Dust baths - what is suitable for them?

[Lucylou]

In this weather, ground is rock hard & if its not as hard as cement its damp! So when I saw my poor Scruffy trying to scratch a dust bath in the ground 10/10 for effort but he wasn't having much success!

The others have a couple of little 'dust' patches but at the moment they're more like mud baths. I gave them some lovely sand a few weeks ago but instead of bathing in it they ate it

Does anyone have any suggestions of a good alternative to make a dust bath for them. I've heard a cat litter tray & potting compost works but this doesn't seem fine enough to me.

Any other suggestions anyone?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi
Don't know if i'll be much help as are lot of people on here who will know more. My girls think compost works really well, it wasn't given to them they found it!( dad was not amused :roll: ) I tried cat litter tray with sand and they ate it too, never did dust bath in it but would try to bath in the dirt beside it so in the end I resorted to a tray full of dirt and they love it.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Lucylou,in this weather mine are all using sand,they don't use it when they can dust bath properly in the garden though.What sort of sand did you use?
If you used a fine sand,maybe try a coarser sand,builder's type,or,if you used this type maybe try the sand sold for chinchilla's.

 

[Tim]

They will eat sand as an insoluble grit to help their digestion - but if you keep topping it up, they should have enough after a while.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I use a mixture of garden soil and sand for my birds dustbath. My husband has made a simple cover to keep it all dry. At first the girls wouldn't go in it, but curiosity soon got the better of them. I add some lice powder to the dustbath every few weeks. When the hens have a dust bath, the mixture of earth, sand and lice powder help to get rid of lice etc.
In my 9 years experience of hen keeping, they will dustbath in just about anything powdery enough, so keep an eye on any special flower beds and pots!

Good luck.