We have just published an article on hubpages on hamster bedding (and other small animals) which you may find useful, as this area has become quite complex with safety concerns over wood shavings:



What is the best type of hamster bedding?

if i had to choose one of those...

i would choose the soft paper but. persnaly i use cloff i just rip it into small picies every week works fine for me.

Very controversial topic this!  

I use shavings, always have done, with no problems whatsoever. Been keeping small animals on them for a loooong time, never had one suffer a respiratory illness and out of about 60 odd Syrians only lost 1 to a tumour, not bad odds really and was most likely completely unrelated. Of course the shavings here in the UK are safer and heat treated to remove the phenols.

I have nearly been burnt at the stake on certain other Hamster forums for saying that, some do get really quite hysterical. Rightly or wrongly, I prefer to trust mine and other breeders actual experience. Each to their own I say   

Yes, I agree, I actually think that the evidence against the treated woodshaving is scant at best and we had used them up until about two weeks ago.
Now we are using megazorb and just prefer it as it is more absorptive and means although it is twice as expensive it only needs changing half as much so cost wise about the same.
Becci, on here is a very stronlgy of the anti-woodshaving school of thought, I'm sure she will be back on soon to put her case. She's not been very well lately.

aah the bedding debate- when i'm more able to type and not so ill i'll be back  

I use megazorb and although I do not have a problem with others using pine shavings I personally would not choose to use it ever again and do recommend others not to use it too. My gerbils are allergic to it, one of my syrians looses fur on it and my campells also lost fur when they were on it.

I also use easy bed and quite often use a mix of both but for the animals i know to be allergic i use megazorb only - just because i know it will be 100% safe for them. If i could afford it i would have all my hamsters purely on megazorb - but i like some to have burrowing places so i  do use a mix.

This is the easibed

I would say megazorb, I heard they are the best

I've not had any concerns personally about using pine woodshavings.  However, I did try the hamsters with some megazorb a few weeks ago and I can't see me going back to woodshavings now.  The megazorb is so absorbant, doesn't give off any hamstery odour, even when wet and works out just as economically as woodshavings (if not better) because you don't need to change the bedding as often.  With the increasing number of cages that we have at the moment, the time saved is a big plus factor too

This is something I have been thinking about recently as regards to the mice that I am getting. Currently my Syrians and Degu's are on Wood shavings and I have to admit I have never had a problem. The university I went to for my Animal Care training had most of the animals on Wood shavings and never had a problem.
I understand that shavings did used to be dusty, etc but today they are far better especially as the pet industry has grown so much and is better regulated.  I think more scientific study needs to take place if it does cause major health problems because what little data is available is ancient and based on products that are no longer available. I would expect that some animals would be allergic to shavings though, same with any bedding or products.
Saying all that though I have decided to put the mice on Megazorb. Cost wise I don't think there is much in it (if you find the right place to buy it from) but I felt with mice it would help with absorbing the smell. I have also decided to change my Degus to Ecobed, simply because I am fed up with shavings being thrown out of the cage and some how getting in my bed!!!  

Michelle x

Quoted Text

I use shavings, always have done, with no problems whatsoever. Been keeping small animals on them for a loooong time, never had one suffer a respiratory illness and out of about 60 odd Syrians only lost 1 to a tumour, not bad odds really and was most likely completely unrelated. Of course the shavings here in the UK are safer and heat treated to remove the phenols.

I have nearly been burnt at the stake on certain other Hamster forums for saying that, some do get really quite hysterical. Rightly or wrongly, I prefer to trust mine and other breeders actual experience. Each to their own I say    

I am with Spacemonkey! I have been breeding Campbell's dwarfies for 8 years and have always used pine shavings. I have never had a problem with the bedding. I can't think of a single death or injury that could be blamed on the pine shavings. And as I have said before the Zoo, with all its animal experts, uses pine shavings with everything from the smallest rodent to the largest primate. I trust my own experience in this matter. What I have seen with my own eyes I must believe.

I think that, until there is better evidence, this issue has to boil down to personal preference and experience.

At least by debating the issue, we are becoming more aware of different products that you can choose from - after all, who would have thought that horse bedding (Megazorb) would be such a popular choice

I agree, there is no hardcore evidence, so personal preferance until our opinions can be proved. Megazorb is good because can leave cleaning the cages a bit longer - it really abzorbs well, making it clean and almost odourless. But I have no problem with other people using woodshavings - whatever is better for them.

I don't have a problem with people who choose to use pine but here are some interesting articles on the use of pine with rodents

'The Toxicity of Pine and Cedar Shavings'
http://ratfanclub.org/litters.htmll

theres loads of pro and anti articles out there, though to be honest i read alot of them when i first got my gerbils and didn't think much of them, its only in the proof of my own pets that ive changed my bedding preferances.

To balance the discussion, Corinne Fayo's "The Truth About Pine Shavings" has an interesting view against the arguement that pine shavings are harmful.

Happy reading

I did think of including that article but seeing as rabbits are not rodents i wasent sure...  i think what works for rabbits may be a totally different issue for rodents  

Definitive evidence to resolve this debate would have to include postmortem analysis of tissue levels of wood derived toxins from rodents kept under typical domestic pet, not laboratory conditions, in different groups of hamsters kept on the various bedding materials. As well as large numbers of life expectancy analysis and illness incidence during life, for decent statistical reliability.
Until such studies are available, if they ever are, and I doubt it, the evidence will never be much more than strongly stated opinions based on anecdote from well meaning small animal keepers versus promotional material from bedding manufacturers.

