Saw dust as bedding/litter?

[Daphne16]

I know most people seem to preffer pine shavings, but does saw dust work well as bedding/litter? I can get it free so I figured hey it might be worth a try.
thanks

 

[minor_danger]

I would very much suggest against this. If you use sawdust as litter, the chicks may eat the fine material and it could cause bulbous crops and in some cases result in death by starvation. Shavings, paper towel, towels, even sand is better. If you are worried about cost, sand is a pretty cheap substrate and you can use a pooper scooper to sieve out the poop and reuse it.

 

[Daphne16]

Thank you, I won't then.
What about when they are full grown?

 

[minor_danger]

As adults I believe they could very much suffer from the same issue. Personally I wouldn't. Wood is absorbent and I would worry that sawdust would absorb water in their crop and stop them up. Someone else may come here with a story of using it without a problem but I would be too worried to use it myself.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Even the "fine" version of the chips is junky. I like the BIG shavings, but sometimes cannot get them.

 

[Daphne16]

Thanks then I will definetelly go with shavings.

 

[juliette2009]

Not only can eating sawdust be bad, it also is very dusty and can irritate the bird's lungs...I know, because it happened to me once. Hubby picked up the wrong stuff, and I suddenly had a sneezing, coughing bunch of chickens. Immediately went back to the feed store, and that sawdust was removed in a flash!

 

[columbiacritter]

We use saw dust from a saw mill we get for free in two of our bantam coops. Since they don't spend much time inside it's never been a problem, no one seems to eat it or have any respiratory issues. It's aged a bit by the time we put it in there so no real fumes. It composts faster than chips and it's free!

I wouldn't use it for chicks or confined birds.

 

[4kids*2dogs]

The shavings that I bought at the feed store (agway) were very cheap! Something like $11 for a huge package of them. Should last a very long time. Where did you look for shavings? The pet store prices are much more expensive.