Installing Indoor Cat Tree

[pinkkat]

Hi, I'm a newbie to this forum and to chickens in general - I get my three ex-battery girls on saturday. Hurrah, I can't wait! I've found lots of great advice on here, but I was wondering, is it best to give them a dust bath in their run, do they tend to use it every day? They will be on wood/bark chips in a covered run. Only everyone seems to say they scatter the stuff everywhere and I don't want their grub and glug getting full of sand.

 

Any advice is appreciated - I am going to be one of those over-anxious new Mums!

 

Cheers

 

Kath

[Hen Watch]

Hi Kath and welcome to the forum.

 

Good luck on Saturday with the new arrivals. If they are going to be in the run permanently then yes I would provide a dust bath. I went away for 4 days and forgot to put one in the run, came back to a scratched up lawn turned into a dust bath....!! Mine freerange now that they've settled in and they make their own dust baths round the garden. Got about 4 or 5 favourite sites dotted around the garden now.

[chelsea]

When we 1st got our girls we bought a cheap cat litter tray and filled it with play sand. You could get the same or something similar and fill it with play sand or compost or dirt or a mixture of all. You could also mix in a bit of red mite powder and diatom to ensure when they are dustbathing they get rid of any beasties too

 

Now our girls dont use the tray and make their own baths around the garden borders.

[Lera]

I use a cat tray (pierced to let the water out) with a layer of very dry powdery clay soil, of which we have an abundance under the hedge. They don't need a huge amount to enjoy fluffing around in it.

[Richard]

I've never bothered to make a dust bath - the girls make their own wherever they feel so inclined. It seems to work for them!

 

All the very best

[Egluntyne]

I've never bothered to make a dust bath - the girls make their own wherever they feel so inclined. It seems to work for them!

 

All the very best

 

Ditto.

 

Last year I made them beautiful dust baths with a mixture of sand and compost.

 

They turned their noses up at them and made their own scruffy affairs in the soil.