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Cedar isn't treated with oils, but naturally contains volatile compounds that give cedar its distinctive smell. Use your nose: if you can smell it, it's still giving off those compounds. Mulch has fewer exposed surfaces than shavings, so it stands to reason that it would exude less of these oils than the shavings.
Mulch outdoors in a run with all that open air is not going to be a problem. But a closed up, insufficiently ventilated coop with several inches of cedar shavings on the floor? I wouldn't risk it. But cedar wood should be fine especially by a day or two after it's been cut.
The other complicaton is that there are different species of trees identified generally as "cedar," some of them have more of these potentially toxic compounds than others.
Cedar isn't treated with oils, but naturally contains volatile compounds that give cedar its distinctive smell. Use your nose: if you can smell it, it's still giving off those compounds. Mulch has fewer exposed surfaces than shavings, so it stands to reason that it would exude less of these oils than the shavings.
Mulch outdoors in a run with all that open air is not going to be a problem. But a closed up, insufficiently ventilated coop with several inches of cedar shavings on the floor? I wouldn't risk it. But cedar wood should be fine especially by a day or two after it's been cut.
The other complicaton is that there are different species of trees identified generally as "cedar," some of them have more of these potentially toxic compounds than others.
