Rat bedding

[SCWood]

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

[Marrissa]

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.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

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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[Ba11er]

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.

[Caspian]

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.

[distaff]

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.

[Fraido]

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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[Marrissa]

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.

[Fraido]

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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[chilliscale]

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)