile sand from an old gecko we used to have. I was going to use that but I wanted to make sure it would be safe for the chicks. It is purple for one, but I also think it is vitamin enriched (since the reptiles ingest some and lay in it all day). Think it could be trouble?

Is some sifted dirt from outside ok? We have an older flock out there so I didn't want to risk the spread or illness while they are so young. Our ladies had dry fowl pox a few years back so it makes me nervous to use any dirt from the yard.

Thoughts?

 

[Chick Charm]

Sometimes we tend to overanalyze things. Dirt is good for chickens. It's what they were meant to live on. Sand is good and usually better for coop maintenance than most other materials. Play sand, white sand, filtered sand, sand sand....it's all good.

Wish ya the best.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I purposely feed dirt from the run to my chicks in the brooder about Day 2 or 3. It gives them any probiotics the older birds have. They can use it for grit. And it introduces anything the other birds have so they can start working on their immunities. Those chicks are going to be exposed to anything the older birds have when you integrate them. Why not let them develop those immunities when they are young and best able to develop them?

 

[grandwake]

Well, they are not on medicated feed so I don't want to introduce them to anything that could kill them if exposed to too young. That is my reason for hesitation, but I suppose I will just use dirt from our front yard where the chickens have never been.