Dried grass for keet bedding

[GuineaMania]

Hi everybody, I know it is recommended to start guinea fowl keets on paper towels for the first couple of days due to the risk of them eating bedding, but the paper towels can get really messy. Would it be safe to have guinea keets on dried grass bedding when they are really young? Would there be risk of them eating it? I have a broody guinea hen that has been incubating some eggs for a couple days now, so I'm planning ahead.

 

[GuineaMania]

@R2elk @Gill-b

 

[Gill-b]

Hi, I feel quite honoured that you have tagged me, however unfortunately I am not experienced enough to give you a suitable answer.

I have only ever raised a single keet under circumstances where I wanted it to be as free range as possible, so we spent a lot of time in the garden. The other keets that I have delt with are all indigenous Guinea Fowl living their lives "born" free under the African sun.

My educated guess is that the dead grass will effect the keets' digestion and diet, as they will most likely peck at it and eat it?... also depending on the type of grass you are using?

 

[GuineaMania]

Hi, I feel quite honoured that you have tagged me, however unfortunately I am not experienced enough to give you a suitable answer.

I have only ever raised a single keet under circumstances where I wanted it to be as free range as possible, so we spent a lot of time in the garden. The other keets that I have delt with are all indigenous Guinea Fowl living their lives born free under the African sun.

My educated guess is that the dead grass will effect the keets' digestion and diet, as they will most likely peck at it and eat it?... also depending on the type of grass you are using?

I understand, thank you for the reply, though! I might just have to try it and monitor them to see what happens.

 

[Gill-b]

I have a broody guinea hen that has been incubating some eggs for a couple days now

I am feeling a little more awake now that I have had my morning tea, haha. My first post on this thread was made at around 04h20, so upon rereading it now I realised that I skipped asking if this will be your first Guinea brood from your Guineas? I am excited for you. Do you know how many eggs there are? Are you planning on leaving the keets with the Guinea parents if you are able to?

When my rescued keet and I were indoors I would use paper towels or tissue paper to catch its poop. My keet sometimes manage to grab bits off of the paper from out of my hands and run around with it, trying to avoid being captured by me. If I did not catch it in time it would eat the paper. It became an expert at evasion!
At first I use to panic when it ate the paper but after a few days I gave up worrying about it as it did not seem to have any ill effect on the keet, but we still "played" Give-me-that-back! almost every day.

 

[R2elk]

Hi everybody, I know it is recommended to start guinea fowl keets on paper towels for the first couple of days due to the risk of them eating bedding, but the paper towels can get really messy. Would it be safe to have guinea keets on dried grass bedding when they are really young? Would there be risk of them eating it? I have a broody guinea hen that has been incubating some eggs for a couple days now, so I'm planning ahead.

If you do use dried grass for bedding, make sure it is short and that the keets have appropriate sized grit available. They will eat the bedding even if it is paper towels.

I use sand for bedding. The main reason is because I live on a sand dune and it is free for the digging. It does provide the keets with appropriate sized grit.

 

[GuineaMania]

I am feeling a little more awake now that I have had my morning tea, haha. My first post on this thread was made at around 04h20, so upon rereading it now I realised that I skipped asking if this will be your first Guinea brood from your Guineas? I am excited for you. Do you know how many eggs there are? Are you planning on leaving the keets with the Guinea parents if you are able to?

When my rescued keet and I were indoors I would use paper towels or tissue paper to catch its poop. My keet sometimes manage to grab bits off of the paper from out of my hands and run around with it, trying to avoid being captured by me. If I did not catch it in time it would eat the paper. It became an expert at evasion!
At first I use to panic when it ate the paper but after a few days I gave up worrying about it as it did not seem to have any ill effect on the keet, but we still "played" Give-me-that-back! almost every day.

Yes, this will be my first brood from my guineas! She has around 11 eggs, but I don't know if all of them are viable. I'll have the guinea parents raise the keets, hopefully the guineas aren't as bad at raising keets as everybody says! Good to know about the paper towels, I bet that was really funny!

 

[GuineaMania]

If you do use dried grass for bedding, make sure it is short and that the keets have appropriate sized grit available. They will eat the bedding even if it is paper towels.

I use sand for bedding. The main reason is because I live on a sand dune and it is free for the digging. It does provide the keets with appropriate sized grit.

Thanks for the reply! I heard that keets can get impacted crop from sand, do you think that could be an issue if I used it?

 

[R2elk]

Thanks for the reply! I heard that keets can get impacted crop from sand, do you think that could be an issue if I used it?

You want to use coarse sand. I have never had a keet or a chick or a poult with an impacted crop from being on sand bedding.

 

[GuineaMania]

You want to use coarse sand. I have never had a keet or a chick or a poult with an impacted crop from being on sand bedding.

Okay, sounds like a good idea! My coop has sand bedding in it so maybe I'll go with that.