Hate the smell of pine shavings....

[greeneyedbaby190]

OK, so my honey and I tried using KD pine shavings on our 3 chinchilla girls. We have found that we absolutely hate the smell and want to find something else. It is not that the shaving start to smell from the urine and ammonia therein, it is just the scent of pine. Is there anything else that we can try? We did find this online and it claims to be made from wood fibers, a friend of ours uses it for her rabbit and there is no discernible wood odor. Is this safe for chins or should we keep looking? http://www.amazon.com/Kaytee-Granul...PIWU/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1317445525&sr=8-9

 

[GorillaJTA]

Have you tried aspen?

 

[greeneyedbaby190]

Hm, that is definitely something we might look into...is there less of a smell to it?

 

[ChinnyMom]

aspen has less 'wood' smell to it to me. i've not used aspen myself, but by shoving my nose up against the bags of pine and aspen at the store (yeah, i do that! lol), i don't get nearly as much aroma from the aspen bag.

 

[LoveBug]

I use aspen for my animals. The only time I smell it is right when I put it in the cage otherwise I don't smell it

 

[Idgie]

I use Carefresh or a generic brand of that. No odor. Love it (though it is a bit pricey).

 

[LoveBug]

theres debate going on about carefresh.. if a chin were to swallow it, it would expand. so that'd mean its not good for a chin most of us use the aspen or kd pine bedding.

 

[menagerie]

I use shredded aspen. I can't breathe around pine shavings.

 

[addictedtochins]

I use clean hay in their litter boxes and change them twice a week

 

[3CsMommy]

Aspen chips/shavings could work, just don't get the teeny "Sani-chips" or "Repti-chips" or you'll have an even bigger mess than usual on your hands.

You might also try fleece liners if you have your own washing machine and clothes dryer. I usually put in a clean one on day 1, then flipped it for day 2 and put in a clean one on day 3, flip for day 4. But, I made my own, so having 5-6 liners wasn't a problem if it was the better part of a week until I could do an animals load of wash.

 

[greeneyedbaby190]

See I have considered fleece liners as well, but it my chins are messes and refuse to litter box train....the one that I posted is not carefress and I am really curious about it, does anyone have any feedback on it?

 

[Essentia]

I use liners and most of my chins do not use a litterbox. Most just pee on the liners. We change out liners every 3-4 days and don't have an issue with smell. I hear it often from people who come into the room with the chins "I can't believe I don't smell anything?!". I wash them in warm to hot water with a normal amount of detergent and a cup of white vinegar. They don't have a smell at all when they come out of the dryer.

 

[Airyn]

I can't breathe around pine either, so I use aspen as well. I don't smell anything other than when I first put it in the cage...or if I'm a bad chinparent and let the cages go for an extra day when they need cleaning. )

 

[Brittany]

I use liners and most of my chins do not use a litterbox. Most just pee on the liners. We change out liners every 3-4 days and don't have an issue with smell. I hear it often from people who come into the room with the chins "I can't believe I don't smell anything?!". I wash them in warm to hot water with a normal amount of detergent and a cup of white vinegar. They don't have a smell at all when they come out of the dryer.

I don't use litterboxes either with my fleece, it's just one more thing for them to make messy. I also clean the same way with the vinegar, the only difference is I let mine line dry.

 

[LoveBug]

out here in New Mexico, you'd only have to line dry for like 5 minutes lol.

 

[Essentia]

I don't use litterboxes either with my fleece, it's just one more thing for them to make messy. I also clean the same way with the vinegar, the only difference is I let mine line dry.

I wish I could line dry here. It's so humid that stuff never dries.

 

[mommykitty]

where do i get the liners?

 

[LeoMonster]

OK, so my honey and I tried using KD pine shavings on our 3 chinchilla girls. We have found that we absolutely hate the smell and want to find something else. It is not that the shaving start to smell from the urine and ammonia therein, it is just the scent of pine. Is there anything else that we can try? We did find this online and it claims to be made from wood fibers, a friend of ours uses it for her rabbit and there is no discernible wood odor. Is this safe for chins or should we keep looking? http://www.amazon.com/Kaytee-Granul...PIWU/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1317445525&sr=8-9

This is what I've been using as well, although I am a new chinparent. I didn't want to use wood because I don't like the smell, and I knew carefresh was bad. I've run pieces of this bedding under water and it didn't expand, but Leo does enjoy chewing on the bigger pieces, so I tend to take them out when I change his litter.

I haven't heard anything from anyone on it though. I'm curious to see what people have to say about it. The only downside I've seen from it is that its so small that it tends to get thrown up everywhere when he's jumping around.

 

[Terbear24]

Carefresh i used when I first got into chins and was great! A little more expensive but is really absorbant and really doesnt have a smell!

 

[chin-nw]

I guess it depends on if your cage allows for your chins to wait in the litter or if it has a wire bottom, and therefore the chins can not walk in the litter. If they can walk in it and you dont like pine shavings, try the aspen. If that doesnt work for you, I would go with the fleece liners. Just buy or make several of them so that you have enough so you only have to wash them once a week. Less hassle. If the chins cant walk in the litter, you can try recycled newsletter in the form of pellets. like Crown animal bedding or similar non fragranced brands. The chins cant get it and because its recycled, doesnt have any of the toxic dyes or inks of the newspaper print.