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As many of us have known for some time, due to some useful research found many years ago in the USA, Spruce is not the same as Pine or Fir. I came across the article many years ago, which shows the amount of phenols in Spruce compared to Hardwood - it's also in our resources section, but here it is below.
Spruce is a softwood but is equivalent to a hardwood in terms of the quantities of phenols (ie minimal) so spruce shavings are considered as safe as hardwood bedding. Unlike pine, which contains phenols - even if it is kiln dried.
However there can be some confusion as to what is actually spruce bedding or safe quantities of spruce in a bedding.
Apparently some owners had issues with Allspan and suspected it contained some cedar (although this is unknown) and I believe Hamster Welfare has removed Allspan from their recommended beddings list. It's widely said that Allspan is 100% Spruce, but in fact it isn't. Maybe it used to be but not these days. So I did a bit of research.
Allspan (traditionally a horse bedding) is made in Germany, Holland and France. The website says it's made from 100% untreated softwood. ie this suggests it's not kiln-dried if untreated. The website says it is "approximatetly" 95% Spruce. Which means the other 5% is untreated softwood of some other type. While 5% might not sound very much, if it is cedar (ie and not kiln dried) this could be an issue. If the Spruce itself isn't kiln-dried, that's not so much an issue, as it's extremely low in phenols, like hardwood.
This suggests it's not a good option to use. The link is here but you need to scroll down the page.
The other bedding that contains Spruce is Chipsi Classic. Chipsi classic says Spruce and Fir (fir is pine basically). It is kiln-dried and German standards of kiln-drying are supposed to be very good. However it doesn't state what percentage of the bedding is Spruce and what percentage is fir. It's one reason I haven't used it before due to the uncertainty. It could be minimal Spruce and mostly fir/pine.
Again, in various places on the internet, people think it's about 75% Spruce to 25% fir but that information doesn't have any verifiable basis. It is not quoted anywhere what the proportion of Spruce is.
So I decided to email the manufacturers and ask them what the percentage of Spruce is, about 5 weeks ago. And they haven't replied!
As such there is no known source of 100% Spruce bedding - unless someone knows of one.
Personally I'd like to know what percentage of Spruce is in Chipsi Classic before considering it as something other than just kiln-dried pine. Chipsi also make scented versions of their beddings which are definitely not good for hamsters.
So I've emailed them again.
And just in case that article linked above, and in resources, ever disappears off the internet, I've saved it as a pdf - attached to this post
Just to add, another member recently (maybe @oddvon )? Mentioned Vida shavings as Spruce shavings. I've contacted them as well to see if it's 100% Spruce, which the sites that sell it seem to suggest it is. It would be good to know there is a 100% Spruce bedding available.
Spruce is a softwood but is equivalent to a hardwood in terms of the quantities of phenols (ie minimal) so spruce shavings are considered as safe as hardwood bedding. Unlike pine, which contains phenols - even if it is kiln dried.
However there can be some confusion as to what is actually spruce bedding or safe quantities of spruce in a bedding.
Apparently some owners had issues with Allspan and suspected it contained some cedar (although this is unknown) and I believe Hamster Welfare has removed Allspan from their recommended beddings list. It's widely said that Allspan is 100% Spruce, but in fact it isn't. Maybe it used to be but not these days. So I did a bit of research.
Allspan (traditionally a horse bedding) is made in Germany, Holland and France. The website says it's made from 100% untreated softwood. ie this suggests it's not kiln-dried if untreated. The website says it is "approximatetly" 95% Spruce. Which means the other 5% is untreated softwood of some other type. While 5% might not sound very much, if it is cedar (ie and not kiln dried) this could be an issue. If the Spruce itself isn't kiln-dried, that's not so much an issue, as it's extremely low in phenols, like hardwood.
This suggests it's not a good option to use. The link is here but you need to scroll down the page.
The other bedding that contains Spruce is Chipsi Classic. Chipsi classic says Spruce and Fir (fir is pine basically). It is kiln-dried and German standards of kiln-drying are supposed to be very good. However it doesn't state what percentage of the bedding is Spruce and what percentage is fir. It's one reason I haven't used it before due to the uncertainty. It could be minimal Spruce and mostly fir/pine.
Again, in various places on the internet, people think it's about 75% Spruce to 25% fir but that information doesn't have any verifiable basis. It is not quoted anywhere what the proportion of Spruce is.
So I decided to email the manufacturers and ask them what the percentage of Spruce is, about 5 weeks ago. And they haven't replied!
As such there is no known source of 100% Spruce bedding - unless someone knows of one.
Personally I'd like to know what percentage of Spruce is in Chipsi Classic before considering it as something other than just kiln-dried pine. Chipsi also make scented versions of their beddings which are definitely not good for hamsters.
So I've emailed them again.
And just in case that article linked above, and in resources, ever disappears off the internet, I've saved it as a pdf - attached to this post
Just to add, another member recently (maybe @oddvon )? Mentioned Vida shavings as Spruce shavings. I've contacted them as well to see if it's 100% Spruce, which the sites that sell it seem to suggest it is. It would be good to know there is a 100% Spruce bedding available.
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