I was wondering if anyone could tell me why pine shavings are harmful to
ferrets, but not considered harmful for hamsters or rabbits (if indeed they
aren't harmful to them.) The reason I ask is I went into the pet store we
have bought all of our ferrets from just to look at the babies, and they had
switched them from their nice wire cage they were in with no shavings to an
aquariam with shavings.  When i tried to explain to the girl at the store
that I had heard that the wooden shavings were not good for the ferrets, her
argument was that they use it with all the other pets, and that it was
"animal safe." When I asked why they decided to move the ferrets to this
type of "cage condition" she said the owner of the store had been to a
convention and had seen ferrets displayed this way.
 
I am preparing to copy some things off the net to mail to them about why
this is bad for ferrets, but thought it might help if I knew how it affects
the other animals as well.
 
Thanks in advance,
Serra
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[Posted in FML issue 1972]