Small mammals and rabbits kept on cedar bedding in enclosed spaces, develop liver disease, from breathing the essential oil that evaporates into the air, from the cedar. In addition to the poor ventilation, they are getting a much higher dose, having their faces right down at litter level. Eating it would also be bad. All the things that are good at repelling or killing bugs, can also kill animals and people. It's just that the dosages to kill tiny bugs are tolerable to larger creatures.
Since chicks are smaller, they need less of a dose of things to kill them. With those short little legs, they are also closest to the fumes and have poorer ventilation at the level of the bedding, due to the need to keep them out of drafts. And they sometimes also eat a bit of their litter. So, cedar bedding is especially hard on them.
You wouldn't be able to notice liver damage happening until it got really bad, although in animals that get regular vet care, it's easy to see the early stages in blood tests. Like kidney disease, without blood work being done, you don't know it's a problem until it's really bad, if you are just going by symptoms.
I don't know how much cedar bedding an adult chicken could tolerate and as others have said, there are a lot of variables in ventilation, climate and how much is used. There are a lot of things that can be used for mites and I think they are all bad! The same goes for killing fleas and ticks on dogs. That's why they work. Although I wouldn't normally use a cedar litter mix for chickens, I wouldn't normally use toxic pesticides on my chickens, either, but if they have parasites, you have to use something. Parasites can really suck the joy out of having chickens (temporarily) and I especially hate mites.
Since chicks are smaller, they need less of a dose of things to kill them. With those short little legs, they are also closest to the fumes and have poorer ventilation at the level of the bedding, due to the need to keep them out of drafts. And they sometimes also eat a bit of their litter. So, cedar bedding is especially hard on them.
You wouldn't be able to notice liver damage happening until it got really bad, although in animals that get regular vet care, it's easy to see the early stages in blood tests. Like kidney disease, without blood work being done, you don't know it's a problem until it's really bad, if you are just going by symptoms.
I don't know how much cedar bedding an adult chicken could tolerate and as others have said, there are a lot of variables in ventilation, climate and how much is used. There are a lot of things that can be used for mites and I think they are all bad! The same goes for killing fleas and ticks on dogs. That's why they work. Although I wouldn't normally use a cedar litter mix for chickens, I wouldn't normally use toxic pesticides on my chickens, either, but if they have parasites, you have to use something. Parasites can really suck the joy out of having chickens (temporarily) and I especially hate mites.
