I ran into a guy at the pet store today who bought cedar bedding for his guinea pig. I told him the mailing list says cedar bedding is poisonous and so it's not a safe bedding for small critters, but he said he's used it for years without having any problem. Is he just lucky, or is it all a matter of opinion about the safety vs. unsafety of cedar bedding? The pet store clerk, too, said he'd never had any problem with it.
The guinea pigs sure looked cute. He said someone with allergies shouldn't have any trouble with guinea pig fur unless he picked it up, but I even doubt that. My husband doesn't have to pick up a cat to still have allergy problems from it. Guinea pigs would be a problem for him, too, right? Of course, I won't consider trying guinea pigs while I have my sweet gerbils and hamsters. I ran into a lady and her teen daughter today who were having trouble finding teddy bear hamsters, so I gave her the phone number of the woman from whom we'd picked up ours. They were elated. The gerbils and hamsters seem to be doing fine right now. Gerbils definitely *are* more active during the day than hamsters. -Jean
