Breeder colonies without using bedding?

[stangs13]

Lets put it this way. You either do whats best for the animals and buy them bedding and suck it up...or you buy frozen.

[dmaricle]

my feelings are if you cant provide what they need to be healthy i know you say they are healthy and i respect that but i know that i have several tubs set up for mouse breeding with a couple inches of aspen bedding in each and i clean them twice a week because of the large amounts of urine and poo. so for you my suggestions is buying frozen rodents.

[Bettacreek]

I've tested paper towels for bedding, but, it really doesn't absorb well at all, and you have to clean it out constantly (several times per day).

"If the pee is flowing to a ditch, then everywhere it was has a layer of pee on it. Same with droppings, which don't flow away, but get walked on."

The droppings, do, in fact, roll for the ditch. As far as the pee on the floor, baby wipes have helped keep it from being sticky, but, again, it's time consuming and has to be done constantly.


Equine fresh, is that the pelleted pine? I've seen it at Tractor Supply, but haven't tried it (pine drives me nuts), though I've thought of it. Is it dusty at all? I've used Yesterday's News with a little bit of success, but the bottom is usually dusty, plus when they pee on it, it crumbles and then dries into a dust, causing problems.

[Q Ball]

One thing I used to do when i had a pet rat is I would take newspaper and put it through my moms shredder then put it in his cage did this for about 2 years then had to give him to a friend cuz I got my BP. It allowed him to all the things rodents like to do and absorbed urine, also its cheap and dust free

[Gooseman]

dude, seriously?

even with 4 mice in a 20qt, your looking at a helluva lot of byproducts to be left around in a 2-3 day period. You say when you tried babywipes you had to wipe it down several times a day to keep the ick away. Thats pretty much admitting that you do have ick problems NOT cleaning the tubs. That's very cruel to keep the animals like that for a variety of reasons, not to mention sanitation. Do you really want to feed your snake urine encrusted mice? Are your allergies so bad that you can't even lay down a couple layers of newspaper? Seriously, ANYTHING is better than nothing. I have a hard time believing you are also not having any smell problems this way. And the smell to you, is 100x worse for the mice in the cage, as they not only have much more sensitive noses, but are right IN the urine and feces they have left, and have no escape. I really don't see how you have accomplished said "ditch" unless you have your tub tilted at an angle. If so, that angle must be pretty steep if all the feces runs down into it as well. So steep in fact, I bet your mice slide down into the nasty pool of piss'n'poo. And to me that doesn't sound like a mouse version of a fun waterpark. WooHoo would probably not be their response. More like Pee Ewww. Torturing your mice just to provide food for your snake sounds pretty cruel to me.

[Bettacreek]

Well, got some Equine Fresh at TSC, and although I'm a little sneezy, at least I'm not breaking out in hives or suffocating. We'll see how it works in the long run, and if it doesn't, then, the local university always has shredded paper that I can get for free. Then, if neither work, I'll try Cell-sorb, but I'm putting it last because I'm assuming that it's like Yesterday's News. Anyways, thanks to those who actually put forth something useful, instead of just ranting and raving.

[wolfy-hound]

I'd think the shredded paper would be something you wouldn't react to, and it won't have dust.

[stangs13]

you will have great results with the pine pellets....just dont have pinks on it they will suffocate.

[jglass38]

you will have great results with the pine pellets....just dont have pinks on it they will suffocate.

Really? I have never seen that happen and have had loads of pinks on it.

[Bettacreek]

you will have great results with the pine pellets....just dont have pinks on it they will suffocate.

Do you mean in the nest itself or the entire cage? I was planning on using nesting material on top of the pine pellets so that they don't have to sleep on the hard pellets.

As far as shredded paper goes, actually, if the pine pellets work, I'll probably use the shredded paper for nesting material for the adults and older litters, then paper towels for nesting material for the mommas with young litters.