Cedar Shavings:
What's the Scoop?

The cedar shavings debate still rages, thanks to a couple articles by a university student and a rat breeder.

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These two articles allege respiratory problems in rodents due to untreated cedar shavings, however the articles also mention pine by virtue of its quality as a softwood.

If you like, you can read the articles yourself. We’ll give you links to both articles below, plus explain our viewpoint.

Our Conclusions

Untreated cedar shavings smell very strongly, and breeders simply choose to be safe rather than sorry.

In the opinion of Raising-Rabbits.com, the low cost and ready availability of heat-treated and kiln-dried pine shavings (already shown to be completely safe - see our Pine Shavings page) eliminates any attraction to untreated cedar shavings.

The articles recommend avoiding all softwood shavings. The rest of this page explains why we disagree with the conclusions of the articles (except for the use of untreated cedar shavings). You can read on if you need to.

This is a rabbit website. But if you also breed rats, you might definitely want to read on.

"Respiratory toxicity of cedar and pine wood"

According to the studies:

• 50% of wood, paper and pulp mill workers eventually come down with asthma
• The studies are not consistent as to whether increasing length of exposure results in worsening symptoms.
• A cessation of exposure to cedar’s plicatic acid resulted in abatement of symptoms in around 50% of asthma sufferers.

The full title lists pine, but the preponderance of the human research was done on cedar. (I have no qualms using untreated pine, however heat-treated pine is readily available.)

Mr. Johnston describes a hyperactivity of the immune system resulting in asthma. It is very clear that humans whose immune systems cannot properly handle an exposure to the irritant in cedar shavings (plicatic acid) need to not be working in a cedar sawmill.

"The Toxicity of Pine and Cedar Shavings"

In her article, Ms. Ducommun makes only one citation that I would find concerning if I were a rat breeder, and I quote:

"One study showed that the mortality of rat pups raised on cedar shavings was tremendously high compared to rat pups raised on corn cob or aspen shavings. Of the pups raised on cedar shavings, 56% were dead by 2 weeks of age, while only 0.01% of the pups raised on the other beddings died. The cedar-raised pups also weighed about 23% less than the other pups."

If I were a rat breeder, I would get a copy of this research, and probably do test-breedings of my own to verify its accuracy. (If I were a rat breeder using cedar shavings, I might have already noticed problems, IF the study data were accurate.)

As an aside, Ms. Ducommun mentions at the end of her article that CareFRESH "makes some rats sneeze." If you’ve already visited our Rabbit Litter page, you will have seen that CareFRESH does not control ammonia levels.

High ammonia is a sure recipe for respiratory problems. Since Ms. Ducommun cites respiratory problems in rats, perhaps she should switch away from CareFRESH to, say, pine shavings.

What do we at Raising-Rabbits.com think?

First, where’s the clinical evidence in rabbits? Where are the hundreds of rabbits getting sick due to cedar shavings? I don’t know of one single rabbit that has ‘asthma.’ But, I will make inquiries, and let you know. I do know of a LOT of rabbits with snuffles or coccidiosis, but these illnesses were not contracted from acute cedar-osis.

Second, in a purportedy scientific paper, you cannot make leaps into conjecture as does Mr. Johnston. He states, "The effect on small mammals is likely to be even more pronounced, especially if they are in close, continual contact with wood chips." This statement is pure assumption. I’m surprised that a doctoral student would make such a leap. There are no animal studies cited by Mr. Johnston.

The reason you can’t make this leap is because of differences, both in biology and in nutrition, between species. Our third point, directly following, discusses this.

Third, animals (and humans) on a species-correct diet that provides all the necessary nutrients, will have immune systems that keep them healthy in the presence of dust, germs, and cedar shavings. Diet is hugely important for health and immune system strength.

For sickness due to a failure of nutrition, humans are exhibit A, and dogs and cats are exhibit B.

Let’s talk humans for a minute.

