Rat bedding

For those of you who keep pet and feeder rats, what do you use as bedding? I use compressed paper and the Petco crumble. Just looking to see if there's a cheaper and safe alternative

Paper bedding is junk IMO. It doesn't help with odor and helps to contribute to RI. I have used kiln dried pine (and pretty much all pine sold now is kiln dried) for over two years now. It absorbs pee very well and helps to prevent RI by keeping ammonia smell down. It's also super cheap. I get 12 cubic feet compressed for 8. I buy from a local feed store.

I use pine for both the rats and mice. For the mice I throw in some pine pellets as a base layer with the shavings because they are stinky little guys that pee a lot. The pellets really help to absorb and keep smell down.

You want something that absorb the smell and allow them to nest, I use pine bedding and pine pellets from tractor supply.



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i was using the recycled compressed grey stuff from petco/petsmart then switched to a 50/50 mix with pin shavings to see if i liked it. i didn't expect the shavings to work as well as they have at absorption and odor control.

The price is reasonable for the pine and it works better. i would give it a shot. the downside is the packaging on the big bags rip easy so store it in carefully or in a more solid container.

I buy a large bale of pine from the local feed store, that's intended as livestock bedding. $10 for a couple months supply, and it does a good job of holding the odor down. Although I've noticed that there's not nearly as much stench from rats as there was from mice, anyway - except the female that keeps digging all the bedding out of one corner of her cage, then exclusively peeing there. With no shavings to soak up the waste, her cage gets pretty stinky between cleanings until I shift the bedding around to cover that spot again.

I don't keep rats, but I do have two male mice kept in separate big open bins in the shed. They will be breeders, if I ever find a female. I had them on CareFresh but didn't like it. I threw that out a few days ago, and put in a couple inches of yard soil from our irrigation ditches, and added a bunch of dried grass. They have big sheets of bark to hide under. They seem to be doing fine so far with that.

Huh, a lot of people use pine, don't tell a serious pet rat forum about that. I have pet rats, so they're in a Double Critter Nation, which allows me to use fleece as liners. Certainly not something I would recommend for your typical feeder breeder, I used shredded Aspen shavings before though. Technically, it's the "safest" shavings option. My mom bought me some pine shavings when I needed them because she didn't want to buy the more expensive Aspen, I did find that my own rats didn't seem comfortable in it, sneezing was a little overboard. Pine will definitely be best for odor control, though.

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I'm a part of several rat discussion/debating Facebook groups with a variety of rat breeders from feeder breeders only, to a mixed breedings breeding for both show standards AND feeding to animals, show breeders, and pet only breeders. Even among those who do not breed for food purposes, most agree that pine is the best. Many have converted from their DCN and fleece to pine and bin cages after seeing how much cleaner, easier, and healthier it is.

The whole pine is bad debate has been proven to be wrong. And aspen is super dusty and not as "fluffy" and comfortable for them.

Well I certainly don't agree that pine and bin cages are 'healthier' than DCNs and fleece. I can't see how that could be true at all. I think when done properly bin cages are fine, but in my personal opinion it doesn't get healthier than a large, extremely well ventilated cage with comfy fleece, hammocks and toys.

I know the pine debate has been "proven wrong", and in general I agree with that, but my rats were sneezing significantly when I used it, and if personal experience with it tells me not to use it then I won't. I find the shredded (I think) Aspen I used is actually incredibly soft and comfy. It really sticks to fluffy stuff though, and pretty much infused into this one sweater I have.

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Pine all the way although I have had a couple super dusty bags that seem to cause respitorty ssues for the younger rats(pinks,fuZies,pups)

I use kiln-dried pine. The brand I use is Guardian.

It seems the general consensus is pine 😂😂 I have a huge bag of aspen that I use for my snakes, would that be an acceptable substitute? I love the way pine and aspen shavings smell. I noticed when I had my first rat that it really helped with odor, but she was restless and itchy until we switched. The girls are on paper now and they sneeze all the time. Me thinks it has something to do with how dusty it is 😧

You think aspen smells nice? I don't notice a smell at all.... lol

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fraido

You think aspen smells nice? I don't notice a smell at all.... lol

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I love the smell of aspen 😂😂

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Originally Posted by SCWood

I love the smell of aspen 😂😂

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Clearly I am noseblind. 😂

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I use a thin layer of pine horse stall pellets with either shredded aspen (harlan brand) or kiln-dried pine (flakes from TSC) on top. I recently got a bag of the pine to try because the aspen I've been getting, which is lab-grade, was extremely dusty... It was soft texture wise, but I literally had dust covering everything in my reptile / rodent room and had to wipe down daily and buy an air purifier to help with the dust. I figured that all that dust could not be good for the rats respiratory systems or my reptiles (I know it dried my nose out and made my eyes dry whenever I"d go in there).

I've been using the bag of pine for about 2 months now and seen no sneezing or bad reactions.. and it has less dust. I have a couple bags of unused aspen though, so I will likely do a mix of the two and see how that goes.

There's a lot of debate about pine and the possible effects it might have on rats... I'd say look into whatever the rats you get were kept on before and try it and aspen and see which the rats react to better. Rats will sneeze when exposed to new environments, smells, etc. But if you see excessive sneezing, wheezing, etc. that would be a concern.

I would not advise fleece.. I used to use it when I had guinea pigs and it worked great.. rats seem to like to shred it and it can't really stand up to their peeing smell-wise. When I had 4 rats in a DCN I was changing out fleece 3x a week for smell... and that was with litter boxes. I think for most rodents, a good loose bedding is a better solution, although messier. But again, it is up to you to find what works for you.

I use kiln dried aspen from Petco, I use it for both my snakes and my rodents. I'm going through about two bags a month now, they cost about $12 each. I wet it down in my ball python tubs, smells like pine when it's wet. Not dusty at all, and I like the kiln dried that kills all the bugs, no mites or anything to worry about. Comes in a big tight block like this one below. The only thing I don't like about it is that my rats and mice dig in it and end up sitting on the glass under their hides, sometimes they don't use the hides because of that. And they tend to dig it up and fill their food bowls with it so I can't tell how much food they have left. Other than that it's great.

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