Repiratiry problems are just one possible effect of pine bedding, not all aniamsl will be so affected. The worst part about pine (and cedar) is that in many aniamls toxins in the oils can build up in the liver and other organs, eventually causing the organs to fail. Animals may look fine *now*, but you may be cutting their lives short, they may not live as long as they would have on other bedding. Although people will point out their pets may not develop these lethal diseases due to longterm pine/cedar exposure, the problem is you can't know NOW if your aniamls will show symptoms YEARS LATER because of what beeding you use NOW. Why take the risk of cuttign their lives short? BTW, you can't know if they die younger then they should of due to such organ failure without a post mortum, and I doubt most peopel here have their departed gerbils autopsied by a vet, so I don't think its safe for anyoen to assume that their gerbils would not have lived longer if on a non-pine/non-cedar bedding.
Personally, me and my gerbils arehappiest with a mix of 75% paper shreadings and 25% aspen AG/sixth happiness > I wanted to tell everyone something. I have been using pine bedding > for 4 months now and have had no problems with my gerbils. They also > like penuts.
