Hen eating woodchippings!

[Lucylou]

Does anyone know about this one.

One of my chooks keeps eating the wood shavings I use for their bedding. At first I thought she was just curious but is still doing it. The wood shavings come from a reputable equestian shop.
I have grit available in a dish, & as I thought she might be wanting more I have upped the amount I make available, most of it gets spilt but its still there somewhere.

I'm not sure how much she's doing this (obviously I'm not there,) but when I clean the house out, inevitably some blows on the ground, there she is pecking at it. She also goes back into the house sometimes to scratch around & peck at it.

I'm worried she'll get an impacted crop. Any ideas?

 

[victorias poultry]

Hi
Don';t worry about your birds eating their shavings, is perfectly normal, mine are always having a scrat in the shavings and eating a few and have never come to any harm.
Hope this helps

Sue

 

[Tim]

Hi Lucylou,

It's normal for birds to eat a few shavings from time to time - They can do more as chicks in their first week or so and ducklings will do this for a 3 to 4 weeks (which can cause big problems).

If she is just having the odd few, it probably won't be a problem but if she is eating any quantity, she could get an impacted gizzard as wood shavings are very hard to digest. This would be very unusual though - unless she were starved of food elsewhere.

Your grit dish and the waste - I bought a galvanised grit hopper that hangs on the side of the house (inside or under shelter) and I top this up about once a year! They aren't that cheap (£17)- but galvanised bits are always more but of course last a lifetime. I put a grit hopper (like the one I use) in our Amazon Shop so you can see a picture of it to see what I mean = select Feeders and Drinkers on the right hand side.

 

[Anonymous]

The few that fall to the ground that she pecks at is probably because in falling/moving etc they trigger her insect killing mode-don't worry about that.Scratching and pecking in bedding is also quite normal,as Sue and Tim have said,don't worry.It would only cause a problem if she was eating a large amount compared to poultry food.