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Cat litter for mice substrate

breedingcolors

breedingcolors

Freaky!
Someone suggest to use cat litter for substrate in the mice cages. He said that it help for the odors. Is it a good thing to do?

I was thinking: Could I also put a little bit of cat litter in the bottom and put some aspen on top of it? Just thinking out loud.
 
I wouldn't recommend cat litter unless you're going with Yesterdays News (a compressed newspaper product). I used this mixed with aspen without a problem. I also run an air purifier in the room.
 
a good way to lessen the smell of the mice is to sprinkle the bottom of the cage with baking soda then putting papertowel or newspaper over it then the layer of bedding...you just have to cut the newspaper to the right size so no corners poke up past the bedding or the mice will pull it up.
 
The wheat, paper, wood, or silica based cat litters work fine for mice, but the clay stuff is heavy, dusty, and generally gross (turns to gray mush when peed on!)

The Swheat Scoop wheat-based litter is actually really nice for rodents, and it's scoopable if you sift it daily, which is easier, IMO, than cleaning the whole thing.
 
Most of the alternative bedding materials are so cost prohibitive for me to use as cat litter with scooping usage, let alone rodent litter where its generally all tossed weekly. Aspen is about as expensive as I'm willing to go.

However I have tried PaPurr, which is a pelletized recycled paper litter that works pretty good. It was on sale at Petsmart a couple of months back, $8 for a 40lb bag. This is the non-scoopable size, btw.

It worked pretty good for both cat and rodent applications at keeping the odor and wetness down. However it was slightly dusty, it was heavy, so it may not work in a rack application, I didn't like the fragrance of it (gave me a headache), and you had to end up putting nesting material in it anyway (timothy hay and shredded newspaper being my choices).

That being said, I'll just stick with the aspen shavings. =)

On a side note:

I REALLY liked the Aspen Supreme pellets, but again they are expensive as all hell and Petsmart WILL NOT special order it in larger bags for me. And buying 10 5lb bags for $7 each is assinine, imho.

I also really liked the Lifemate Hemp bedding, but again, it was even more expensive than the aspen pellets. Amazing how expensive some of the cheapest products to grow can be.
 
Taceas said:
I REALLY liked the Aspen Supreme pellets, but again they are expensive as all hell and Petsmart WILL NOT special order it in larger bags for me. And buying 10 5lb bags for $7 each is assinine, imho.
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I buy my Aspen Supreme pellets at Tractor Supply Company for around $9 for a 20lb bag. Then I add about a handful or so of aspen shavings for them to build nests with. I usually keep colonies of 1:2 and I can go 3 or 4 weeks between cleanings.
 
*sigh* It must be nice to be able to buy it at places other than some bloody overpriced petstore.

We don't have a Tractor Supply within 30 miles. We have a Rural King, but they only sell cedar and pine shavings that are horribly dusty.

I did order it once in the 20lb bags from Petco when they had a "Free shipping over $100" deal. Man they got screwed on THAT one. I ordered like 8 bags. =P
 
I live in a small town (pop. 5500) so the nearest TSC is about 40 miles away. I usually go to the "Super WalMart" at least once a month, so I just stock up on a bag or two at TSC whenever I'm there.
 
I still stick with aspen. It is cheap, easy to find, you can use if for your corns :crazy02: and it is light enough to use in a rack system
 
Cypress for mice? Never heard of that. Can you use pine for mice? I want to use it since its so much fluffier than aspen but it is toxic to reptiles I heard. WIll that affect it?
 
Cypress is ok. Pine for mice, I never used. Pine is toxic to snakes. Cypress & aspen is safe for snakes, but cedar is bad news, poisonous.
 
marky-b said:
Cypress is ok. Pine for mice, I never used. Pine is toxic to snakes. Cypress & aspen is safe for snakes, but cedar is bad news, poisonous.
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ok thanks, I just wish paper towels would work for mice.
 
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