Pine Pellet Question

[Mitch21]

I remember reading a while back that with the equine fresh or related pine pellet products, you are supposed to lightly spray it down when you first use it. It causes it to break apart quite a bit...

Has anyone else heard/done this?

I remember reading in the same thread that you are not supposed to do this because it takes away from the absorbing power of the pine pellets...
I was thinking about this though, and the properties of the pine have not changed. Once sprayed and dried, I would think the broken apart pine pellets would still absorb the same...???


Anyone have any insight on this???

[ohyeahnow]

I would not recomend pine or cedar for snakes as they can be toxic.

[Mitch21]

Sorry! I should have specified... THIS IS FOR MICE/RATS/ASFs.... NOT for my snakes...

[ohyeahnow]

I have read in a few sites that pine is bad for rats as well, but cannot vouch for the validity of the articles. I will see if I can find a better answer.

[ohyeahnow]

This site has advice from a vet. http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/guine...odshavings.htm

[ThyTempest]

I use equine fresh for about 90% of our rodent bedding, with some aspen for the nursing/birthing moms to nest in. I prefer it without spraying, especially in the male rat tubs, as they produce so much urine already, spraying the bedding means you have to change it more often. With mice, I find it doesnt make much of a difference.

The reason the spraying comes into effect is that the bedding is intended for horses, and spraying the pellets expands them, creating more volume and thus covering more space. This works well for horse stalls where you only have to fill it with say, 10 bags of sprayed pellets vs 15 unsprayed....much more cost effective, and since it is not cleaned entirely nearly as often as we do with rodent tubs, the loss of absorbance isnt as noticeable.

Hope this helps,

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I use equine fresh and never spray the pellets (would defeat the purpose of maximum absorbency in my opinion)

Very little goes a long way, as the rodent urinate it will expend covering the bottom of the tub.

I clean once a week using this method.

As far as rats go I would highly recommend you to use a very small amount of pellets with wood shavings for nursing mother with pups under 2 weeks old.

When using pellets alone with pups under 2 weeks old I would loss about a third of my production due to suffocation.

Once the pups are 2 weeks old and over you can use pin pellets only.

For mice and ASF I use pine pellets at all time even for nursing mother.

Note: I have use pine pellets and pine shaving with all my rodents for the last 2 years without any ill effect.

[anendeloflorien]

I use Equine fresh as well and I do not spray it down. It's a great product and has done wonders as far as controlling the smell (I keep my rats in my bedroom so that's a definite plus lol).

[filly77]

yeah they say to spray the top layer, but like the other poster said, it's intended for horses. mainly to make the top softer for their hooves.

one thing to keep in mind is, if you're going to use this bedding for female rats w/ newborns. use very little of it especially if ur female is a bulldozer!

I used it w/ the females, did 1/2 of what I normally use in there but gave them plentyyyy of newspaper to make nests outta, which they more than happily used.. but the 1 mama would cover the babies with all the bedding in the cage, pushing everything on them w/ her front paws like a "bulldozer". I lost several babies from a litter before before i realized it was from the dust of the pellets clogging their noses. i felt so bad!!

[Bettacreek]

I mist and it works better than without. I add a thin layer of pellets, MIST (not spray, mist), wait a few minutes and then add the rodents. It really cuts down on the smell and the dust. When I tried it with regular pellets, it was always extremely dusty, which is not good for rodents. If you're changing the bedding like you're supposed to, it doesn't cause any problems. Regular pine is bad for small critters, but, kiln dried is fine, and the pellets are pressed sawdust basically, and don't have the same natural oils in them any longer.