Yup, I'm back.  Just a quick note.
 
About redwood chips that someone mentioned a while back.  Just like cedar,
long term exposure to redwood dust can cause respiratory problems as
well as throat or nasal cancer.  Rather like smoking ...
 
This is well established with humans in the woodworking/lumber (particularly
planer mills etc) industry, and is listed in NIOSH (National Institute
of Occupational Safety and Health (or something like that)) advisories
and regulations.
 
I don't recommend using cedar or redwood for bedding.  Other known toxic
domestic woods are juniper (aromatic cedar), oleander and mimosa.
 
The woods that are rot resistant tend to be rot resistant because they
produce compounds that are toxic to organisms that cause wood to rot.
Hence it should be no surprise that sometimes these compounds are toxic
to things other than wood rot organisms.  Like people.  Or ferrets.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0946]