hay

i have heard of using cat litter or wood chippings at the bottom of the cage, can shavings be used? its dust extracted shavings i use it for my rats so it cant be dusty.

Thanks

ATD

I think shavings are fine. If you use them for your rats, then your sure the wood wasn't treated with something. eg pine is often treated with arsenic, and then used for shavings.

no the shavings are intended for pet use but in particular pets with breathing problmes such as rats.

ATD

Well, should be fine then. I'm sure if anyone knows any different they will say!

fanks for your reply i will try him on that then he keeps spilling his water and im hoping the shaving will absorb it more than the sand paper.

ATD

Not sure about budgies but I know pine and cedar are bad for small animals like rats, mice, gerbils, etc..

Not sure about budgies but I know pine and cedar are bad for small animals like rats, mice, gerbils, etc..

 

well this is produced for small animals soo it should be okay?

ATD

Not if it's pine or cedar. Just like budgies, pet stores will sell bad things for rodents. Aspen is much safer and pretty popular. Also, there is a bedding here in the US called Carefresh. I don't know if you get it there but basically it's like shredded paper and safe for small animals.

 

A quick google search will bring up more specifics on pine and cedar shaving toxicity but here's one link for you to start with if you want: http://www.fatratcentral.com/pages/basics/litter.htm

 

It's the same principle as corncob bedding for budgies. Just because the package says it's safe doesn't mean it is. (And WHY this hasn't changed I don't know but maybe more of us should start making a fuss and spreading the word.)

 

Another thing I wanted to add is that yeeears ago when I bred gerbils and used pine (because I was ignorant) I had a huge problem with mites and eventually found out they were coming from the bag of pine shavings. It wasn't just one instance, when I bought another supply of pine shavings from a different store I had the same problem. I eventually switched to aspen and the mite problem stopped.

Edited October 4, 200519 yr by eterri

i have checked the packaging and cant find out it it is pine but it is dust extracted.

What does it say on the front of the package?

 

And what color are the shavings?

i know cedar is bad, but i think pine is okay just some animals are allergic to it. aspen is the best though.

There's some debate about pine but the experts I've heard from all agree that it is not a good bedding for small animals. I'm not sure how it would be for birds but I wouldn't risk it anyway.

 

http://www.afrma.org/rminfo2.htm

 

http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/reptilesgen...oodshavings.htm

 

http://www.ratfanclub.org/litters.html

 

http://www.aracnet.com/~seagull/faq/beddingfaq.shtml

 

Of course you're going to find a person here or there who says pine is okay but the experts normally advise against it and my only real problems have been with pine bedding. Aside from the toxicity, I'm pretty sure I've read that pine is another one of those beddings where bacteria and such tend to grow easily.

Edited October 5, 200519 yr by eterri

why not just use more newpaper? its a bit of water it eventually drys up and you end up cleaning it up every day. Your doing to get into more trouble finding something fancy like those nasty shavings instead of just setteling down and living with a bit of spillage

What does it say on the front of the package?

 

And what color are the shavings?

 

it doesnt it just says suitable for small animals. it light in colour

 

why not just use more newpaper? its a bit of water it eventually drys up and you end up cleaning it up every day. Your doing to get into more trouble finding something fancy like those nasty shavings instead of just setteling down and living with a bit of spillage

 

its just the spillage is near to a plug and causes a mess so if i can find a way to prevent it i will try. also there are a lot of water borne bacteria so a little spillage is not always as small as you may think.

 

ATD

The thing about shavings is that when wet, there's more chance of harmful bacteria growing which would be bad. That's one reason corn cob isn't recommended.

 

If you're using sandpaper, switch to newspaper. Sandpaper isn't that good for them anyway if they have access to it.

 

Also, have you tried using a fountain or bottle for their water?

There is another product that they sell in the US it's called Kaytee wood pellets. They're excruted wood pellets that are safe for birds and small animals, the birds can even chew them up and destroy them. They absorb 3 times their weight and keep the cage odors down... i work at a petsmart here and its what we use in all of our bird cages.

The thing about shavings is that when wet, there's more chance of harmful bacteria growing which would be bad. That's one reason corn cob isn't recommended.

 

If you're using sandpaper, switch to newspaper. Sandpaper isn't that good for them anyway if they have access to it.

 

Also, have you tried using a fountain or bottle for their water?

 

i use a gravity water bottle yet he still manages to make a mess (Laughing out loud).

 

 

There is another product that they sell in the US it's called Kaytee wood pellets. They're excruted wood pellets that are safe for birds and small animals, the birds can even chew them up and destroy them. They absorb 3 times their weight and keep the cage odors down... i work at a petsmart here and its what we use in all of our bird cages.

 

cool thanks will have a look at that.

 

ATD

Newspapers, watch out as some of these will have toxic inks and other chemicals in them, so they are not always the best thing to use, especially if being nibbled on etc.

Maybe it would be best to use cat litter, such as compressed paper pellets, that are very absorbant and where the wet ones clump together and so can be easily removed?

 

I use them for my mice and they work well, i think they would also be safe for the bird to chew up and they also carry no risk of mites etc.

 

For my budgie i use newspaper, but i may be looking into changing that now, or at least checking what type of ink it is.

 

Claire

Most black and white newspaper ink is safe and soy based but it never hurts to call up the local paper and ask!

I just did, and out of our 2 local papers (the free ones) only one does! I was really surprised. What I also found out was that no matter what they use, they can dry the ink in 3 ways. One was airdrying, one was chemical and I can't remember the third way. So, that's a question to ask too, if they are using chemicals to dry it, then that could be harmful.

Whoa, that just goes to show that it's better to check!! They were talking about the black and white pages, right? That's cruddy. I wonder what chemicals they use to dry it? Weeeird.

Yep, I didn't ask what chemicals, I just thought nope, not using that

The one that doesn't use soy said that it is now too costly to use soybased ink, although that might be just here, I don't know. So, all the papers, except this one tiny local free one, are petroleum based ink. Luckily the soy based one is air dryed! Mind you, I'm lucky if it has 20 pages (5 sheets) in it, and it only comes out once a week! I'll have to scab everyone's copy, because I also use newspaper under the straw in my rabbits.