From:
tpettis@uoguelph.ca
Date: 2003-07-19 03:30:43 UTC
Subject: Clay Litter Itchies
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <7608812.1058585443025.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Hi all,
I just wanted to send a quick note about using clay litters for ferrets. We used to use Yesterday's News, but we didn't really like it (didn't absorb and too expensive) so we switched to a non-clumping clay litter. If anyone recalls I wrote in asking about why my ferret was itching so often even though we have him on Advantage and tried to stay away from foods with corn, warding against allergies.
We were recently at a shelter looking for a friend for Pippin and were talking with one of the volunteers about litter. She told us that because clay litter is so dusty it dries the skin, making ferrets itchy and can cause the ferrets to cough and sneeze more than usual. All of these things Pippin does on a regular basis! We are now switching to wood stove pellets and hopefully this will solve Pippin's itchies.
Although we've had no other problems with clay litters and being itchy isn't necessarily life threatening, I thought I'd send this out just to let people know about one of the less dangerous, but still irritating side-affects clay litter can have on ferrets.