shavings in the brooder?

hi, my 8 babies are a week old tomorrow the tea towel floor in the brooder is getting out of control as they are now throwing food all over then adding water to make a right sticky mess i am cleaning then twice a day and they are still messy. would it be ok to start adding wood shavings on top now to soak up the damp. or does anyone have a better suggestion.

i find using sand it actually very clean with the food lid i use with the fine chick crumb dont get mixed up and when they poo they absorb the sand and you can actually recycle the sand by putting it through a seive and taken out all the poo that gets covered in sand and it too big tothrough the seive or use wood shaving but they can get very messy.
Hudgellboy

sand is also really good for avoiding poo balls getting stuck on their toes.

to avoid food being thrown around and wasted, I use little wild bird feeders I bought in the pound shop. They can stick there head in and get their food, without kicking it around and wasting it.

any sand or proper from pet shop bird sand?

any sand really but i use bird sand as it had many minerals for bird like in all the tiny bits of grit and my quails love it and also if you get bird sand you can hide crush mealworms and hang them half out and dug under neath and they look for them make sure its dry sand not moist.

I used rubber shelf liner with paper towel underneath. However, I didn't bother washing the shelf liner and reusing (might do that this time). I cut a new shelf liner and threw out the old one with the paper towel. Sand sounds like an interesting idea. What kind of sand is bird sand?

you get it at the pet shop its basically like the sand you get at the beach its like £2-£3 for about 3kg if you make a thick layer of the stuff you can recyle and just seive it through and never have to buy it again so you save alot of money.

thankyou everyone, i'd be lost without all the help.
i shall use shavings for now then hunt out some sand on monday that sounds like a fabulous idea.
i have rubber matting under the tea towel to stop them skidding about but wouldn't want to through it away just clean it and reuse.

Kids play sand from argos, its cheep!!

haha thats a play on word lol, sorry studied them yesterday in english lol, CHEEP CHEAP lol sorry!!
Hudgellboy

I use the rubber shelf liner (washed and reused, nice to have 2 sheets cut to fit as you always have one clean ready to use) and newspaper untill they are aprox. 2 weeks old and then I switch to a thin layer (1/4 inch) of kids play sand with a few handfuls of shavings on top, changed as needed. I use the fountain/gravity waterers as they seem to prevent mess. When the litter gets introduced I raise them off the floor (scrap piece of wire, pipe cleaner) of the brooder as the chicks are getting tall enough to poo in them by then. For feeders I use an old plastic sour cream/yogurt dish etc. and lid. 1. wash thoroughly. 2. cut small holes in the side according to chick size, (cut them too big and the little ninny's will jump in the dish and get stuck inside!) 3. place them upright with lid on and a bit of wire to attatch them to the inside of the brooder. I cut a hole for each chick, or you can use multiple feeders. Hope this helps, Ed.

i have just put in a water gravity feeder until now they couldn't reach in,lol so i had been using jam pot lids with marbles in, i still have the food in a dish though, they stand in it and scrape it all over. so i wiil try the yoghurt pot idea until i get a better feeder, I have a gravity feeder but it has a higher lip than the water.

The gravity waterer I use is sized for a budgie or canary. I place them directly on the floor of the brooder and wire them to the side they seem to have no trouble with that, japs and cpq both. The yogurt feeders are so nice as you can adjust them to whatever size chick you have. I place the yogurt dish next to the chicks and mark a dot with a marker at the proper height for the chicks to reach and then cut the holes with a scissors. A bit tricky getting the hang of what size to cut them. I kept getting it wrong and ending up with chicks running freely in and out of the dish, or getting in the dish and not being able to get out. Watch them and make sure you have it right as they get very scared and start jumping about when trapped inside the dish. Ed