Pine Bedding Bad for Rats?

[snakesRkewl]

just for the record there is no such thing as "dust free" kiln dried pine or any other type of bedding commonly used for small animals.like saying ASFR's are "odor free" just not so.

in the past i have called numerous producers of pine bedding and they all have told me kiln drying reduces moisture content in the bedding to 4%-8%,so any phenols would have to be in that small %,bottom line is that there is no reason to use much more expensive bedding.low dust kiln dried pine is a good product for rodent bedding.cedar on the other hand is to be avoided at all cost.have fun.

As with aspen some have more dust than others, I have found cozy den pine shavings to be the best I've found anywhere.
I open the bag when I get it home to allow a little extra dry time.
ASF's smell free that's a big misnomer, let them go ten days in a tank and stick your nose anywhere close to that tank and tell me they are "odor free". NOT

They "might" smell less than mice but I doubt it.

[Rhasputin]

We came up with a pretty interesting solution to getting the dust out of bedding, on a mouse forum.

Take a big plastic bin, and like with bin cages, cut out a pannel on the bottom, and maybe the sides, and replace the pannels with very fine mesh window screening. Then dump in your bedding and go out side and shake shake shake!


. . . Honestly, the bedding I buy has almost all of the dust at the bottom of the bag, and it's really not worth going through that trouble. But it's useful info if you need it!

[Amaya K]

I know this is a very old thread, but i felt like adding:
The reason that all of these scientific studies have gone on about the respiratory problems pine causes is because the rats are inhaling PINE DUST. Pine DUST is bad for inhaling.



Pine itself actually holds moisture different than say, aspen. It creates a different moisture content in the cage.

Now I volunteer at a rat rescue, dedicated to the long lives of PET rats. The lady who ran it heard from a breeder that pine was actually better than other options. So what does she do? She tries it. We had an old, sick rat named Eddie who had PRE EXISTING respiratory problems. He didn't have more than a few weeks before kicking it. We switched his bedding to pine and he actually got better. You could hear the difference in his breathing. He ended up living months longer than we ever imagined he would.

So I don't know about their livers, and I personally don't usually give much credit to studies that are older than 20 years; let's not forget all of the food studies they used to do about healthy or unhealthy foods that are the opposite five years later. And I have yet to find a pine study reference earlier than 1990.


I am still wary of using pine with my snakes, but honestly, I really think my rats love it and it has been good for them.