On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 02:00:00 -0500, Brad wrote: >Ok, I've seen you all ranting and raving about wood pellets as litter for >our fury littel friends, BUT ... I know many people say ferrets shouldn't >use wood chips for bedding like many pet stores do ... can the same be true >if used for litter? Point by point: a) Ferrets don't spend as much time in the litterbox as they do in bed. b) Wood stove pellets are relatively inert compared to chipped or shaved wood. They do not outgas. c) The problem many have with wood chips/shavings as BEDDING have to do with CEDAR chips, which are associated with respiratory problems in small animals. Wood stove pellets are usually aspen, and pellets marketed as litter tend to be pine. Neither wood has the oils that cedar does. d) Another problem I have heard about shavings/chips as BEDDING have to do with a tendency to dry the fur, skin, and footpads of animals. From my little experience with animals (incl ferrets) in institutional settings, the fur/skin driness this doesn't seem to be a problem with well-nourished animals on ASPEN bedding that is changed frequently, although there do seem to be problems with footpads unless the animal has another surface on which to walk. e) Wood is bad as a cage material because it absorbs moisture and odors--precisely what makes it good as a litter. f) Being made from compressed sawdust, the pellets break down into sawdust when wet, and the wet sawdust sinks under the drier pellets in the litterbox. Thus, the ferret doesn't track in the sawdust, and will not inhale it unless the animal likes to go snorkling in the box--in which case, any kind of litter would be a problem. g) Using chips/shavings in the litterbox is bad because the animal will track it out of the litterbox. The pellets look like rabbit food pellets. We are not talking about chips or shavings. Make sure what kind of wood was used to make the pellets--you want pine or aspen. It won't be long, I'm sure, until some marketing genius comes up with cedar, redwood, or even hickory pellets, and from these I would stay well away. To recap, the reason we like wood pellets so much are that it's cheap, you use less of it than other litters, it's clean, it's safe, it's effective. I have heard (on the FML I think) that someone had a problem with a ferret that ate the pellets and got very sick. I have not heard of anyone else whose ferret ate the pellets. As when you introduce anything new into their environment, watch the interaction. When I first used the pellets, my girls snorkled through it, hit the piece of "orientation material" I put in the box, and said "YUCK!" ... thereafter using the pellets as intended. To scoop, I take a page from an old catalog or newspaper, and use it to grab a mound of the dirty stuff. Then I either a) twist up the paper and throw it away, or b) dump the contents in the toilet or the compost bucket. -- Lee one of the Massachusetts Ferret Friends, thanking you for remembering New England's shelters this holiday season. [Posted in FML issue 1765]