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Most Fancy mouse and rat breeders and owners know the dangers of housing their rodents in bedding such as pine shavings or dust. Others know they shouldn�t, but don�t really know why besides hearing it�s bad for their pets. When I first started owning mice a few years ago, I didn�t know that I shouldn�t use pine shavings as bedding. They recommended and sold it in pet stores. It was pretty cheap, especially when bought in bulk 15 kilogram bags from a wholesaler. Id never seen any other alternative in the stores, and no pet store workers mentioned any alternative, or that it could have an adverse affect on my mice. We even used it in the small animal room at my animal care training facility. Insert: From Respiratory toxicity of cedar and pine wood By Jeff Johnston, doctoral candidate in epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Many pet owners, breeders and pet retailers favor wood chips as pet bedding for a variety of reasons. Most wood chips are inexpensive and depending on the wood used, wood chips can provide natural insecticidal, bactericidal or bacteriostatic properties. Such bedding can often kill or inhibit the spread of fleas, mites or other pests, and the resins and other aromatic chemicals emitted by the chips help to control pet odors. With all of these advantages, pet stores often sell prepackaged starter kits for housing small pets complete with a supply of wood chips for bedding. Many people have used cedar and pine chips as bedding for these reasons. Wood from western red cedar (Thuja plicata) has one of the most potent insecticidal compounds, which accounts for its popularity to repel or kill clothes' moths. After a while of owning mice, I decided to research their breeding. I was interested in genetics after my university course, and decided to test my knowledge with my first litter. I looked up a lot of sites on the internet, and found some experienced breeders in the UK who taught me the ins and outs. I also found out that the bedding was slowly killing my precious little pets! I decided to change my bedding to a safer bedding of recycled phone books. Namely, Dr Harry�s lite� n easy. It was very good as far as absorbency goes. The mice liked to dig in it, and it didn�t have the nasty stench of pine. It wasn�t dusty, either. But it was rather expensive at nine dollars for a small bag, and so, though good for my mice, it was not good for my pockets when I had 4 large tanks and 2 cages to clean every few days. (My, I wish I only had that few to clean out now! Id never have believed you if you told me back then that some day I would have in surplus of 50 mice!) I tried various kitty litters, and I developed a love for Breeders Choice recycled newspaper pellets. They�re a good price, I can buy all different size bags, and they�re lovely and absorbent! To this day I use this litter; it is the best thing for my mice and mousery. So- Why is pine so bad for your mice? If you use pine, go and hold your mouse to your ear. Listen to its breathing. You shouldn�t be able to hear it breathe! When I used pine, I had mice whose breathe rattled and sounded very harsh. Having not used pine for years now, those mice have since had their infections clear up, and I�ve not had any other mice develop the same symptoms. Pine and cedar cause respiratory tract infections. They cause the mousie equivalent of asthma! A nifty trick to tell if your mouse is getting good bedding is to put your own head in the litter bag, shake it up, and take a good whiff. If it�s too dusty for you, it�s too dusty for your mouse. That�s just one tiny second of the day that you did that test. Imagine your little mouse walking and digging in that 24 hours, seven days a week, for the entire span of its life! Insert: From: Use of Cedar as a Substrate for Reptiles and Other Pets by Melissa Kaplan [A veterinary pathologist who is also associated with the Orange County (CA) Department of Public Health] states that the extracts of cedar and other soft woods, such as pine, contain a number of aromatic (volatile) compounds including hydrocarbons, cedrene and cadrol. Naphthalene (the active ingredient in moth balls) is also a member but is a distinct compound. These compounds are known irritants of skin, and cause not only irritation, but the degeneration and death of the cells in the respiratory tract. Once this destruction is set in motion, the animals' defensive barrier is eroded, enabling infection by various microorganisms and secondary microbial infections of the lungs. The medical literature notes increased rates of respiratory infections found in poultry which is raised with cedar shavings in the poultry house. Owners of caged birds have noted similar infection rates, particularly in poorly ventilated areas... Insert: From �Respiratory toxicity of cedar and pine wood�. These small extracts are just from two of the many out there on the internet. Do a search on google if you like; you might be surprised by what you can learn! To close, I leave you with some extra links, as well as these words of wisdom that I have to agree whole heartedly with: Insert: from: Use of Cedar as a Substrate for Reptiles and Other Pets �You might want the rethink buying [animals] that has been raised or housed on cedar. Evaluate the health of every animal whom you have housed on cedar and pine (after you clean out the cedar and any residual oils in their enclosure). If you see pet stores housing rodents on cedar or pine, you may want to discuss this matter with them, requesting them to change and, if they fail to, purchase your prey and pet rodents elsewhere. Entire article available at http://www.anapsid.org/cedar.html Happy mousing, all LINKS!! The rat Report Wood Shavings House Rabbit Society Safe Bedding FAQ Whats The Scoop? |
| First Rule of Mouse Club - Dont use Pine! (not really, but I thought it sounded amusing) By Monica James of Monkau Mousery |