Quote:
Originally posted by Classic
I use and know many that use pine for their rodents.
Syst3M: I think you may be a little over causious about the pine shavings or you have alot of money to burn. Aspen is very expensive, to expensive for rodents if you keep alot of snakes. There is no proof that rodent feeders on pine can be harmful to your reptiles. I use pine and know of no one else using something different. Cedar on the other hand is more toxic and may be bad for rodents but there has been no studies to even show this.
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First,
This is absolutly wrong. There are absolutly studies that show cedar or pine or any of the fragrant wood chips damage liver and kindeys in rodents and other animals. Cedar being the worst culprit
Second,
There are few snakes that have VERY sensitive kidneys when they are born, Green Tree Python being one of them. If your going to go through the effort to raise snake food so that it gets quality food. Why risk harming your snake. I know a few people that have gone through the trouble of purchasing reverse osmosis systems for their collection so they can have a ready source of pure water.
Cedar is absolutly not safe. Pine is safer but that doesn't mean its healthy either. My rule of thumb is if I'm not going to keep my snakes on it, I'm not going to keep my feeders on it either.
As far as cost is concerned, either buy what you want in bulk at the local hardware, or find altenate bedding. Even shreaded news print is better to keep rodents in at least in my opinion.