Pine vs. Aspen

[mykee]

I used to use pine shavings for my breeder rats until about a week ago. I recently traded over my colonies to shredded aspen shavings. I find that the prices are the same, with the aspen being a little cheaper. My question to all of you out there is this; aside from the obvious phenol problems, can I have your opinions on which bedding you prefer; (ease of cleaning, odor control, preferred bedding for babies, etc). Thank you much-ly in advance.

[Linds]

Where are you getting it that is cheaper? I would prefer to mix it half and half with the pine. I pay $4 for a 3.5 cubic foot (compressed) bag of pine, cheapest I have seen aspen was a bag a fraction of the size going for $10 The size of bag would'nt have gotten me halfway through a cleaning :/ It is much healthier, same absorbency, however it sucks at dampening any odour.

[marisa]

I'd LOVE to know where aspen is cheaper too!

I also mix pine and aspen most of the time, but sometimes I just use pine. Haven't had problems but that doesn't meant there aren't concerns with pine. But for now it seems to be fine and works great.

Marisa

[mykee]

OK, allow me to explain. I usually pick up my pine shavings at Superpet, where I get I'm guessing about 2 and a bit cubic feet for $10. Now, on my most recent trip to Ren's Feed for dog food and Mazuri, I noticed that they also had pine shavings for like $7 a bag, BUT they also had aspen shavings for $10. The bag says 3 cubic feet, but it weighs three times what the bag of pine weighed, and it's only slightly larger. I picked up the shredded stuff. I've only used it for one complete cleaning (12'x20' total floor space and maybe 3 " thick) and I haven't even taken a smidgen outta the bag. I'm liking this stuff, glad I didn't end up dishing out the $39 for the same size bag at the above mentioned store. I may be a convert if I can get some positive words about the stuff.

[mykee]

Marisa, to be honest, I probably wouldn't have switched, but I noticed that a few of my oldest breeder rats that have been on pine the longest, have some scabs on their bodies, and are losing their fur in areas. I'm guessing that pine might have something to do with it.

[marisa]

It's a good possibility. My gerbils actually don't do well on pine. They get 100% aspen. I haven't owned rats in ages, but the mice are o.k. with it. So yeah I guess it just depends.

Marisa

[vanderkm]

We had skin and respiratory problems keeping rats on pine but mice seemed to tolerate it well. They didn't live as long either though and the scabby coats you describe are similar to what we saw. Pine was much better for odor control and was more absorbant than the large flake aspen that we were able to get cheap enough to use for rodents. The shredded aspen seemed to absorb equally to the pine, but was much more expensive here. Both types of aspen had less dust than the pine and with spot cleaning with rats we didn't find the odor was much of an issue, but would have been with mice on aspen.

mary v.

as far as I am concerned any aromatic wood is verboten, good or bad until to final call I won't put animals that go into my snakes on any aromatic wood products, right, wrong, no difference until the facts are established.

[Lisa]

Originally posted by mykee
Marisa, to be honest, I probably wouldn't have switched, but I noticed that a few of my oldest breeder rats that have been on pine the longest, have some scabs on their bodies, and are losing their fur in areas. I'm guessing that pine might have something to do with it.

Scabs could also be mites or other parasites

[mykee]

Nope, clean. They would have run over into the other racks, but I noticed that only my 4 oldest rats suffer from this affliction.

[BurmBaroness]

I also agree with revsterlin, I wouldn't want to feed my snakes rocents kept on any aromatic wood shavings. When I used to keep rodents, I kept them on aspen. To alleviate alot of the odor, you can put a few drops of vanilla extract (found in the cooking baking section of most grocery stores) into each water bottle. Don't know why this works, but it does help with odor, and has no adverse side effects.

[mykee]

Feeders on pine bedding is not a concern of mine, it's more the breeders, for they are the ones who are on the bedding for a sustained amount of time, hence my concern for them. If anyone has a link to actual PROOF that the phenols in pine is bad for SNAKES, NOT RATS, I would love to read it. Aside from the fact that I have trade all my beddings over the aspen from pine, would still be a good read, and would FINALLY put this topic to bed for me.

[Jayson]

I started layering the bottom of the bins with pine (1/2" deep)for absorbancy, then filling the bins to the top with shredded newspaper. The paper also makes great nest material, I find that the mothers are less stressed when people are in the room if the babies are in a well hidden nest. The only problem is not throwing new unrecorded babies in the garbage on cleaning day.LOL

As to the aspen? I cant help you (never used it before)

[C.m.pyrrhus]

I just prefer the aspen over the pine any day. Pine seems to me to be a bit to 'cheap' to use. Although I do use it in a pinch myself. I seem to think that the aspen keeps smells away better and lasts longer. Even though aspen here is slightly more spendy, over time it pays for itself, and less of an annoying problem. It also is a bit more asorbant....the pine gets 'soggy'. My rats will use anything, so to them it does not matter. I just like aspen due to what I see.

[mykee]

Excellent, thanks guys.