>later, were told that there was some question as to the compositon of the
>pellets and that their vet was suggesting analysis to determine if there
>were any added oils etc...
>
>Has anybody any experience with this?  ie.  is this true?  I understand
>that a lot of shelters in the Northeast and elsewhere use them.  Has anyone
>noticed any adverse effects on the ferrets?
 
Well, I've used two kinds of wood pellets for litter -- Nature's Best Feline
Pine (sold as a cat litter) and Stove Chow (sold as fuel for wood-burning
stoves).  The Feline Pine doesn't seem to have any added oils.  If I recall
correctly, the bag even says something about this.  It certainly doesn't
*smell* like it has oils and the color is very light.  The Stove Chow is
darker and if anything had added oils, I would suspect this might, but it
doesn't seem to.  It breaks down into sawdust like the Feline Pine, but more
slowly.  It doesn't have much of a smell to it, either.  It just smells
lightly of wood.  I haven't had any problems with it (beyond the ferrets
tracking sawdust around at times) and the ferrets seem to like it.  They
snorkle in it when I've just cleaned the boxes, like to rub their bodies on
it and roll on their backs.  I've seen ferrets snorkle in fresh clay litter
(which I haven't used for years for the ferrets), but never roll in it like
this.  I like the wood pellets well enough, and it controls odor so well,
that I've actually stopped buying clay litter for my cats!  The cats took
longer to get used to it, but now they're using it without complaint.  It
definitely controls the odor better than clay litter!!  *Much* better.
 
Litter is another one of those never-ending topics, as something new comes
out every so often. I was recently introduced to corncob litter, and it's
not bad, either. I haven't used it enough to tell how it does on odor
control as opposed to the wood pellets, though. A woman in my local ferret
club *loves* the stuff. She says it doesn't get tracked around like the
sawdust from the wood pellets. My ferrets track the corncob around more than
the pellet sawdust! :) So you may just have to try and see how it works for
you.
 
--Barb--
[Posted in FML issue 2366]