Wood pellets in the brooder

[felidaet]

I have read a few threads on here about people using wood pellets in their brooders instead of pine shavings. I was concerned that the pellets might be hard on their feet for the first couple of weeks. Now I don't think so.

Yesterday I was at one of the local feed stores and saw they they were using wood pellets. They just got the chicks in a couple of days ago and so they were less than a week old. It looked like they were doing great on the pellets. They were having fun scratching in them. I did not see any chicks trying to eat the pellets. It did not look like they were having any problems walking on the pellets. It looks like there will be no issues with them getting pellets in their food and water like there is with the pine shavings. The feed store was having a great sale on the pellets and so I went ahead and bought several bags of them. My brooder will be 8' x 3' and so I expect to go through quite a few during the 5 - 6 weeks the chicks are in the brooder. (Building the brooder is on my to-do list sometime in the next week or so.). I am thinking that with paper towels I will not need to use paper towels for the first few days.

 

[sumatra]

thanks for posting this. I am going to try it. pellets also work well as cat litter if you put a layer of clumping litter on the bottom of the pan. I have 12+ cats and litter/pellets work better for them than pure litter

 

[Kelly G]

This is what I've put in my brooder for this batch of chicks due to arrive this Friday. I use this bedding for my horses - and I LOVE it! It's super absorbant, controls oders, and doesn't tempt the chicks to eat it.

I can't wait to try it out! I can't wait for my chicks to get here!!!!

 

[felidaet]

I forgot to mention that we have two indoor pet bunnies and have been using the wood pellets for their litter for about a year. It works great.