Why did 88.9% of Americans die of chronic, degenerative diseases in 2005? Why the huge rise in mental health issues over the last 30 years? A weak immune system is in all cases the reason, due to woefully inadequate nutrition.

(Did you eat your 13 recommended helpings of vegetables today? Were they fresh-harvested in the last 24 hours? Were 5 of those helpings raw? No? I didn’t think so, and to be fair, I didn’t eat enough fresh veggies today, either.)

Why a weak immune system? Because the body is not getting the necessary tools (nutrients) for supporting good health. Genetically modified foods are proliferating, vitamin-destroying microwaves are in every home, farm soils are depleted and practically sterile, animals meant for human consumption are riddled with hormones and antibiotics.

I’d be typing all day if I were to list all the challenges. And I haven’t even mentioned Monsanto, Dow-Corning and their ilk. Are you aware of the hundreds of THOUSANDS of TONS of insecticides and pesticides that drench the world every year? (Worried about loss of species? Go after the REAL culprits - the purveyors of poison.)

Here is the evidence:

• In 1900, the US Mortality Statistics (readily available online) reveal that 9.9% of deaths in America were due to chronic disease. Just 3.7% of those deaths were due to cancer. If infection didn’t kill you, ‘old age’ eventually caught up with you.
• In 2005, 88.9% of deaths were due to chronic disease - yeah, 88.9%. That wasn’t a typo. Cancer, inflammatory heart disease, strokes, emphysema and diabetes are the top killers. Every one of my North American visitors knows several people stricken by at least one of these prevalent chronic diseases. By age 85, virtually 100% of males will have prostate cancer. Do you know anyone who died of old age in the last 30 years?

  No one living today can remember the ‘good old days,’ when there was NO SUCH THING AS ASTHMA, when the toxin burden was very low, we ate fresh-picked, home-prepared meals, and our immune systems were well-primed to keep us healthy.

If there had been a world wide web one hundred years ago, this discussion would not have occurred.

Humans are sick today because they don’t eat right, and because our bodies are already carrying an enormous load of noxious chemicals. This, I am sure, is a huge contributing factor to the asthma in sawmills. Human immune systems throughout North America are functioning at 75% of normal (according to Dr. Darryl See, Immunologist, and that was back in the year 1999), and the cedar dust is only the last straw.

Now let’s talk about species-correct nutrition and your pet dogs and cats.

Dogs and cats are no different biologically from wolves and lions. They are carnivorous animals. Their species-correct diet is solely raw meat, bones and organs such as liver or heart. (Go to Homemade Pet Food for greater detail.)

What are you feeding your pets? The pet food market is glutted with dry kibble products. Some brands are better than others, but none of them match the complete needs of a dog’s or a cat’s biology. Just look around the vet’s office and listen to the litany of complaints and health woes. These complaints are almost solely the result of poor nutrition.

It’s amazing the transition back to health a mangy, flea-bitten, allergic, cancerous, diarrheal dog or cat can make, almost overnight, when given a biologically appropriate diet. That’s all - just sufficient, correct, nutrition! The immune system is up to the task, IF it gets the tools it needs to work with.

And our rabbits? Rabbits do get biologically correct diets.

They are herbivores. We feed them alfalfa, grains, and hays. They chew on bark - including cedar bark - with no adverse reactions. They are healthy as a rule. This is why you cannot extrapolate from a study of sick humans and assume that smaller herbivore animals are going to react even worse.

One Last Observation

So, if your rabbit starts showing unhealthy symptoms for ‘no reason,’ stop using untreated cedar. Switch to heat-treated cedar, or pine beddings and litter.

Better yet, as noted at the top of this page, stay away from untreated cedar shavings as a matter of caution, and stick with pine.

• For a discussion of the effects of softwoods on rabbit liver enzymes, go to Rabbit Litter.

• For a comparison of rabbit beddings and our top recommendations, go to Rabbit Bedding.

• For a discussion about the safety of pine shavings, go to Pine Shavings.

Go from Cedar Shavings to Rabbit Bedding

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