-
Hello!
Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.
Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....
Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.
Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.
is this good aspen?
- Thread starter Kvlt
- Start date
ratsncorns
Bird Nerd
I use the kaytee brand aspen (its just a much larger bag than that) and I havent had any problems. I use it for my rats, mice, and snake. Rats have a pretty sensitive respiratory system and I need low dust for them as well and that aspen doesnt seem to bother them at all.
Wilder
Y HALO THAR
I tried this aspen just the other day. I tossed a few handfulls into the enclosure, paused, and started having a runny nose, weeping eyes, full chest, and a horrible cough from the strong wood odour coming from the aspen. It was also extremely oily or dusty, leaving my hand feeling very slick.
Needless to say this crap came ought very fast and was taken back. No way am I putting my snakes on that. I'm not sensitive to smells nor allergy-prone, so I can't think it was just me being over sensitive. And of course, the feeling of the aspen was very harsh and prickly. Yea, great combination for animals that are on their bellies all day... no thanks!
Others have probably used it with good results, so maybe what I had came from a bad batch. Either way, take a few good sniffs and feel what the stuff is like to be sure what you get is okay, if you get Kaytee brand.
Needless to say this crap came ought very fast and was taken back. No way am I putting my snakes on that. I'm not sensitive to smells nor allergy-prone, so I can't think it was just me being over sensitive. And of course, the feeling of the aspen was very harsh and prickly. Yea, great combination for animals that are on their bellies all day... no thanks!
Others have probably used it with good results, so maybe what I had came from a bad batch. Either way, take a few good sniffs and feel what the stuff is like to be sure what you get is okay, if you get Kaytee brand.
SnakeLuvrs
New member
I have heard never to use a bedding with wood that emits oils...
SnakeLuvrs
New member
"Kaytee Aspen Bedding and Litter is suitable for your small animals, reptiles, or birds. This bedding has a low amount of wood oils and may be preferred for animals with sensitive respiratory systems. Manufactured with all natural Aspen shavings, it is specially treated using a triple cleaning process to help eliminate dust and wood debris. This bedding is also great to use in bird nest boxes."
it says it has wood oils....if it were me, i wouldnt chance it.
it says it has wood oils....if it were me, i wouldnt chance it.
MegF.
That's for sale???
All wood has some oils, but shredded aspen has been the bedding of choice for most people and there hasn't been any problems. I don't notice any real scent to it at all. I've used Aspen (Kaytee brand for that matter) for the last couple of years and it works really well, and I've tried just about everything except pine and cedar or course. A lot of people on the forum use it.
magick-bears
New member
I also use Kaytee Aspen and have for awhile now. I have noticed that what we get here tends to vary a great deal from bag to bag and from bag size to bag size. It seems the larger the bag the courser the chips are. The smaller bags tend to be more like shredded wood and the large "bale" size bag is more like chipped wood. In fact I once found a painted wood chip in a large bag. Fortunately it was at the very top of the bag so I was able to return it before risking my animals. I also contacted Kaytee about it directly and they sent me coupons for 2 free bags.
As to the dust I have never had a problem with Kaytee. I am always amazed when I have to get a different brand for whatever reason as to how clean Kaytee is in comparison to the others.
Just my $0.03
~Jeff C.
As to the dust I have never had a problem with Kaytee. I am always amazed when I have to get a different brand for whatever reason as to how clean Kaytee is in comparison to the others.
Just my $0.03
~Jeff C.
Taceas
USW = UB313
I've used Kaytee brand for a few years myself, never really had a problem. Every once in a great while I'll get a bag that's extemely dusty, but I usually drag all of those mongo-sized bags off the shelf and look them over thouroughly before buying. Yes, I get weird looks from other customers and the Petsmart employees. I always aim for the bags with the thinnest, softest looking shavings, and avoid the large chipped looking ones.
