wood shavings in my brooder

[chickendude]

I have 6 day old RIR in my home made brooder. I have paper towels placed over 1 to 1 1/2 inches of wood shavings. These little foragers are tearing up the paper towels and possibly eating the wood shavings. Should I be concerned?

 

[hen-thusiast]

So - I'm new to chickens too, but you are just using regular pine shavings right? For the first week we had them on paper towels and then switched to shavings, for the first couple of days they seemed to eat a lot of it. They shouldn't be eating it, but they do because they have a horrible sense of taste and they are learning what food is. Keep an eye on them to make sure they are eating their feed and not too much litter. Everything should be okay.

 

[chickendude]

Thank you for the help.I think I will remove the pine and just use the towels for another week or so.

 

[hippichick]

I use pine shavings in my brooders. For the first couple of days, I usually put paper towels over the shavings. After they get the hang of eating the chick starter, I remove the paper towels. I've never had any problems with my chicks eating shavings.

Paula

 

[Chris09]

I use builder sand its corser than play sand.. You can get it a lowes.
around 3.00 a 80 lb bag..

 

[Purplegoanna]

Dont panic, i use it in both my quail & chick brooders, they will nibble on it bt as long as you have a large enough flat dish of food close to the heat source they soon learn which is food & which is not. Just tap your finger every now & then in the feed dish if your worried.

 

[ging3rhoffman]

I heard the chicks will eat it and become impacted and die, so i use paper towels only and then when i put them in their coop at 5 or 6 weeks old i used straw and now that they are 12 weeks old i am going to try the wood shavings.