What's Pine bedding good for?

I own 2 guinea pigs, 2 rats and 1 chinchilla. Everywhere I've seen it seems that You can't use Pine Bedding with any animal. I've had an unused bag for about 2 months now . It's Pine bedding from Premier Pets. It says they use natural wood w/ dust-free abosrbency. I really want to put this stuff in my Chinchilla's cage.

What's Pine bedding good for?
Actually, pine bedding is harmful to ALL mammals. It has recently been proven that even [human] workers (I have no idea the kind of job, but they handle pine daily) develop respiratory complications over progressive exposure. And these are people holding it a few hours a day. Just compare that the how tiny your pets are and the fact they they live right on top of their bedding most of their day.


I have seen this article a while ago and cannot provide a link, but with some snooping, I'm sure someone can find it.





Both pine and cedar are soft woods. Not all, but most (both of these included) soft woods give off oils called phenols. These phenols are toxic. The effects are very SLOW. In fact ever since caged pets became popular (around 50s?) pine and cedar have been the cheapest and most available shavings to use. But while housing the animals on pine, they are in fact SLOWLY breathing in toxic fumes. So you can house them for 2 months or years or longer, the symptoms will come up so subtley, you probably won't notice unless you can recognise a respiratory infection in the type of animal. Suspected causes of pine and cedar have been upper respiratory infections, and kidney and liver failure.





I have heard a few stories of someone who houses their pet on either pine or cedar to claim that they died in perfect health and lived to their fullest life expectancy. I do believe the reaction of the animal depends on it's own genetic history. Certainly some hamsters may never seem to develop any problems at all, while others die after one year. And even with the pet dying, it's impossible to blame the cause fully on pine/cedar without autopsy. But why take the risk at all? So much contraversial information exists, why even take a chance for your pets?





Rats especially are VERY sensitive to the air they breathe. And their URI's are quite difficult to fix. Guinea pigs are larger and have somewhat stronger respiratory systems, but the same applies. This too with chinchillas.





Even kilm dired pine is still pine, just with less phenols (they aren't completely removed) and more time before serious problems arise. It's probably safer than cedar, but why use such an inappropriate product at all?





The leading alternative is aspen. It is a hard wood, with no oils. you may also use paper-based litters like carefresh, soy ink newspaper, and even old towels.





As to answer your first question, you can use pine as mulch or compost. It is still wood, and great for attracting decomposers to make a garden flourish.
Reply:I stand by my comments that Pine is safe for hamsters and chinchillas- AND regardless what Countless Lies has to say about pine, the site she gives on Chin care RECOMMENDS using pine!! Report It

Reply:http://www.geocities.com/heavyhitter1.ge...





read that.





I personally don't use pine, I use aspen. I just don't like the idea of putting my small animals in any enclosure around something that smells like pine-sol. I wouldnt want to breathe pine fumes all day long, so I doubt they do.
Reply:Pine bedding is fine for Chinchillas and hamsters.


I challenge anyone to prove other wise (and quoting info from RAT pet websites does NOT count, they are talking about RATS!!!)


Pine bedding that has come from kiln dried pine, (and not that cheap pine sold for horse stall bedding either).... Kiln dried is great for Hamster and Chins... and rabbits.


Dont use pine for gerbils(use aspen or carefresh)..... and do what you want with mice and rats, since I am not going to get into that argument.... BUT never use cedar on any small cage pets.
Reply:Pine bedding can cause awhole bunch of respitory problems that can lead to death.





I've used pine bedding with almost all of my small pets (4 of my 6 guinea pigs and 3 hamsters) and never had a problem.But with my new guinea pigs the smaller of the two was having some breathing problems and so I switched to cedar bedding and it cleared up.





So I guess it's more up to wether or not your animals can handle it.If you want I doubt there is no harm in trying it,but if your animals show any signs of breathing problems you'll have to change the cage bedding back to what you were using as soon as you see the signs
Reply:i use it for my rabbit and my mice it works well for them just make sure that they arent alergic to it and you should be fine
Reply:Eraser Eraser pretty much said it all! His/her answer is definitely the best so far!





A bag of bedding is only a few dollars. Please throw out that pine bedding or put it to use as compost and buy something better. Aspen is a safe wood alternative. You can also use paper beddings like carefresh, corn cob, shredded soy-ink nespaper, fleece scraps, towels, etc.





I have found that the people who stand up for poor beddings like pine and cedar tend to be the kind of people who are too cheap or neglectful to provide other types of proper care for their animals as well. Backyard breeders, sleezy pet stores, and people who just didn't bother to do any research before getting their pets are the ones keeping their animals on cedar and pine. There are some exceptions, but with all the proof and information we have about how toxic pine and cedar beddings are to ALL small animals, I don't see how any person, especially a BREEDER could be worth anything if they are willing to put their animals at risk.





I dare anyone to prove that pine ISN'T toxic, without using "personal experience" as a resource. Please, educate me!





The reasons that pine and cedar beddings are dangerous aren't specific to one species or another. There is nothing about chinchillas that makes their livers and respiratory systems any more immune to the harmful affects of pine/cedar than a rat!





I find it funny that rat care websites tend to have more factual info than chinchilla ones. Irony?





P.s. Even kiln dried pine still has phenols. Just not as much, so it takes longer for the effects to show.





P.p.s Check out my sources. One is written for guinea pigs, one for reptiles, one for CHINCHILLAS, one for hamsters, and one for gerbils.