CareFresh Harmful to Chinchillas?

We received a note from Dez the other day regarding some possible problems with CareFresh bedding…

My Chinchilla recently went through a bout of digestive bacterial infection. It was the first time in 6 years that anything like that had happened and it was right when I decided to try Carefresh bedding. After lengthy and costly vet visits, he got better for about a month. Then a few days ago, I switched out the towels I was using when he was sick, and went back to Carefresh, and this morning, I can see Diarrhea and he's slumped over and not active at all.

I have tried syringe feeding but he seems to have lost all interest in eating.

Could it be the Carefresh that has caused this to come about again? Has anyone else had any issues with Carefresh? I only tried it after reading all great reviews online about it. I was wondering if anyone has had any bad experiences with it? Thanks.

Our answer to Dez…

We tried CareFresh a long time ago. It seemed like such a good idea to use a recycled product that was absorbent and odor free. And if it meant saving a few trees from becoming wood shavings then that seemed like a good idea too. Unfortunately, our chinchillas kept eating the pellets. Although we don't think the bedding is toxic, it's absorbent nature does seem to suggest that it will expand while in a chinchilla's digestive system. This expansion seems like it could lead to a number of problems so we stopped using the product.

It's possible that our chinchillas would've stopped eating the pellets over time, but it didn't seem like the risk was worth it.