Kittly litter as rat bedding. Pro's and Con's

I am currently not breeding my own feeder rats but I am strongly considering starting my own colony. I currently puchase my feeders from a local pet store and get a considerably good deal since I've been doing buisness with them for many years, but after some consideration I am debating my own colony. I have decided against this in the past due to the strong ammonia smell regardless of frequent cleaning.
I was again faced with the amonia issue when i would purchase to many feeders during breeding season, when most of my snakes went off feed. I now had several rats I had to house until my snakes would feed. My solution to this was using kitty litter as substrate in the rats temporary homes.
Which now brings me to the Pro's of using Kitty litter. I use "Cat's Pride" kitty litter and it eliminates the odor of the rats totally. The litter is fine enough to where I can sift out the rat droppings as you would that of a cat without having to change the substrate. The kitty litter makes the maintanence extremely simple.
The only Con I currently face is the fact that the litter is so fine when the rats are in active play the surrounding area of their containers is generally pretty dusty. I have housed rats in this bedding generally no longer then about two weeks with no visible issues.
So I am asking from those more experienced what would be some possible issues I would face should I decided to use this bedding when starting my colony?

Hmm. Good question. The only concern I would have would be the dust. Though I am sticking to the kiln dried Pine shavings that I get at the local Wal-Mart.

I personally don't recommend using kitty litter for anything other than that - kitty litter. There are two reasons for this: first is that if it is accidentally ingested it will literally clump inside the animal like it does when you pour water on it, and second is that the dust can cause respiratory issues for the animal.

Rats don't know not to root around in it. Moist nose + clay or clumping litter = problems.

I wouldn't. Kiln dried pine is just as eay and cheap to come by. If you clean often enough, there shouldn't be ammonia buildup. But then again, they're rats. ;) Ever wonder why people who breed their own feeders typically do so outside of the house? I ditched breeding norways for just that reason, and now only breed mice and soft furs.

I'd be leery to feed a rat that had been on hat kind of bedding. Modern litters have all kinds of stuff to kill oder and smells good, clump together..all that dust gets in the rat's hair and in turn in your snake..just not really a good idea given the alternative's.

I used to sprinkle it in the bottom before I added pine shavings. I never noticed any health issues, but there was a good layer of shavings between the rats and the litter. I have since switched to a combination of softwood shavings and the compressed wood pellets for horse stalls. The wood pellets are easily as absorbent as the cat litter and they are affordable. The downside is the dust and weight (also a downside to cat litter), but combining the pellets with shavings moderates those negative aspects.
- Paul

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Originally Posted by Shadera

Rats don't know not to root around in it. Moist nose + clay or clumping litter = problems.

I wouldn't. Kiln dried pine is just as eay and cheap to come by. If you clean often enough, there shouldn't be ammonia buildup. But then again, they're rats. ;) Ever wonder why people who breed their own feeders typically do so outside of the house? I ditched breeding norways for just that reason, and now only breed mice and soft furs.

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Hey Shadera,

Do you have less odor issues with your mice? I know when I was breeding both mice and rats, the mice always smelled alot more and alot sooner than my rats did. I had both on the same bedding so that was not the issue. I finally switched all of my snakes over to rats and just fed off all of my mice. Just wanted your input about that. I just breed Fancy rats and never did Norways. Maybe that is it?

Norway = short way of saying "fancy rat", and to differentiate from the african soft fur rats I also breed.

I don't notice much smell with my mice at all. I keep 1.3 in 10 gallon tanks, and clean weekly. I only thoroughly wash out the tanks every couple months, and I find that it cuts down on the males scent marking everything (and stinking more). I don't feed many, though I do try to give my reptiles a varied rodent diet so they are far less likely to ever be picky eaters. Most of my guys will eat anything I dangle into the tub.

At one point I had several hundred norways going, and though they didn't stink as long as I cleaned tubs constantly, it just got to be too much to keep up with. Once I move to somewhere I can build their own building for them complete with ventilation system, it won't be so bothersome and I can stick with my once weekly routine. I'm just the kind of person that doesn't like it when people walk into my house and say, "what's that smell?". So for sow I raise soft furs and mice, and the rats are FT only. They stink a lot less in my freezer. :D

I always thought that Fancy rats were slightly different than Norways. I was thinking that Norway's were only large brown sewer type rats. Getting back to my original question, I have my rats in the basement and I only get that "eww what's that smell" from my mother and sisters who don't like my snakes to begin with...haha. I clean my rats weekly and have only about a max of 70-80 rats (includes Breeders, small-med, weaned, hoppers, fuzzies and pinks) at any one time. The "smell" is really minimal most of the time and only noticable around the 6th day after I have cleaned them. My mice on the other hand seemed to stink after just a few days and I cleaned them as often or more. Oh well.

