I use a small amount of good quality shavings under my rabbit but only under his hay - he is litter trained and in there I use the wood pellets.

__________________


'Princess' Kaya

When I had hamsters I never used softwood bedding as it reacts with hamster urine to release phenols and has lots of other problems with it associated with all the dust and splinters.

I think it depends on who you talk too lol. I think most people agree that Ceder and air dried pine is bad. Kiln dried pine..its depends entirly on who you talk too, I have used it safely for many years and if anything my rodents have lived exeedingly long lives, far exeeding the average life expectancy(average is 3-5 for a Gerbil, average in my house is 6-8), however many will say its just as bad at air dried and ceder. I have never heard a bad thing about Aspen aside from its price lol. my Rabbit isnt on any type of shavings, she is litter trained ad I use Swheat Scoop, which is 100% natural, flushable, biodegradable, clumping, dust free, edible litter made from wheat millings.

Thanks for all the really useful replies and to all who voted, although looks like almost a 50:50 split!

__________________
John
AnimalLoversWeb.com

Join HubPages where you can write about a topic you love — for free! Includes potential to earn royalties and commissions.

I think that there is no need to use wood shavings anymore as there's plenty of substitutes out there. I use megazorb and find it much better for rats lungs. Ecobed is also good and there's aubiose. There pretty economical as you can buy it all by the bale. The mega zorb is a fiver for a big sack.

there is no scientific proof that woodshavings are bad for rodents, and i do mean woodshavings and not sawdust. If you look at any papers that have been written on the subject you will find that they were written years ago when rats were kept in tanks with little ventilation.

I found the megazorb extreemely dusty and most of it got kicked out of the cages and onto the floors. I now use bedmax which is kiln dried shavings which are virtually dust free and i have had no problems with my rats on it, from oldies to new kittens.

__________________
Jacky and the pet gang

I agree. I think the modern woodshaving are almost certainly safe as the evidence against them seems scant at best.
But we recently changed to megazorb as having tried it we found it more absorbant than the woodshaving.

__________________
John
AnimalLoversWeb.com

Join HubPages where you can write about a topic you love — for free! Includes potential to earn royalties and commissions.

i stopped sing shavings some years ago as my rats kept getting mites and lung disorders. I then changed to wood based cat litter. it soaked up the wet brilliantly they hardly ear smelt and it cut down the number of rats getting a lung disorder also eliminated mites along with a dose of frontline. Since keeping my Gambian pouched rats that you need to make sure are not bedded on pine i started using a recycled paper cat litter on all my rats which is great no lung disorders, no odour and still no mites. just happy rats

I dunno for my mice i started to use dry porridge adn they luv it
and they eat it so it is gud 4 them as well

I use megazorb on all my critters, 15 guineas, 2 chinchillas due to the smell the shavings make when they are wet. With them all being in the house it can pong close to cleaning out day plus with my hairless guineas it better for their skin due to the shavings being quiet sharp.

Emma x

__________________

Please visit:
http://skinnyguineapig.bravehost.com/
http://guineapigqueen.bravehost.com/