Cedar Wood Shavings For Chickens

Cedar shavings are incredibly toxic to chickens.

Cedar wood shavings for chickens.

Well after doing some research it turns out that cedar shavings can be toxic for chicks. You absolutely need pine wood shavings and not cedar shavings cedar oils and scent can be toxic to chickens. And even worse they don t even have to eat the the shavings or breathe the oil s fumes for it to hurt them. Go for large flake wood shavings over fine shavings too dusty and don t use sawdust way too dusty and damp.

Cedar bedding is not safe for chickens due to the damaging effects of plicatic acid on chickens respiratory systems the damaging effects of terpene hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds on chickens livers and the carcinogenic nature of cedar dust. By themselves they may not cause problems but they may affect the chickens respiratory system enough to stress them and make them more susceptible to other diseases that may be around. Cedar shavings chips give off fumes that may kill some poultry parasites but they are also toxic to chickens. Not much oil or sap left at all.

Easily attainable shavings can be picked up at local feed stores. This is not a myth it s backed up by very strong evidence. Great odor control. Easy to clean shavings can be fluffed and forked up much easier than straw bedding.

See my article on why you should never use cedar in your coop for more information. But because cedar toxicity has been commonly accepted for at least decades this finding wasn t really that surprising to me. First of all many people use cedar shavings and have no problems but we use only pine shavings. I love to use shavings due to odor control and ease of cleaning.

It is much easier to clean shavings than it is to clean knotted wet straw. I had actually never considered giving my chickens pine needles in their nesting boxings or their coop until we moved to our new. We have used cedar shavings and pine shavings for laying boxes as well as scattered fairly thick on the floor for years and have never seen any signs that it affected the birds however most cedar and pine shavings are mostly dry anyway. Wood shavings are a really good option for chicken coop bedding.