Posted by:
sasheena
at Sun Nov 9 19:48:51 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by sasheena ]
I've found that pine does a good job of keeping the odors down. Personally the smell of mouse urine (or snake waste) combined with aspen makes me physically ill (we're not talking a buildup, we're talking five minutes after changing cages!). I now use a combination of pine and alfalfa, occasionally add a tiny pinch of cedar, and some raw cotton from the cotton fields in the winter so the mice can make little warm nests. It could be that some of my mice didn't do well with pine, but they've long since been bred out of the breeding groups so the mice I have left like pine, like the diet I give them, and are heat resistant since this IS afterall Arizona. 
I think if you have a pet mouse, and like any pet, you want it to live the longest life possible, you would not want it to be raised on Pine. Pine CAN shorten the life of a pet mouse. But I don't believe that Pine can shorten the lifespan of a mouse any more drastically than back to back breeding will do, which is usually what feeder breeders do.
I have noticed a decreasing amount of respiratory ailment type symptoms ever since I moved to 50% alfalfa and 50% pine. But that could be coincidence as that coincided with a move from one mouse place to another.
Anyway, pine is fine, by me. There will always be dissenting opinions, which I respect. Here's mine.
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~Sasheena
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Pine IS fine - sasheena, Sun Nov 9 19:48:51 2003