Sawdust as Litter for babies

[hillshouse]

This is the first time I have used sawdust as litter for the little ones. I read here some where to cover it up until they knew what their food was and not to let them eat the sawdust. They are a week old now, I was wanting to know when I can quit covering the sawdust with towel or old sheets. And what if they decide to eat it now. Does it hurt them after they get this old? The paper that came with the chicks said sawdust was good for litter. We have a sawmill so I thought it was the cheapest way to go for me.
Moni

 

[bigzio]

Actually pine shavings are the prefered bedding for chicks. It would be best to cover the sawdust for 2 to 3 days until the peeps know what is food. Paper shop towels work well for this. I would be concerned that the chicks would eat the sawdust or possibly the wood is green and the sawdust is not dry. Pine is more absorbant than hardwood, so that would make a difference also. If the peeps are on dry sawdust, I would make sure they have sand available for grit.

bigzio

 

[hillshouse]

Thanks, I think I will clean the sawdust out and get shaving. I don't want to take any chances with my little gals. I usually just get 3 or 4 peeps from the co-op and put then in a cage with hardware cloth bottom. But this time I got 50 and the cage was no where big enough. We built a brooder house but the temps have been in the single digits and I couldn't keep it as warm as I wanted. So I put the sawdust in the bottom of a kids swimming pool and covered the sawdust to keep them in the garage. Until the weather begins getting warmer or they get to big. I will clean it out tommorrow and get shavings. Thanks again.
Moni

 

[RAWR]

we used saw dust for bedding, but we covered it up with straw and and it just didnt work so we switched to just shreded corncob