What Else Besides Pine Chips?

[Iain Utah]

I use old towels and baby blankets. It gives the babies good traction, is safe for them to pick at, and soft for them to sleep on. Works great and is cost effective, because they are re-usable. To clean, shake them out and throw into washing machine.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

That should get you through the first week, but not much longer if they're able to get the cardboard wet. You definitely want to use pine shavings for that for the absorbency they have.

I couldn't find a video that shows what they do with the water in the drinker when they really get into it. They're not that bad the first week, like these. But note the wire bottom below the waterer.

When they get older, they start zooming through that water "sifting" in it, throwing it pretty far. Chickens kick bedding into the water and make it gross. Ducklings throw the water all over and mix their food in it, then food filled water gets flung around.

They'll run to the food, get a bill full, run to the water, sift, sift, sift, run back to the food... and so on and so forth until they're drained the water container and it's contents are all over the bedding and walls. So the cardboard isn't going to last long unless you place the waterer in the middle, well away from it.

I agree the use of hardware cloth under the waterer is a great idea. We brooded six ducklings a couple of years ago in a big plastic bin with wood shavings and paper towels on top for the first week. The bedding would get soaked after a few hours it seemed once they were a week old. We came up with the hardware cloth under the waterer on our own eventually. I wish I had seen that video before, it would have saved us some time.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I use those soft rubber puzzle mats. For the first week, I cover them with either paper towels or paper feed sacks (if I have any paper feed sacks,). I don't use shavings for the first week because the ducklings will try to eat the shavings. Once they are a week old, they will taste the shavings and realize they aren't food.

Once I have shavings in the brooder, I put the shavings directly on the rubber mats and clean by scooping the shavings out with an ash shovel.

You'll need something under the waterers to catch the spillage.