Newspaper bedding?

[decensored]

Hey everyone,

I had a quick question for you!

I shred my own rodent bedding out of flyers that come to me in the saver bags. I use this because they come packaged in sealed plastic. I was working on shredding a bunch of it today and I ran out of flyers. I started shredding newspaper by hand and I noticed a bunch of the ink (or possible dirt) on my hands.. Is this safe for the rodents or should I stick to the flyers? I have more at home but I though I would kill some time at work.. LOL

Is there any harm to the animals? And further more could the rodents kept on this newsprint be fed to my BPs? I don't want them to ingest anything that could potentially harm them..

Cheers,
Chris.

[xdeus]

It should be fine. Newspaper ink is soybean based and has been for quite some time now. It's non-toxic, but still pretty messy.

Edit: I just looked it up, and it appears that only 1/3rd of the newspapers in the U.S. use soy based ink. The others still use petroleum based inks, but it still appears that those aren't toxic either: http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0122.html

[el8ch]

Hey Chris, try this...

I use unprinted newspaper... I go to the local newspaper and ask for the end rolls that are too small to fit in the printing presses. Newspaper rolls always have a ton of left over unprinted material on the spool that newspaper companies just disgard as once it gets to a certain size will no longer spool into the printer. Just head to your local rag and see if the would be willing to give you all of the leftovers. My guys typically give it to me for free as Im doing them a service and getting rid of their waste!... Worth a shot.

EDIT: If you can get your hands on packing paper for free/cheap that should work good too. It is a heavier weight paper and holds in more mosture so that may or may not work better for your application.

[Mike41793]

Well ive kept my balls on printed newspaper, and many others do too, and that means theyd be in contact with it 24/7. To my knowledge its never done them any harm, but i know what you mean bc they obviously werent ingesting any of it lol. I would try what el8ch suggested^

[mues155]

Well ive kept my balls on printed newspaper, and many others do too, and that means theyd be in contact with it 24/7. To my knowledge its never done them any harm, but i know what you mean bc they obviously werent ingesting any of it lol. I would try what el8ch suggested^

x2