Why are pine and cedar still marketed for rats?

[Kessaria]

Out of curiousity I was looking on some packaging (can't remember the brand) of cedar shavings.  On the back it had a chart for "how good" the bedding was for different types of pets and how often it should be changed.

Under rats, cedar was listed as good, pine as better, aspen as best.  They made it out like the quality of the bedding was just a matter of comfort and $$ with no mention of health!    I know when I was a beginning rat owner I relied somewhat on product instructions to help me learn how to care for my pets.  

This gives so many people the wrong idea!

Maybe I can get an address and write to the mfg.

[Joe]

   Most of them are still on the market for one of two reasons:
  1) Ignorance.
  2) (If they know the problems) They know they'll loose a lot of money if they were honest about what it does.
  Sad, but true.

[WeeRaffins]

Yah...I kept my guinea pigs on pine and then switched to cedar when someone told me it was better. (YEAH RIGHT!) I still feel guilty about it.  

[Meld]

I wrote a letter once to a petstore near here and complained that they sold pine and cedar and told them about the toxicity of them.  The only explanation I got from him was he likes to give his customers a little bit of a variety to choose from.  Oh brother.

[Suebee]

I agree with Joe -- the primary motivators are ignorance and greed. That's why we have to work to educate people so that the stuff is no longer purchased at all anymore, and it's no longer a money-maker for these pet stores. They fail to realize that promoting more expensive, safer beddings means more money and longer-lived pets, which translates into the sale of more supplies. *sigh*

[ruthiechan]

Maybe you could write a litter to the company who makes cedar and pine?

[Bonnie]

I know Kaytee has a chart like that one on the back of thier packaging. I don't remember if it said exactly that, but it might be the one you were thinking of.

And I agree with what  Joe said. Either ignorance or the fact that is not against any regualtions to print that kind of lie.  

[Anna]

Feel free to insult Kaytee here
http://www.kaytee.com/contact.html

[HeatherB]

Ignorance and Greed!

Not all pet stores are like that.  After my night of hell....the story:

I came home at around 1am to find my baby rat Wendy gasping for air.  I had no idea that she was sick. I thought she just liked to stay in the nest.  Anyway, I took her out of the nest and started calling all of the Emergency Vet Clinics in my area, and even not in my area......I only found one that was about 45 minutes away.  I didn't have permission to use the emergency money that my mother had left me though.  She was in Ohio at the time, but I called her anyway.  I was crying my butt off, so she agreed to allow me to use the money.  (Did I mention that this was about 2am in the morning now?)  So I packed my rat up, had my friend hold her in a lil' shoe box, and we haled ass.  We were so close to the clinic when she died.  Maybe 5 minutes away.  It still makes me cry when I think about her.

Anyway...The next morning I went to a petstor near my house and started to tell her my story through my tears...  She was a very nice lady, and since I was a newbie at the time, she told me what to buy for my rat, and even gave me antibiotics for the rest of my rats.....I was using Cedar at the time......damn that other pet store to hell....for selling me the Cedar, and the sick baby rat.  I had two babies, and traded the boy for a girl.  That little girl mad all of my other rats sick.  But now my rats are fine, and healthy.

I guess the moral of my long story is that not all petstores are EVIL.  Most people going into a pet store don't ask "what should I buy for my rats."  They just assume.  I think that  people like us should try and tell the whole world does and don'ts.  It would save trees!  Not only trees, but lives.  Maybe ask petstores to display ratclub.com cards.....so that newbies can come here and ask their questions.  After my night of hell, I swore that I was going to learn all about rats....And that's when I stumbled across this website. I had never heard about it before.  And that's a shame.  

~Heather

[ruthiechan]

Heather you poor thing!
I do agree with you on the whole petstore thing though.

[Meghan]

Pine ane cedar aren't just a problem for rats, so that isn't the whole issue.  They aren't ideal for any of the small animals that are normally kept on that kind of bedding.