Is my bedding safe for my rats?

[~*~Perfection~*~]

  Hey as you all know im new to the boards as said in my other post. Well i'm keeping my rats on Per certra natural pine wood cat litter.  is that safe? I do have carefresh just in case, but its not the cedar/pine hsavings, its more like chunks of wood so they cant inhale it or anything. is it safe?

[Adventure Rats]

ALL PINE IS BAD!!! Get them off it and use the carefresh. I personally HATE carefresh, you can use Aspen bedding for them if you like. Just NO PINE or CEDAR NO matter what.

[AngelZOO]

Any type of Pine is bad, I would not be using that litter and switch it immediatly!
I don't even trust that Pine Cat Litter around my cats. It still contains the oils and scent even if it's in pellet form, it will eventually break up into smaller peices.

[Marybelle]

Yup, pine is bad, in any form.  The reason is that pine (and cedar) have phenols in them (the oils that make them smell), and phenols have been shown to cause respiratory and other problems in rats.  We always go by the "better safe than sorry" method.  They're probably better off on the Carefresh, although some rats have a sensitivity to the dust in Carefresh, but that seems to be highly individualized.  Aspen is also a good choice if you like wood chips, as it's a hardwood, and doesn't have the phenols. 

The only reason the pine is "safe" for the cats is that they don't live in it all day.  Rats have to. 

[AngelZOO]

"safe" in relative terms. I'd rather just not use it (though I have in the past and that litter wasn't all that great anyway)

Humans are also sucseptable to the problems with phenols, so you don't want to be sitting around your rat cage with that in it either eh?

[Marybelle]

"safe" in relative terms. I'd rather just not use it (though I have in the past and that litter wasn't all that great anyway)

Humans are also sucseptable to the problems with phenols, so you don't want to be sitting around your rat cage with that in it either eh?

That's why I put the "safe" in quotes...     I suppose I should have just said "safer".  LOL

[AngelZOO]

lol no I get what you ment, I was just going along with you.