What type of Bedding?

[gerbillover9612]

At the moment i am using Pets at Home Woodshavings, and it just says duct extracted etc but not what wood it is. i heard someone say most woodshavings contain softwood such as pine or cedar which if course is VERY BAD! So basically, im not sure if its true and i should change it to something else or if its not true and i should keep it? I have been looking for Aspen but i cant seem to find it anywhere and i was going to buy some carefresh but im not sure what best? Also i cant but anything too expensive :/ 

[rhianna]

You should switch beddings. What you've heard is correct; the shavings likely contain harmful types of wood.

I wouldn't recommend Carefresh. It's dusty and also very heavy/chunky so it's bad for tunnels. Some good UK bedding brands I've heard of include Megazorb (a brand of horse bedding), Boxo, and Finacard beddings. As far as I know, they're all very cheap in bulk, and they're safe and great for tunneling. If you could get your hands on hemp bedding, then that's another good option. Aspen I believe is not available in the UK.

[keldamouse]

Apr 20, 2014 17:54:51 GMT -8 rhianna said:

You should switch beddings. What you've heard is correct; the shavings likely contain harmful types of wood.

I wouldn't recommend Carefresh. It's dusty and also very heavy/chunky so it's bad for tunnels. Some good UK bedding brands I've heard of include Megazorb (a brand of horse bedding), Boxo, and Finacard beddings. As far as I know, they're all very cheap in bulk, and they're safe and great for tunneling. If you could get your hands on hemp bedding, then that's another good option. Aspen I believe is not available in the UK.

I personally haven't had an issue with carefresh ultra in the USA being dusty but i only use it as a bedding component, like 1/4th, but for the price I can see why people go with tpaper instead.

[Jazzable]

If you are in the UK, it's fine to use ordinary woodshavings. It's only in the US where standard shavings are unsuitable.

[rhianna]

Apr 20, 2014 21:17:28 GMT -8 Jazzable said:

If you are in the UK, it's fine to use ordinary woodshavings. It's only in the US where standard shavings are unsuitable.

Really? I didn't know this. What's the difference?

[sarahobw]

I believe it's to do with the drying process. From what I understand most pine in the US is air-dried and therefore it retains all the oils and aromatic compounds that make it harmful to rodents. In the UK most pine shavings are kiln-dried, which makes them safe to use. You could always email P@H and check their woodshavings comply with this. I'm not sure about cedar though, and would perhaps avoid that to be on the safe side.

I'm in the UK and when I was a kid we kept gerbils in pine shavings and never encountered a problem. I had my current gerbs in pine once when I ran short on bedding, and personally I found it quite dusty and it gave them sticky eyes, but I suppose that depends on the brand/dust extraction etc.

I've used Carefresh for the past few years and really liked it, though many people on the forum disagree. I've recently switched to Tumblefresh, which is similar but in much smaller pieces and so is better for digging and holding their tunnels - it's not a budget option though, so I may well be looking for alternatives myself shortly!

I've seen aspen in the reptile section of large Pets at Home stores, or you can buy it online. But if you're using pine and it seems to suit you, since you're in the UK I think you should be fine

[rhianna]

The US also kiln dries their shavings. It's actually not been proven to eliminate all of the harmful chemicals. It's a possibility, but no studies have shown that heating the wood is effective.
Pine seems to present the least negative effects, however it's still possibly harmful.

exoticpets.about.com/cs/guineapigs/a/woodshavings.htm

[gerbillover9612]

Thankyou all for your replies. I purchaed some carefresh bedding today but i hadnt seen the replies bu then :/ the gerbils seem fine with the wood shaving but im just concerned that its is pine or cedar. I may just use megazorb, carefresh, tissue and hay as their main bedding thing. Would that work well? Thanks again for the replies xxx

[Thelodar]

I think carefresh holds tunnels better than anything else I've used and I don't find it any more dusty than the aspen I used (but I guess aspen varies by brand). But Theo is still allergic to it, he really needs zero dust and the only thing I've found like that is eco bedding. Not sure if they sell it in the UK.

[gerbillover9612]

Hmm, ive heard alot that carefresh is rather dusty and a mojority of reveiws ive rea about it is that the gerbils have been allergic to it :/ and they are getting runny noses and auch but then other reviews say that its brilliant and the getbils love it theres zero dust :/ xxx

[rhianna]

I used carefresh once and it gave one of my trio a bad allergic reaction. I switched to aspen and it cleared right up. I've heard a lot of similar things as well.

I do use carefresh for my hamster and it works well, but for gerbils who are going to be digging around and bringing up the dust, it's not a good choice.

[Demonic Hope]

Pine trees in the UK are different then the ones we have here in the US. They have very little oil compared to ours. So the kiln drying removes all of them.

And I know a lot of people from the UK on this forum use the Snowflake bedding T0m and Nzcage I believe use it.

[gerbillover9612]

Ah okaay, thankyouu ive not heard a single bad reveiw about aspen bedding but i cant seen to find it any where also, do you know if megazorb is okay for gerbils? X

[Demonic Hope]

Megazorb is fine. As for Aspen check feed stores for horses. They normally carry it.

[gerbillover9612]

Thankyou everyone aswell whos replied. Ah okaay, thanks. Ill try get some megazorb and aspen then. Thankyou everyone xx