Rat bedding

[WmHrbst]

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

[SCWood]

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 😧

[Fraido]

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

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[SCWood]

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

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I love the smell of aspen 😂😂

[Fraido]

I love the smell of aspen 😂😂

Clearly I am noseblind. 😂

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[artgecko]

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.

[cchardwick]

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.