Cleaning chick's feet

Morning all. I've just discovered a problem I've never had before - there are tiny balls of dried poo forming on the feet of my 9 day old chicks. I've never experienced this before as I've always kept them on wood shavings and I'm always religious about poo picking etc. However, I've kept this batch of chicks on newspaper after the country store I usually buy my woodshavings from told me that under no circumstances should I keep chicks on shavings because they can eat them. Although I've never had a problem with that (or never noticed them eating any), I decided to err on the side of caution and put them on paper. Now I've got this problem.
How can I get this build up off without harming their feet - is soaking the feet in shallow warm water okay? I'll obviously hold the chick so it doesn't get wet and they'll be straight back onto woodshavings as soon as they are clean. Any other ideas if the water option isn't suitable?

Hi Casey76, They are only 9 days old (Ixworths) and I've never had this problem before in 10 batches of chicks (this is my eleventh!) and the only differing factor is the newspaper. The balls are rock hard and every chick has them, but not on all toes. I tried kitchen paper when I first had chicks but they shredded it and I was afraid they'd eat it, hence the swap to fine wood shavings. I'll try soaking them a little later and see how it goes - you read such horror stories about people pulling claws out when trying to remove poo balls, so I want to do it properly.

I had the same problem so gently soaked them and used mynails to ease the pooh off them. It was rock hard and i was worried. One of the poor little mites nails bled so i got some savlon spray and sprayed it they have been fine since.

I hope this helped. Boy did they yell mind i never knew such tiny things could make such noise :blink:

Thanks everyone for the advice, I'll soak their feet a little later today. I was afraid to try and twist it off because it's rock hard, so soaking seems the best option.
I've never had a problem with woodshavings - it's just the reaction I had from the store keeper when I mentioned chicks and woodshavings.

Thanks again everyone.

For anyone else trying this it would be a good idea to put a small amount of salt in the water then if it does make the foot sore it should help