wood shavings/sawdust question?

[bbriggs1961]

I have accumulated a nice pile of sawdust from woodworking, was wondering if it would be good to use for chicks before putting them into coop. Wood is cherry, walnut, oak, ash and pine. Any dangers here? Thanks.

 

[chick007]

as long as there is no cedar in the mix you are ok. cedar is the one that is toxic to chicks. you sawdust will give some new interesting smell for you chikens to scratch through

 

[Arielle]

Use sawdust with care as it is very dusty; shavings is far less dusty.

Adding moisture to sawdust reduces the dustyness but is still never as good for their lungs as shavings. I don't use sawdust for my birds but can effectively use it with horses as their bedding is always moist and I can mix fresh into moist for a win-win situation.

Love that you want to recycle the sawdust! Shredded leaves may be a possiblity . . . .

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

they will eat it...I used straw because they were eating chips too...it won't hurt them it's just not very nutritious and they don't seem to discern between the chick crumbles (neither can I so I don;t know if they ate it or not)

 

[bbriggs1961]

Thanks for info, would it be better to use the sawdust in the nest boxes? Possibly with pine needles or straw on top of it.