Quote:
Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams
It's also worth noting that there are definitely brands out there marketed towards horses and small animals which don't declare wood species but contain harmful species. Snowflake brand shavings, for example, include cedar which we should all know by now is absolutely unacceptable for small pet usage as it is extremely harmful to their health.
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How did you find out the composition of snowflake bedding? I'm curious if it's been stated somewhere and I've missed it haha. I contacted them directly, but they haven't responded yet. I've seen some claim it's cedar "because some of the shavings are red"... but, that's not very accurate. Fir is also red. Yes, fir is also not safe - but I've noticed a common trend with beddings that contain fir, usually only contain 25-30% with the remainder typically being made of spruce, a safe softwood... so overall, phenol levels of fir are diluted, less concentrated, and therefore safe (like Chipsi Classic, for example - it's 70-75% spruce, with the remainder being fir - hence safe).
Anyways; OP: Best not to use unlabelled softwood shavings. The only safe softwood is spruce. But the issue is that physical appearance wise, it looks like pine. Even kiln-dried pine is not safe (not that we can say anyway, due to lack of longterm studies). I would compost it or something as mentioned... i wouldn't recommend risking it, personally.