Horrid alergic reaction to wood based pellet litter!

[Hetty]

My ferrets (three castrated hobs aged between two and thee) live in a SAVIC two tier cage similar to a ferret nation, I gave up on trying to litter train them years ago when I realised they were not going to play ball with me and my family (I was living at home at the time) couldn't/wouldn't cope with the supossed smell *roles eyes*.

We tried a multitude of products along the way.

wood shavings wonderful for odour control ferrets love them but the mess indoors is unbearable sticks to everything.

Papper based pellets: we have tried Back to Nature, Finacard's pellets 
I find the smell is awful from the product itself an odour control/obsorbtion of urine is a myth.

Wood based cat litter was a huge success on just about every level and I have been hoping between supermaket brands from asda to Morison and tesco, my last bulk purchase was from tesco for 110lt (11bags) it takes around one 10Lt bag to fill up the bottom of the SAVIC.

However to my horror tesco appear to have changed the product and instead of it disintegrating into a fine dust it's more bitty and chunky and after it had broken down in the pee corner after less then 48hrs my boys have had a sort of respotory attacks, sneezing fits even my more hostile nippy ferret was shivering and licking me after I nabbed him from the cage in a panic.

I has been a horrid afternoon, I have scrubbed there cage with a white vinegar/water solution, dumped a entire cage worth of fresh litter *horified face* taken all there hammocks and beds away for washing, and left them which a sheet to snuggle up in. 

I have no idea what to use as bedding I feel at a bit of a loss, I have been contemplating trying hemp bedding for my rescue rat and APH so sits no harm to buy more and share with the ferrets but is a hemp bedding suitable.

I can find limited information, I am already dreading the mess but thankfully we now live in our own flat so there is nobody to complain and they occupy the hallway so mess would be partially contained and I guess I will be getting handy with a dust pan and brush every day.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

thank you Hetty 

[Hetty]

Hello again,

So these are some of the options I have found which would be cost effective.
Megazorb (I have read online that it is similar to Care Fresh which both the rat and APH love so muti-purpose)

Natural Hemp Bedding Siccofloor (from zoo plus)

Or Hugro another hemp bedding but this one looks a tad sharp and pointy might just be photographs but I'd rather not have something with a straw like look about it for any of my small companions.

(Thank you again)

[bitbyter]

Most of us here in N.A. use fleece blankets in the cage as bedding and have specific litterboxes for poop & urine. Some of the more popular litters here are: Worlds Best (corn based), Blue Buffalo (walnut shell based), Yesterday's News (recycled paper based), and horse bedding (compressed wood based).

[Hetty]

Thank you for the reply
I am of course aware of the popularity of using fleece liners, too my knowledge in the UK there is a sort of split opinion the old (which stick to the traditional bedding ideas but with a heightened awareness about cedar and pine) and the more modern fleece option.
To be perfectly honest I am somewhere in the middle, my boys have hives and hammock, cat beds all sorts but on the ground level of there cage I keep the whole level full of substrate about 2cm thick with extra in the corner. It works wonders for odour control, I don't have to worry about any them missing. We tried litter training when they were kits and used a combination of lino and cat litter trays and it sort of worked 50/50 this was in a indoor chicken coup style at my parents.
However when we moved to my flat we had to down size or more think vertically (the chicken coup is going to go in my garden once I have done a bit of landscaping) and we now use the SAVIC two level cage and then they have the run of the hallway.

I wouldn't consider using fleece for my rescue rat Sofia the smell of her pee would be horrendous, I also rescued a APH earlier this year and he loves to burrow and hollow corners so I prefer to keep him on a more traditional bedding and then have fleece house, snugs and hives... our middle ground.

Also I prefer feeding a raw diet on the bedding material as I am a tad icky about when they stash raw food, and feel completely confident to let them do there think and then just clean out the corners.

It looks like I am on my own with this hemp bedding and might just have to experiment with that and megazorb because after the afternoon of watching my boys struggle with there're breathing, I have no intention of using wood based pellets for a while at least. *shivers*

Thanks again for the response

[Jeremy's Boggle]

Do get your little one checked by a vet. I have one that is allergic to wood litters. He can develop pneumonia without treatment once the allergy gets started. Luckily the last time mine had an allergic reaction to something we were able to treat him with allergy medicines and avoided him developing pneumonia.

Natural Hemp Bedding Siccofloor is not available in the the states. It looks like it might be ok. We do have members in the countries it is available in. One of them may be able to comment on the product.

[Hetty]

Thank you also for your reply, all my boys seem to be completely back to normal now, no sneezing in over 12hrs.
This is proving to be a very expensive escapade as I had only just bought the substrate for the next three months or quarter I find it more cost effective to buy in bulk.
I am going to phone the supermarket in question and speak to there customer service team.

As for my plan of action:

I ordered the Natural Hemp Bedding Siccofloor 150Lt for £15.90

And a 75lt bag of Megazorb for £8 something

It worked our more cost effective to add in a few other treats and such like considering the added shipping.

I will of course take all three to our ferret specialist if needed.

Best wishes Hetty