I've only had one really bad bag in 3 years, and it had blackened aspen in the middle that was covered in a fungus of some sort, that the moment you touched it, it'd send up a plume of spores. Needless to say the entire bag got chucked onto a campfire.
I used to use L&M brand, but its more splintery than shaving, and I had a lot of issues with my snakes ending up with it in their mouth. Plus it was always extremely dusty for me.
Now I use Sani-chips, while considerably more expensive, I love them! No odor, no dust, soft, absorbs odor quite well, my snakes enjoy tunneling through it and my rodents seem to like it better. Plus, its small enough that if one of my snakes should happen to ingest it, it'd pass right through with minimal impact.
I've only had one really bad bag in 3 years, and it had blackened aspen in the middle that was covered in a fungus of some sort, that the moment you touched it, it'd send up a plume of spores. Needless to say the entire bag got chucked onto a campfire.
I used to use L&M brand, but its more splintery than shaving, and I had a lot of issues with my snakes ending up with it in their mouth. Plus it was always extremely dusty for me.
Now I use Sani-chips, while considerably more expensive, I love them! No odor, no dust, soft, absorbs odor quite well, my snakes enjoy tunneling through it and my rodents seem to like it better. Plus, its small enough that if one of my snakes should happen to ingest it, it'd pass right through with minimal impact.
magick-bears
New member
Yeah if I could find the Sani-Chips locally we would use those. I have heared that they actually go further then Aspen bedding. I have a friend on the east coast that swears buy them, though her hubby says they get to be every where in the house.
~Jeff C.
~Jeff C.
Roy Munson
New member
I use either Kaytee or Sun Seed. Neither can be considered completely dust-free, but what shaved wood product is? I prefer the aspen to be shredded into small pieces. Other coarser brands I've used retained too much moisture when dampened, and even molded from time to time. I don't have that problem with these two brands.
Taceas
USW = UB313
Yeah, the Sani-chips do seem to last longer than the regular stuff. I think because the pieces are so small, there's more to a bag. :shrugs:
It's also a lot lighter than the Kaytee brand, and makes a whale of a difference in the tubs of my "diseased" mouse rack until it can get fixed properly.
I'm actually on Week 2 in my mice tubs, and can just now start to smell the tell-tale urine odor. So not too bad.
I just wish they were more locally available. I ordered mine through Surperior Enterprises, and coupled with free shipping for 8 bags of Sani-chips you can't beat it!
It's also a lot lighter than the Kaytee brand, and makes a whale of a difference in the tubs of my "diseased" mouse rack until it can get fixed properly.
I'm actually on Week 2 in my mice tubs, and can just now start to smell the tell-tale urine odor. So not too bad.
I just wish they were more locally available. I ordered mine through Surperior Enterprises, and coupled with free shipping for 8 bags of Sani-chips you can't beat it!
but the Sani-chips...whats that?
ratsncorns
Bird Nerd
I have also noticed that the bigger the bag of aspen, the coarser and larger the shavings get. But its definately not economical to buy the smaller bags as I go through the large bag every month or so because all of my small animals are on the aspen (rats, mice, snake) and I do a cage clean each week. I did think of buying the smaller bag last time, but for $3 more I can get more than twice of that.
Due to the dust and oily nature that I had noticed in the Kaytee aspen awhile ago, I switched over to hemp bedding. ---Virtually no dust (a little at the bottom of bags, no oils, and it's a renewable source (more so than aspen). I noticed increased appetites in my snakes (my corns have always had solid appetites, so mainly an increase with my ball python), lower odor with feces, while they can still burrow and more complete sheds (when compared to before). <--I switched to sani chips for awhile and it seemed like they were drying out the snakes more.