Different people tolerate things differently. As I said above, there's a reason so many larger breeders give their rodents their own shed. It's not just me that doesn't appreciate the massive amounts of ammonia lots of rats put off. I was cleaning tubs every 3 days, and 100 tubs twice a week leaves little time to take care of my almost 100 snakes.

As long as it works for you, no reason to stop what you're doing.

No pros. All cons.

kitty litter = f'd up rats.

Don't do it.

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Originally Posted by PiedPeddler

I used to sprinkle it in the bottom before I added pine shavings. I never noticed any health issues, but there was a good layer of shavings between the rats and the litter. I have since switched to a combination of softwood shavings and the compressed wood pellets for horse stalls. The wood pellets are easily as absorbent as the cat litter and they are affordable. The downside is the dust and weight (also a downside to cat litter), but combining the pellets with shavings moderates those negative aspects.
- Paul

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I like your idea best. I'll change to a more solid litter that doesn't produce dust and use just enough to eliminate the smell. I'll combine that with plenty of pine shaving. I'll loose the luxury of just scooping poop and less cleaning time but I'll avoid future problems from feeding dusty rats. I'll have to use some scented absorbent prevent the phrase from guest of "What's that smell". I have a very sensitive nose and can smell 1 rat after 3 days so I'm not gonna completely change my method, but alter it and see my result. Thanks for the feed back everyone.

Why not, instead of cat litter, use a product like Sweet PDZ, or baking soda? It's an alternative that you may like.

to cut the smell spot clean there cages i only breed mice for now. but have noticed all my mice seem to love the corners to pee in they might poop anywhere but always wet in the corners of the cages and usually if don't want no ammonia smell got to spot clean the corners every 2 to 3 days. only good part about using a glass cages can see where its wet at with-out it having to be soaked

I wouldn't use it. There is so much dust and all the chemicals in it....no way. It's terrible for the environment, I couldn't imagine what it would do to such a tiny creature who has to lay on it all day.

Pine works pretty well in my opinion, and although people say it's bad, as long as it's kiln dried and good quality, you shouldn't have any problems. I've kept my rats on it for three years, and I have one rat that turned three this month, and a couple that are really close to three years old if not older. I've got Aspen with my pet dumbos right now, but it has a really strange sweet/sour smell, but I don't think you would notice if you don't hold the rats.

Otherwise you could also use the carefresh or recycled newspaper pellets. I don't like the colored carefresh, because of the extra chemicals. Recycled newspaper pellets-yesterday's news-is on the pricey side, just like carefresh. There's also Pine Fresh cat litter. It's pine pellets, but I don't know if it's safe for rats. I loved it for the cats, but Wal-Mart stopped selling it. It did an amazing job with the smell. It's breaks apart into a dust, so it probably wouldn't be a good bedding for rats.

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Originally Posted by ice#1

to cut the smell spot clean there cages i only breed mice for now. but have noticed all my mice seem to love the corners to pee in they might poop anywhere but always wet in the corners of the cages and usually if don't want no ammonia smell got to spot clean the corners every 2 to 3 days. only good part about using a glass cages can see where its wet at with-out it having to be soaked

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my mice do this, my rats dont. so its kind of a moot point since, at least in my experience, rats dont discriminate where they pee

Yeah no, you can't even use cat litter for ferrets in their litter box because it can mess them up big time, rats are the same way. Cats don't go in the box and stick their faces in the litter box, or play in the box, and they don't nibble on it. Rats and mice are both very curious and I see my pet rats all the time nibbling on their care fresh bedding, or anything else new that is put in their, same with when I keep feeder mice. They often take shredded newspaper and build their own nest.

You could try the pellets that are used for pellet stoves, or the cat litter that is recycled newspaper or pine, but no clumping kitty litter.

And rats can be litter trained quite easy to go in one corner, most rats only go in one specific spot in their cage.

Remember too when you mask the smell it doesn't alter the fact they are breathing ammonia and it will make them sick if they live and breath it.

The best way to keep the smell down is to clean more often.