JadeIcing wrote:
If it can cause any problems what so ever it is a no in my book.
Well, let's take a look at this for a moment.
Carefresh is lauded as one of God's gifts to rabbits, but it can cause problems. First of all, Carefresh is chemically treated. Anything that's been through the paper process has been. Does that make it bad? No, but some people would say, "I'll never give my rabbits something chemically treated!"...but Carefresh and probably other similar paper beddings are. And they're dusty. And can cause allergies. But until you put your rabbit on it, how do you know if they're allergic? Softsorbant is another one. It's definitely chemically treated and is dusty. If it's ingested it'll cause impaction.
And then we get into the other problem Carefresh gives, and the bigger one: if they ingest too much, you get an impaction. And that, simple put, will kill a bunny. Have I seen it before? Yep. Rabbit died of complications after the surgery. And yet there were only a few pieces of bedding stuck in there, they were just stuck in a really bad place.
So let's look at pine shavings. First of all, there's kiln dried pine, which is different than your normal, run-of-the-mill pine. This kind of pine has been treated and is usually considered safe for rabbits.
And then you get articles like this.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/1155/Pine.html
It has a lot of good points. Although it isn't perfect.
And this will also probably tick someone off, but I don't want to tick someone off, I simply want to bring something new to this discussion, because so often, one little bit of information gets out and we don't really see the full scope of the issue. On the sources from the HRS, it says,
"Aromatic hydrocarbons from cedar and pine bedding materials can induce the biosynthesis of hepatic microsomal enzymes"
But raised liver enzymes can mean nothing. And it can mean something. I've YET to get a really, really good journal on how "toxic" it is. And while I have utmost respect for the HRS I don't particularly care for many of their articles. First of all, they cite themselves. Anyone who cites themself without conducting the study (study using ths scientific method) by themselves raises a really big red flag in my book. No offense to them.
So, what about my own personal experience with pine shavings and rabbits? Well, let's talk bloodwork. Of six rabbits kept on pine shavings, two had very elevated liver enzymes, or at least certain liver enzymes. Well, one of them was dying of fatty liver disease and the other was in the dirtiest cage you've ever seen. It was unanimously agreed that while the pine shavings couldn't have helped very much, the biggest problem was the fact that it was walking around in month-old urine and didn't have hair on her back legs because they were so scalded, and little kids were constantly grabbing her and she hardly had any food was about three pounds underweight. Pine shavings weren't the biggest issue. (I will point out that this obviously was not a study conducted using the complete scientific method, and can hencefourth be blown off by many people, but I digress.)
And stress. Stress can tip a rabbit over the edge and shoot liver enzymes through the roof. And heptatic coccidiosis, which oftentimes only shows up as....death, and maybe anorexia.
There are just too many things that can cause a rabbit to have elevated liver enzymes or liver disease, that I would seriously question whether or not it is solely pine shavings that cause it.
All that being said, do I use pine shavings? No. Firstly, they make my allergies go haywire, and secondly, my rabbits prefer Softsorbant.
.
