What to do with this litter?

[HELPPLS]

I have my chicks in a big plastic swimming pool, inside the house. I have a lot of pine shavings and a little PDZ and DE mixed in. I am confused on what to do with this. I was told to just stir the poop up and add some new pine shavings in occasionally. That just doesn't seem right to just stir the poop in. It is such little bits of poo because they are still so little but am I suppose to skim the top layer of shavings off and throw it away or what? The dust is killing my head in here from the shavings but the shed we were going to keep them in is leaking so now they are stuck inside. Plus I love being able to play with them and watch them. I couldn't do that if they were outside. Any advice would be helpful. We have 10 total and we just got them a week ago. They are growing so very fast. I also don't know if its normal but some of them have loose stools and others are more solid. I do give them some chick grit and grass and meal worms. They don't have any interest in boiled eggs at all. They have also had a couple of worms out of the yard. Not all of this at one time though.

 

[Percheron chick]

I would dump it and start again. Just go with no more than 1" of shavings. The PDZ and DE are what's making things dusty. DE isn't good to be breathing either. I just scoop out the poopy an wet spots every few days and add fresh shavings when it gets a little thin.

 

[HELPPLS]

Thanks. I had just pine shavings in the smaller pool I started them in and no DE or PDZ and dust was still all over everything. I can certainly see where they may make it worse though. I think I will have to do that. I just put them in this pool and put all new litter 3 days ago. I dreaded starting over. I thought the PDZ would keep them from smelling the house up. Thank you very much.

 

[Folly's place]

Chicks in the house; DUSTY and THEY SMELL. Truth! Mine are in a big dog crate, and will be out in the chicken coop very soon! I use shavings over newspaper. You could use hospital bed pads, but That's not fun either. No DE, it's BAD to inhale. Can you move the brooder to your garage, or that shed you mentioned? Mary

 

[WalnutHill]

I have been using TSC's bagged Equine Bedding pellets to house my newborns. Right now I have 25 few day old broilers riding out a chilly spell in the guest bath next to my office. The pellet bedding is not dusty, is not something they even want to eat, and they can still roll and scratch in it. Since it is pure pine, it also is absorbent and helps suppress odors.

But I still haven't met any bedding that can kill the smell of 25 Cornish X for long.

 

[HELPPLS]

Is it safe for them to eat?

 

[subhanalah]

Is it safe for them to eat?

just as safe as pine shavings. Offer chick grit if you are worried about them ingesting a little.

 

[sunflour]

just as safe as pine shavings. Offer chick grit if you are worried about them ingesting a little.

? how much shavings do you think they can eat and be ok?

Mine are been on sand since 2 weeks old, now one year. Continued sand in run and coop and tried pine shavings in the nest boxes, but they ate it. I mean they ate it like it was quite a treat. I have camera in coop and they looked like it was a pine shaving feast. Made me so nervous, I removed it from the nests and changed to sand. But I really wanted a softer sit for egg laying. Tried shredded newspaper and they ate it too. I would like to try the shavings again.

 

[subhanalah]

Wow, perhaps you could use straw on top of the sand to help cushion it?
It seems so weird that your birds have this affinity!

 

[Wol1]

We started with chickens last year. We used straight pine shavings over newspaper. Scooped out the water spills and added a layer of shavings when things started smelling bad. We had to change it all out about once a week, but they were outgrowing their enclosure that fast anyway. This year we had pine shavings for the first week when they were so tiny, then we put them with a mama hen on straw in a "nursery coop" and they have been fine. Still, I had to clean it out after about a week and a half. It has been better since it has warmed up and we can take the blankets off the top and let them out into a little pen.....airs it out, I guess. When we had them indoors last year, we put some old window screens over their box which seemed to trap some of the dust. But it was still quite messy. And smelly. Very glad when we got them out to the barn.