Aspen bedding

Hello. I use only aspen for my cavies' bedding. I had read in *Critters* (I believe tha was the name of the magazine) that it is safe for them, unlike pine and cedar. It gives off very little "resin" smell, unlike most other wood beddings. Does anyone have further information?

Deanna

[CavySpirit]

I believe you are correct. Aspen has much lower levels of phenols. However, in doing a little surfing to find some Aspen links, I came across this site: www.angelfire.com/on/piggypalace/facts.html. If you scroll down to the 7th item, she talks about losing a cavy due to choking on aspen bedding. hmmmm. I don't know. It is a smaller shredd than the pine or cedar. I tried it once. It was okay for me. Not great. Definitely better than pine.

I'll put some info and links to sources on the bedding page. There are a lot of bedding options I haven't had a chance to put up there yet. If you have a good online source, let me know.

The info that was referenced (www.angelfire.com/on/piggypalace/facts.html) about the Aspen shavings and the potential for choking on the shavings also notes "I've heard corn cob bedding works well". I used to use ground-corn-cob litter for my rabbit ... it was really great. However, when wet it increases in size and DOES NOT break down! The rabbit ended up with a MAJOR blockage since he groomed and ingested the ground-corn-cob litter. He lived but I no longer use the corn-cob bedding. Also, one needs to be aware that corn-cob litter/bedding is susceptible to mold growth.

Aspen bedding can be very sharp, and it made me nervous to have it as my bedding....I use regular hay for bedding, when they poop it getts matted up in the hay...also, to make it more comfy(and more fun) i've been shredding newspaper in a papershredder, and stuffing it into their houses, and around the cage to burrow in. My pigs really like it..Yours may too. DELI

The aspen shavings I get are wonderful. They aren't sharp and my piggies love them. They chew on them, they burrow in them, and they kick them ALL over the place.

I have tried ALL kinds of bedding and they have no problems with the aspen, but have had problems with Carefresh, Cellsorb, Pine, and ALL kinds of pellets. Georgette is going on 4 years old and has had no problems with the aspen.

My piggies love to have PILES and PILES of hay, but the piles get cleaned out every day, and more often than not, twice a day.