I use low dust pine. If you don't get the right kind of pine, it can be SUPER dusty and SUCK.

I use laboratory grade pine from Harlan Teklad and pay $5.30 per 3 cubic feet compressed (about a 2 to 1 compression ratio normally)

I also have a local supply of pine for $5.50 per 3 cubic feet, and it is compressed 3 to 1, unfortunately it can vary from month to month and my latest batch was dusty :-/

Uncompressed I only use about 18-24 cubic feet a week and I'm dealing with 100 rat tubs and a few big cages.

I would say just shop around, walmart near us always has a very very very low dust chipped pine that work fairly well, but they changed their composition on us a few times so I gave up. (went to weird chips, and weird smelling)


Pine vs Aspen, pine wins every time as far as smell since it has a natural odor.