wood shavings?

[newham]

Okay I got a free bag of wood shavings and bedding with Rudes mini Duna, I want to clean out my hammies and was wondering is wood shavings safe, they smell pine to me and I know there is some thing about them thats not good, I just cant for the life of me remember why wood shavings might not be good.
If they are ok I might switch to shavings cause they smell kinda nice.

[Lougarry]

It's something about the phenols in pine being unhealthy for them when inhaled. Most wood shavings in the UK are supposedly from kiln-dried pine, which is OK as the phenols have been dried out. I use wood-shavings for Dinah.

[newham]

mmmm says nothing about being kiln dried so might just pop them on the garden and use my megazorb, shame cause they smell nice.

[Lougarry]

I'm pretty sure people on the forum have contacted P@H to ask if their shavings are kiln-dried and got conflicting answers . . .

[Mona's Humans]

the P@h shavings after being aired i use for my piggies without problems if that helps at all, but i wouldn;t use them for hams

[newham]

used my megazorb I know its soft and safe.

[Hamtastic]

As I understand it, kiln-dried still has some left over phenols, just in low concentration. Judging by comments on HC, a lot of people in the UK use kiln-dried pine shavings without issues, except in cases where a ham develops an allergy to it. So if you do use those, watch your hams for any signs of a rash, fur loss, or recurrent mites. Megazorb does sound excellent though as a good alternative.

[newham]

well I got huge sacks of megazorb thanks to the rats and guinea pigs, it is soooo good, carefresh is just to expensive really for me it wasn't so bad when i had the money but now things are tight £4.50 for a bag that does two cages or £13 and the bag does all the cages in the house a good half dozen times is a no brainer.

[KatiePillow]

I know you've already made the decision, but just thought I'd add that although it smells nice to you, if you were a ham and had your nose pressed into it, I'd imagine it'd be overpowering
(although it's an easy decision for me, because I hate the smell of shavings :p )

[newham]

I know you've already made the decision, but just thought I'd add that although it smells nice to you, if you were a ham and had your nose pressed into it, I'd imagine it'd be overpowering
(although it's an easy decision for me, because I hate the smell of shavings :p )

excellent point which is why its in the compost bin on the plus side the free bedding he paper shred stuff it pretty awesome