Is it statis or is your litter contributing to the problem

[gmas rabbit]

I have seen alot of problems with bunnies digestive systems since I joined this forum and must say I am concerned that there is a possibility that some of the problem might be caused by the litter. We lost a year old satin about 8 years ago when pine litter first became popular. He went into renal and liver failure and died. The house rabbit society had similiar problems at the same time and did a review on the situation and came up with the conclusion that pine and cedar secreted a resin that was toxic to rabbits, guinea pigs and other small rodents. They put a warning out on it. Even when heat treated it seem that you may be taking a chance or at least that is my interpretion of their results. Two of the papers can be viewed at http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/quineapigs/a/woodshavings.htm and http:/www.rabbit.org/journal/1/liverdisease.html there are a lot more just type in is pine litter toxic to rabbits. I quess because I lost an animal to this when not much was know about the toxicity of this product and rabbits, I make it my quest that no one else loses a rabbit for this reason. So I quess the bottom line of my request isthat : If you are having repeated digestion problems with your bunny, please review the type of litter that you are using.ray:

 

[naturestee]

Actually, cedar is the really bad one. But pine can be bad too. If the pine product is kiln-dried, it removes the majority of the harmful chemicals from the wood. The wood pellets I use are kiln-dried and are sometimes pine, depending on availability.

So in short: kiln-dried pine good, not kiln-dried pine bad.

Some rabbits also eat certain types of litter. I stopped using Carefresh when two newly-rescued buns thought it was food.:shock: That's more common with corncob litter.

 

[Pharfly]

I have heard the same thing about kiln drying pine it bakes the phenol oils out of the wood. You can really notice the difference. Untreated pine smells like pinesole, while treated(kiln dried) smells almost like nothing. I use kiln dried pine for my pet mice, I tried aspen once and found it rather dusty, I have heard of mouse breeders who have had them develop an allergy too aspen.