Littleredfootbigredheart
Well-Known Member
Those first few points definitely concern me and I absolutely hate to think I’ve potentially hurt her in some way repeatedly exposing her to the substrate😭I was thinking about it, yet still have concerns:
1. Besides obvious irritations and respiratory symptoms, pine contains some compounds resulting in liver damage. This is true about pine shavings, haven't found if such compounds are present in bark. There are some warnings about use of pine shavings for rabbits, chickens and reptiles (e.g. at anapsid.org or reptileforums.co.uk) with more or less references to backing studies.
2. Some negative effects need time and fumes concentration to develop and if tortoise is moved outdoors or to the open table then severe damage may not happen at all.
3. It could be dependent on pine tree species. E.g. Douglas fir is in Pinaceae too and likely to have some dangerous compounds (like abietic acid) but content is probably less than in Pinus genus.
4. Most of the toxicity reports are associated with inhaling wood dust - which is less an issue when bark is moistened and stay in high humidity environment.
I honestly had no idea what to switch to though😣
Nor and I’m sure for to proceed advising uk members on substrate