Reptile & Amphibian Forums

no its not african rats lol... i know this isnt the appropiate forum but i figured i would get a fast reponce here... so here it goes

i've been reading about cedar bedding having "poison" toxins in it which could potentially kill a snake... would that apply only if the snake was housed with it or would it have ill effects even if your rodent was living in it? I prefer cedar because for me its easier to use and seems to cut down on the smell. Not only that it has "pest reppelent" aroma/toxins... my rodents seem to be doing fine and produce nicley but im worried about the over all best conditions so my rats and snakes stay healthy.

so what im wondering pine or cedar...and why?

Cedar has toxic resins (oils?) in it, which can cause respiratory problems with your rats for one (most people who raise rats for pets condemn cedar as well), but I'm not sure about the effect it'd have on your snakes if they're not being housed in it.

For the rats you're probably better off switching to pine or aspen - it's what I use for my pet rat and it works wonderfully. My room smells like an air freshner when I clean his cage every week and he's healthy (and fat). He had a brother for a little while that I ended up feeding to my girl snake(he wasn't very nice) and she had no problems.

Probably you're just better off with pine/aspen shavings for the rats. Still smells good, good at absorbing odor and easy to clean, not gonna cause respiratory problems.

~jenny
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1.1.1 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
2.1 betta fishes (Vicious, Killer, and Butters)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
2.25 chickens (Jacques the rooster and his harem)

but what I really want is more ball pythons!

thanks for the reply... i use both cedar and pine... i tried figuring out which was better on my own... i have been working with reptiles a long time but the rodent breeding is new to me.. i've only been doing it for about a year. I was careful not to get pine or cedar that was heavy in dust and as of yet i havent noticed any illness in my colony. I didnt want to potentially harm the rodents and i definately didnt want to put my snakes at risk. I think i will use the pine i have left then try aspen... im not a big fan of pine it just seems to get messed up quicker than the cedar does. So after this bag of pine ill check aspen

cedar may not hurt rats at first but may cause troubles later..as mentioned....it causes respiratory distress......

aspen is best.......cleanest and best smelling but it costs 2 times as much as pine at least ..

pine works..I have used pine for 16 years this time around and have used it long ago in the late 70's and early 80's....

..as for cedar.......some rodents WILL die from it...period.....rissian hamsters will get sick and lose all their hair.......I've seen it and gotten them free and placed them on pine where they regrew the hair.........

some rodents like pygmy mice will suffer fast......zebra mice (cannot get them anymore).......certain rare rodents cannot take pine even,........

good luck......go to pine.......

oh...some snakes will not eat rodents kept on cedar due to them smelling like cedar......

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thanks for taking some time out and responding i appreciate it. Now my main question is would that respitory distress be passable to my snakes seeing the rodents have been on cedar off and on.My snakes go nuts for rats but since i switched back to pine they seemed to slow down on feeding...then again it is that time of year. Im currently using pine with low dust but after thats used up ill switch to aspen the moneys not that big of a difference so thats no problem. I just hope my local feed store carries it in bulk packs

obviously if the rats are housed on cedar they have some cedar dust in their fur and if the snake eats the rat it eats the dust and cedar in the gut is bad enough too I would guess......the bad oils are inside the snake either through their digetive or respiratory tracts.....
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................................................it's a buyer's market......
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