Which One is Bad Bedding?

All wood contains phenols. They act as a natural insecticide and mould killer. Purified they are very very toxic one of the most toxic unintentional chemical around (military micro toxins and way worse but they are designed to be) Phenols are well known to cause respiratory issues and skin problems. Cedar especially aromatic Cedar has relatively high amounts of phenols the highest of any wood I believe. Some douglas firs do and a hand full or tropical hardwoods and others have one of the phenol or similar compounds in them. Pine also has some, in the case of pine it seems to be in the oils and usually in the kiln drying the oils are burned off. Leaving less phenols behind. Generally speaking pine that is dried correctly is fine for small animals. If you have strong smelling pine chips I might start to wonder.

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Originally Posted by 2kdime

I can get Aspen for 5 bucks for 50lbs worth, the shredded type too!

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Why can I never find this kind of deal? Where do you get it that cheap?

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Pine been breeding rodents for years and never had any issues. With aspen it has no smell and after just a few dats you have to change it again which to me is a waste. Pine pellets are good to but pricey and you have to watch you pinkies cuase when pine pellets get wet it can stick to there noses causing them to die. So i would stick with dry kiln pine cheaper and smaells better and way more absorbant imo...:gj:

Another vote for the fluffy pine bedding here. It's what I use for my rats. I tried Aspen and the ammonia was enough to knock you out after only 2-3 days. With the fluffy pine bedding that comes compressed into the big brick package, (it is kiln dried) I don't have that problem. The rats are fine, I'm fine, everyone's fine with it.

Cedar is something I would never use, but I just came across someone who was breeding rodents on cedar. He put non clumping cat litter at the bottom of his tanks, with cedar on top. All his rodents were healthy with no signs of respiratory distress and nothing smelled (he was breeding in his house).

I personally wouldn't try cedar because I *hear* it's pretty bad for small animals, and I have a lot invested in mine.

I use pine from tractor supply. I think it comes in the 8.8cuft compressed for $4.99?
Been breeding rodents for a few years and never had any issues from the bedding.

Okay my question is...a few days ago I started noticing my 1.2 Breeders were sneezing! I use Pine Bedding, but do not see anywhere that says "Kiln Dried"! Will the package say kiln dreid on it...or is all compressed pine bedding that you can buy from walmart or calranch "Kiln Dried"?:headbang:

I'm pretty sure it's all thoroughly dried even if it doesn't say "kiln dried". Pine would have to be heat treated and dried anyway.

Okay cool...so my next question is! Is it normal for the rats to sneeze? ( I mean everything will sneeze, but continuosly?) Only time I notice they sneeze is when I pick them up and hold them...never misses with my male!:headbang:

~bump~:headbang:

I can't answer rat sneezing but no not all is going to be kiln dried. Kiln drying means it is made from scrap of finish grade lumber not construction grade or green wood. Wood kilns for softwood usually exceed 230ºF for many hours drying and baking the oils out other drying methods leave the oils unchanged due to the lower temps. Kiln dried wood is much more expensive so making chips from it is much more expensive. It is often not marked however you need to check directly with the manufacturer. This is one of the reasons to avoid pine it is hard to know which is which. I can get very cheap pine chips but would NEVER suggest any to use them, they are all kinds of oil and junk from a shop's dust collection systems repackaged.