The Pine Debate

[Skiploder]

Hole in Theory Number 1.
The liver is not the sole filter of the body.
Hole 2.
There are those who have kept snakes for decades, maybe not six but more than three, on pine. Still doing fine, still breeding regularly, still looking fantastic. Personal experience.

I personally have not noticed detrimental effects from pine on any snake I've kept it on. I have kept thousands and thousands of snakes on pine. Not tens, not hundreds, thousands and thousands. Mice too. Rats as well.

If you're gotten snakes from me or seen them at a show....Pine.
If you've gotten rats from me or seen them at a show.... Pine.

No sneezing, no sniffling, no coughing. Fat healthy snakes and their food.

All on pine.

Hole in Theory #3 - Elevated enzyme levels are a normal part of the detoxification process. None of those oft quoted studies have ever correlated elevated enyzme levels to liver disease.

Hole in Theory #4 - While the debate rages on the safety of pine that is not heat treated, there really is no debate on heat treated or kiln dried pine. I repeat, the safety of heat treated pine is not debateable.

Where am I getting that info? Well, Wingy, go run around Google looking for the relevant studies. When you get tired of not finding an easy answer, come back and maybe I'll throw ya a bone.

Hole in Theory #5 - Donna, you can't simultaneously claim that snakes have a more delicate respiratory system and then claim that rats and mice more readily show signs of pine induced stress. I mean you can, but you do realize that those two claims contradict each other, don't you?

How does a delicate flower of a snake go 20 years on pine and not show any effects, but a hardy old rat becomes a pine-induced invalid within a short period of time?