Rats and I have allergy problems with Aspen?

[nevohraalnavnoj]

Hi everyone,

I picked up two new female rats from the pet store to raise for breeders. They were on Cell-Sorb at the pet store, but now here on aspen they haven't stopped sneezing for 3 days since I brought them home (I'm fairly certain they were at least reasonably healthy when I bought them). I am thinking the aspen is the problem. Not to mention, I cleaned cages over 14 hours ago, popped two Claritin, and I am still sneezing and coughing from the dust. This is supposedly a "dust free" brand as well.

I exchanged their aspen for the small amount of Carefresh bedding ($$$) I had laying around a few hours ago. The two sneezing rats have totally stopped sneezing after the switch to Carefresh.

Question: Have other people and their rats had allergy probs with aspen?

Question: What would be a good bedding that isn't too terribly expensive? Can you find Cell-Sorb or Carefresh in bulk? Maybe some type of horse bedding is out there?

Any input would be *sneeze, sneeze, sneeze, cough* appreciated. Thank you,

JonV

[littleindiangirl]

I buy cellsorb in 50 lb bags from a local feed store for 20$.

[nevohraalnavnoj]

Oh nice, I will look for it!

[marmie]

I use pine and don't have a problem. I know it's not the bedding of choice for some but it is reasonably priced and I've not had any issue with the rats being on it.

[littleindiangirl]

Yea, cellsorb is bought for just my two pet rats, I couldn't afford to spend 20$ a week for all of my feeders. I go through a 40 lb bag of wood pellets a week.

[nevohraalnavnoj]

Thanks, I'll look into pine as well. I have heard of big name rodent breeders using pine for decades without problems. Thanks for the information!

JonV

[truthsdeceit]

I acctually use a mix of pine/aspen. So yeah use pine. It's cheaper than aspen too!

[blackcrystal22]

I have used pine, but trust me, pine is worse for allergies than aspen.
At least from my experience, pine can cause sneezing in the rodents and you.

[marmie]

I guess it just depends on the person. My husbands allergies go crazy with the pellet bedding so I can't use it in the house anymore. When I switched back to pine he was fine. I only have 4 pet rats in the house so I just have to clean a little more frequently to keep the smell down.