Anyways, I know this thread is about aspen, so here are my suggestions/opinions for oily/dusty aspen:
1. The oily occurrence in Kaytee may be because the aspen is leaching the oils because it is in a plastic bag. Kaytee does put those tiny holes throughout the bag, in order to prevent the oils from leaching out with extra air flow, but depending if the bags are stored tightly in sealed boxes with little to no air flow for the tiny holes in the bags to be effective and possibly in hotter weather, the oils are leaching out from the wood. What you may want to due is transfer the aspen, after you buy it, to a brown paper bag--like a grocery bag. This would allow the aspen to 'breathe' and the paper would help to absorb the oils. Have you noticed that the non-retail brands of aspen are packaged and shipped in brown bags, ^^that could be the reason why. Additionally, batch to batch of aspen may very too.<--I am only hypothesizing on the oils, but I had noticed it.
2. As far as the dust goes, here's what I did: I screen cleaned the aspen before I put it with my snakes/mice/rats. Basically, you can get a metal screen (the bendable, firm type--if its flimsy screen, you would have to build a frame for it) with fine holes in it (kind of what is used for window screens--found in Home Depot/Lowe's), cut a rectangle out of it, and bend up the corners. Then place the aspen on the screen and shake it outside or over the trash, like you were panning gold from a river (y'all on the west coast know what I'm taking about; ^^yes I said y'all, that's how we talk in North Carolina). As long as the screen is fine enough, any dust will fall through, but the aspen shavings will not. Or, if that's too hard, you can use a scoop, like one you would use to scoop feces out of a snake's viv, as long as it is the metal screen type (like what's sold at Petsmart in the reptile section). I use more of a cat litter scoop for removing feces, which is plastic and has long slits in it, which does not work well to filter the dust from the aspen.
3. Yes, the screen filter takes a little time, so a more simple way is to just open the bag of aspen across the top, then tap the sides of the bag, and then shake the bag. If you do this a few times each time you get aspen out of the bag, the dust will slowly filter towards the bottom. At the end of the bag, you will be left with about 1/8" of dust (depending on the size of the bag), which you can then just throw away.
Hope this helps.
Anyways, I know this thread is about aspen, so here are my suggestions/opinions for oily/dusty aspen:
1. The oily occurrence in Kaytee may be because the aspen is leaching the oils because it is in a plastic bag. Kaytee does put those tiny holes throughout the bag, in order to prevent the oils from leaching out with extra air flow, but depending if the bags are stored tightly in sealed boxes with little to no air flow for the tiny holes in the bags to be effective and possibly in hotter weather, the oils are leaching out from the wood. What you may want to due is transfer the aspen, after you buy it, to a brown paper bag--like a grocery bag. This would allow the aspen to 'breathe' and the paper would help to absorb the oils. Have you noticed that the non-retail brands of aspen are packaged and shipped in brown bags, ^^that could be the reason why. Additionally, batch to batch of aspen may very too.<--I am only hypothesizing on the oils, but I had noticed it.
2. As far as the dust goes, here's what I did: I screen cleaned the aspen before I put it with my snakes/mice/rats. Basically, you can get a metal screen (the bendable, firm type--if its flimsy screen, you would have to build a frame for it) with fine holes in it (kind of what is used for window screens--found in Home Depot/Lowe's), cut a rectangle out of it, and bend up the corners. Then place the aspen on the screen and shake it outside or over the trash, like you were panning gold from a river (y'all on the west coast know what I'm taking about; ^^yes I said y'all, that's how we talk in North Carolina). As long as the screen is fine enough, any dust will fall through, but the aspen shavings will not. Or, if that's too hard, you can use a scoop, like one you would use to scoop feces out of a snake's viv, as long as it is the metal screen type (like what's sold at Petsmart in the reptile section). I use more of a cat litter scoop for removing feces, which is plastic and has long slits in it, which does not work well to filter the dust from the aspen.
3. Yes, the screen filter takes a little time, so a more simple way is to just open the bag of aspen across the top, then tap the sides of the bag, and then shake the bag. If you do this a few times each time you get aspen out of the bag, the dust will slowly filter towards the bottom. At the end of the bag, you will be left with about 1/8" of dust (depending on the size of the bag), which you can then just throw away.
Hope this helps.