I thought cat little and wood shavings were super bad and your definetly not supposed to use them

The thing is, I have healthy dwarf hamsters who are raising babies on pine shavings. They are living normal life spans and dying of various causes. I have a general range of causes of death and I have a range of age at death. I find the weather has way more effect on hamsters than anything else that happens in their lives.
I would love to have toxicology done on the dead hamsters to see if there is anything in their systems. I do think if there was a toxicity issue there would be some sign by now. It might be anecdotal, but it would be noticible. That is often how we have found out that something is harmful to humans. We become aware of the negative effect. There are clusters of unexplained problems. I just don't see it happening here.
The other thing is that the pine shavings are readily available in large bags at a reasonable price. I need that if I am to house 80+ hamsters. I also buy food in bulk. Everything has to be big and cheep. I can't manage otherwise. Unless dwarf hamsters are going to become very expensive to buy, but who would pay a large price for a pet with a two year life span. That is how it is.  

But I though it hurt the hamster with the strong smeells.

I think if there was a significant effect on lifespan or health of hamsters people would be noticing it, so if modern versions of safer woodshaving have any kind of harmful effects it is probably very minimal and at least half of rodent keepers still seem to use some form of woodshavings, which I think is fine.

See, I think this issue with Pine shavings has been repeated on so many of the forums its almost ended up like chinese whispers, the facts have been distorted by well meaning people until its got almost to hysteria. There are NO conclusive facts that pine in this country is harmful, a while back I was reading a thread on another forum where some of the breeders that belong to the main Hamster clubs were talking about it and they all agreed it was being blown very out of proportion, they had seen no ill effects either.

I certainly haven't noticed any shortening of lifespan, 99% of my Hamsters live past their 2nd birthday, I have two who are 26 months at the moment, they were born here and have lived their entire lives on shavings, both are happy and healthy.

I can only speak of my own experiences, and of those that I know and trust the judgement of, but so far I see no reason to change.

There is a lot of controversy on the subject of bedding for small animals. Personally, if I was using a wood shaving, it would be aspen... not only because of the oils that are present in pine and cedar shavings (and working in a pet store, I hear first hand the complaints of the customers using these lower quality shavings) but also because they are bigger and less dusty.

I use Carefresh for my rats though.. which is just recycled paper. It's the absolute best and I use it because rats are prone to respiratory problems (which is very evident in my three girls). It's dust free and 3 times more absorbent then wood shavings (which is another benefit to the recycled paper bedding!)

I would like to point out that i not saying using pine shavings will shorten a hamsters lifespan but the discomfort caused should be noticed. Both my syrian and dwarf hamsters suffered whilst on pine shavings, when i noticed the unexplainable fur loss on monty i took the pine out and had him on plain tissue bedding till i noticed his fur growing back - this is when i switched him to megazorb.

I tried the same with my dwarfs and it had the same effect.

When i had my gerbil to the vets (Log) about a bloody nose he asked me what bedding i kept her on and told me it could be the pine causing the reaction. A bloody gerbil nose is usually cause by a respiratory infection or allergy (the bloody colour is a red colored mucus)

If it works for you then thats fine but i think everyone should know that there is an alternative to pine. I also believe that people should be made aware that pine could cause ill effect - respiratory problems, fur loss ect.. so that they can have the opportunity to look for this in their pets and be able to change the outcome. I do not belive that this applies to all hamsters but i do think that it is becoming more apparent in more cases now.

When i first entered the gerbil community i was told to take my gerblils off the pine by many people, i did not listne to them and lernt the outcome myself. I myself believed that it was 'Chinese whispers' and that it was people blowing the problem out of proportion.

I used the buy £10 bales of pine shavings form pets at home till I switched - i must admit that this would be a cheaper option for me. I didn't move my hamsters on the hearsay of others, i moved them on my own experiences of the effects.

I think there are differences in the type and quality of pine shavings available. Some products might not be as good as others and yet still be pine shavings. Also in different parts of the world the shavings are from different pine trees. That does make a difference. There also may be some major differences in how the pine shavings are processed.
All that having been said, I have all my dwarfies on pine shavings and I always have. (the infirmary is the only exception, I use padded blankets because the animal is so medically fragile) I do not have respiratory problems in my hamsters. I don't mean I have few problems, I don't have any hamsters with breathing problems or nasal discharges. Any skin iritations or hair loss can be explained by hormonal issue or nutrition problems. Hormonal hair loss goes with infertility and the couple has no more offspring. It is not both having problems, it is just the one. Sometimes it is just age related. Skin iritations are more linked to dental problems. The teeth are failing and if I supliment the hamster with a ground food mix the fur comes back. The various symptoms do not go away if the hamster is moved from the pine shavings.
I find the shavings have no effect on the hamsters. Having said that I realize that I do not use a deep layer of shavings. I look at pictures of other peoples set-ups and I see deeper levels of shavings than I would use. I find they don't need it deep. It just makes it harder for them to walk around the cage. With their little legs, it is more like they are wading, if the shavings are deep. Then they would get dust in their noses. It couldn't be helped. I have always recomended a thin layer of shavings in the hot weather and no more than 1/2in-1 in of shavings on the cooler weather. If it is really hot my cages are almost bare. The hamsters pile the shavings in one corner and sleep on the bare plastic. The males stretch out and I think it is cooler for them.

So my conclusion: if there was a serious issue the breeders with multiple hamsters would notice it first.
                          If there was even a moderate problem the breeders would be aware and discussing it.

Do I think that some animals have allergy reactions? Absolutely. Some animals could be allergic to the pine. That doesn't apply to the whole species. Some pine sources may be a problem. Again that does not apply to all pine shavings.

Who knew that pine shavings were such a hot topic.

My vet also recommends recycled paper for all of his clients with small animals.. just thought I'd toss that in as well.. I think it's definetly the best product out there for those willing to pay.