Wood Pellet Bedding?

[RAWR]

Quote:
i would like to know too

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I bought pine shavings for my ducklings, as I usually do, but this time the shavings were much smaller -- like sawdust. I had two ducklings start choking on the stuff. The way they race around the brooder it is impossible to keep the bedding out of the food and water, without putting them out of reach of the ducklings.

I read another thread on here about the wood pellet bedding and so I bought some yesterday. I had also read that stove pellets are about the same, so long as no accelerant is added. I looked over a few bags of the stove pellets, because the hardware store is closer to me than the feed store. Well, it was hard to tell if it would be safe. One bag had cedar in it (it was labeled as such) and both bags said they had trace amounts of potentially cancer causing materials. Off to the feed store. They had the horse bedding pellets, but warned me it was in a different bag. OK, when I looked at it, it was in a stove pellet bag, with similar labeling as the bags I saw at the hardware store.

The feed store people assured me it was the horse bedding. My guess is that the two products are identical (hence the factory messing up the bagging).

The advantage of the wood pellets is clearly the lack of smell and less of a mess to clean up. The only problem is that I am getting fluffed up bits of sawdust in the water and the food. I know the ducklings are eating and drinking the sawdust, but they seem to be ok.

I'm not sure whether to continue using it. If it wasn't getting in the food and water it would be about perfect. I may just re-arrange the brooder so that the feeding/watering area is covered with sand and the sleeping area is wood pellets, with some sort of barrier to keep the pellet fluff from migrating.

A 40# bag of the bedding was about the same as an equal size bag of stove pellets -- $4.50.

 

[carey34]

I have been using woody pet wood pellets for a few weeks now and it has worked out awesome. Much less smell int he house from the brooder. I elevate the water dish on a small broken brick and in another brooder I turned a tea cup plate upside down. This keeps a lot of anything out of the water. It's so much less messy then the shavings ever were that is for sure and def. helps with the smell.

 

[Southernbelle]

Tractor Supply charged $4.99 or so for a 44# bag.

 

[chickenmommaNJ]

I use Kaytee wood pellet for my rabbit and my 2 year old put a handful into my cage where my baby chicks are. One of my chicks swallowed a whole pellet and was choking. For the last 30 minutes I have been pulling it out with tweezers and forcing water down its throat. I think I got it all, time will tell! Praying this baby chick makes it, I tried everything

Please do not use the pellets!

 

[mommakatx2]

FYI: wood stove pellets and horse stall pellets are the exact same thing! I use them interchangeably in my horse stalls all the time. They do expand when wet and fluff into sawdust...that's how you use them. I'm not familiar with "pet" pellets, but when I Google them, they're exactly the same and they will also expand when wet. I personally wouldn't use pellets since they could potentially be broken and swallowed and then expand internally, or get wet and expand into messy sawdust. Great for horses an other animals but I'd be cautious with chicks.