Corn cob bedding

[cornsnake234]

Since you all said cedar/pine was bad for mice, i've made some researches on the net and find a good top 10 of alternatives to cedar and pine shavings. Aspen shavings was the #1, careFresh the second and... so i decided to buy aspen bedding for my colony. Unfortunately, there is no petstore in my city that was selling it. They only sell cedar and pine or only pine, same at wal-mart and zellers, they only alternative i was able to find was corn cob bedding. Does anybody use it for their mices?! i will probably purshase it since it is probably better than cedar/pine but it was not in my top 10, and i can't find any good site about it on the net.

Is it a good choice, or.... would only pine be better?!

Thx

[Taceas]

I think it'd be worth a try. I'd just be worried about the mice chewing on it.

I use World Best Cat Litter in the bottom of my mouse aquariums, its made from 100% corn and works pretty darn good in the kitty litter box too. I found it at Petsmart for around $10 per bag. It seems to suck up odor and wetness really well.

If it were me though, I'd probably mix the cob bedding and some pine. I wouldn't want to walk around on gravel for all my life. =P

Have you tried farm or horse specialty stores? Some of those might sell aspen chips for stall bedding. Rural King here in town used to sell aspen chips in 30-40lb bags. But now all they seem to have is pine bedding. Which is ok, the pine doesn't even smell like pine.

If all else fails, can you order it off of the internet? Petco.com or petsmart.com should have it.

[magick-bears]

You need to be very carefull with corn cob bedding as it is not digestable. It also expands exponentialy with water/moisture. There for if your mice eat any of it the corn cob will expand in their stomachs and digestive track causing a blockage that is not digestable. I highly recommend Aspen Pellets for bedding. I use it and can only smell the mice if they go for over 10 days with out being cleaned. Our mice are kept in our living room.

Just my $0.03
Jeff C.

[cornsnake234]

I wasn't able to find aspen, so i decided to give a try to corn cob and it seems to works very well!!! Mices sometimes try to chew it but they give up fast, i will check often to make sure they digest properly and maybe try to check in farm and horse store to find aspen like suggested Taceas.

For now here are some pic of my setup with corn cob bedding, it's less comfortable but they have a lot of nesting material to make hides and i think health is more important than comfort...


http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v332/cornsnake234/Souris_03.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v332/cornsnake234/Souris_04.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v332/cornsnake234/Souris_05.jpg

[Cindy]

Isn't that cat background a lttle disconcerting? poor little guys :)