Wood shavings as bedding material has been one of those "The jury's still out" things forever, it seems. ... Well, the jury's in.
Most everyone agrees that cedar shavings are bad for bunnies. However, most think it's only because pet urine releases harmful enzymes as a chemical reaction. The enzymes released by that reaction can put an animal into eventual respiratory distress. While that can be true, the actual truth is that cedar requires no chemical reaction to be harmful.
The same is true of pine. The problem is actually with "that great pine fragrance". The pleasing aroma of cedar and pine comes from
phenol. It just happens that cedar and pine are both more aromatic and more available. Their use is specifically designed to cover the "potty box smell". The larger point is that ALL softwoods contain a level of phenol.
So what? ... Phenols are actually antagonists in your pet's metabolic system. Simply put, phenols are bad for your pet. Phenols are both caustic and toxic.
Phenols, being caustic, are the cause of respiratory problems (pneumonia, etc) with or without a urinary chemical reaction. However, the greater problem that no one seems to know (or advertise, as the case may be) is that the toxicity of the phenols is perhaps the real killer.
We don't use the term "killer" as a pun. Liver and kidney function is to remove toxins from the body by filtering the blood. Phenols are hepatic toxins. The liver and kidneys of rats, rabbits, etc that were kept on a bed of cedar or pine were overworked and failed in more than one laboratory test.
Point being ...
the accepted "short" life span of small pets may be (probably is) directly attributed to being kept on cedar or pine bedding.
One anecdote is of a man that noted he'd had many rats for years, but one school pet was kept on shredded newspaper (no cost). All his other rats, having been kept on shavings, lived a "normal" 1-2 year life. The one on newspaper lived to be SIX ! Coincidence?
Evidence
does not exclude hardwoods (aspen, in particular) from being a problem. That is ... aspen may have some small level of phenols, as well. However,
compared to cedar and pine, aspen is relatively harmless. We make that comparison because most pet stores carry all three choices.
I mentioned in one of the forums that "... if you are satisfied with the average 'short' life span of your small animal, go ahead and use cedar or pine."
The "make a long story short" version is ... if you use cedar or pine again, you
now know that you are helping to shorten your pet's life.
