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>The extrusion process involves high heat that boils away the harmful
>esters found in the wood, before the wood pulp is extruded into the
>pellets.
 
I disagree with this.  It may not happen often, but ferrets have been
known to have anaphylactic reactions to pelleted pine litters - I
personally almost lost one of mine within five minutes of putting the
pine litter into his cage.  He was fine with the hardwood pellets.
 
If your ferrets are fine with the softwood litters, then go ahead and
use them.  I won't, ever again, nor do I recommend them.
 
Dr. Ruth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Find it. Fix it. And fly again.
 
[Sukie Note: although this is a rare enough problem that we use the pine
pellets ourselves, it is very important to know that it CAN happen, so
Dr. Ruth Heller's FHL post is a good heads-up for those who hadn't heard
of the reactions before.  Cedar is just plain not safe while pine is
unsafe for those who are allergic to it.]
[Posted in FML issue 4501]