Straw On Floor

[Jacobasmith]

At the moment the floor of my loft is brushed with loft white and them has a light sprinkling of sawdust all over. I find that this clumps together alot in damp areas in the corner of my loft and doesnt dry out that much.

Does anyone reccomend using straw on the floor instead?

[Rooster J. Cogburn]

At the moment the floor of my loft is brushed with loft white and them has a light sprinkling of sawdust all over. I find that this clumps together alot in damp areas in the corner of my loft and doesnt dry out that much.

Does anyone reccomend using straw on the floor instead?

 

Beech wood chippings are the boys

[JohnQuinn]

Without seeing your loft i would spend my time and energy preventing the damp building up. My lofts are deep litter (dried droppings) there is no damp clumps in the corners or anywhere else as there is good air flow, have a look and see if you can improve the air flow in your loft, this will allow you to continue with the loft white and sawdust

[Wiley]

would stay away from the straw, especially in a damp environment as the straw will have fungus infestation, and is a great breeding ground for other nasties due to the warmth

[Guest joshdonlan]

try a droppings board under the perches

[retired]

I have just started going the other way after god knows how many years and have half the loft back on a scraped floor and will attempt to put the rest on it this coming week or so.

 

If you want to use a deep litter the would recommend Hemcore over straw - It keeps if looked after for ages (mine was down 12 months without problem)

 

this is the link: http://www.hemcore.co.uk/

[Guest Freebird]

Without seeing your loft i would spend my time and energy preventing the damp building up. My lofts are deep litter (dried droppings) there is no damp clumps in the corners or anywhere else as there is good air flow, have a look and see if you can improve the air flow in your loft, this will allow you to continue with the loft white and sawdust

Sound advice. You should never cover up damp and it is a source of many problems for the birds and will eventually rot your loft.

[Jacobasmith]

Thanks for the advice.

After taking another look. The damp is caused by coming up through the floor, so the next thing for me to do is move the loft by a few feet and raise it.

[Guest spin cycle]

i use straw.....wouldn't be without it ...can be a bit messy outside the loft (bits blowing about)

[Guest Owen]

As has already been suggested, you can not afford to have damp patches in the loft. If you use straw it could cause you a major problem because the straw can combine with the damp and the droppings to make a cocktail of seriously dangerous infections and sources of breeding sites for parasites.

You really must eliminate the damp if you want to help the birds to maintain the best of health. In the mean time, why not use Harkers Powdered distinfectant to dress the floor and deal with the source of infection at the same time?

[Guest bigda]

if your trying a deep litter go to b@q and get one of them blue nylon covers, place on the area then use first coat cat litter, then beach chips then hemp core

and should you want to clean in 12 months time get a mate to grab a corner and lift the lot out, then rake and then re-use. old stuff as this is sterile dropings, and these sheets are water proof