Is kiln dried pine ok bedding for a guinea pig or is it toxic or unsafe?

Question

if its dangerous what are any alternative options for bedding?

Answer 1

dried pine or cedar shavings can cause upper respiratory distress and can kill your guinea pig.

i use either carefresh or yesterday's news.  both are  recycled newspaper product and have odor control and absorb well and are easy to clean up.

i prefer the carefresh since it's softer.  the yesterday's news is a harder pellet and i'm always afraid of irritating their feet.  but so far no problems with it.  when the local store has carefresh in though i always buy as much as i can at that time.

Answer 2

I wouldn't use it. Supposedly it's had most of the phenols baked out but honestly, why risk it? There are so many safe beddings out there, I don't see the point. Try fleece, aspen, or Carefresh.

Answer 3

NONONOONONNONONONOOOOO!! pne and cedar are deadly!! the best bedding is CAREFRESH the second best bieng aspen shavings! =]

Answer 4

What we use for my guinea pigs is pine shavings, but I have cages with wire on the bottom so the guinea pigs  never actually came into contact with the shavings. We did  have one cage that did not have a wire bottom and we used shredded up newspapers. We have a paper shredder at our house and we used it to shred newspapers and  put it in our guinea pig's pen. It seemed to work allright. Never really had too much of a problem with it. Also they make different kinds of pelleted bedding. I would check that out also.

Answer 5

Pine bedding in any form is harmful. Especially, if it hasn't been kiln dried because it contains a lot more oils and phenols which damage your guinea pig's lungs.

Although kiln dried pine is a lot safer, it still contains the toxins that are harmful. It contains alot less and the harm done to your piggy is slower and takes more time, but if given that time, lots of problems could arise.

Try aspen bedding. It is a hardwood unlike cedar and pine which are softwoods, and it doesn't contain the oils that are harmful.

You can also buy Carefresh bedding.

But for guinea pigs, you should really use hay as bedding. They should always have an unlimited supply of it.

Try Timothy hay.

Answer 6

pine bedding is terrible for any animal it can cause an upper respatory infection and if not treated can kill ur guinea pig but i recomend carefresh bedding sold at a local pets store and is made out of recycled newspaper its what i use for my little rat.

Answer 7

Recommended beddings http://www.guinealynx.info/bedding.html

Kiln dried pine is fine to use. Some brands are better than others.

Aspen is fine too.