What Bedding Do You Use?

[ShenziSixaxis]

Just a little questionnaire thing.

Personally, I'm using a cheap pure pine bedding from WalMart. About 3-4 bucks for a small bag. Smells nice and does the job. I also use a VERY cheap clay cat litter on the bottom to help with the smell. It's 1.52 USD for 10lb. Just clay and light fragrance.

I'm going to keep using the same cat litter, but I just bought a GIANT bag of softwood bedding from PetCo. 56.6 liters of pine, spruce and fir wood shavings. With the PetCo Pals card, it was 7 bucks. Amazing deal, since the shavings are nice and small. Doesn't appear dusty, either.
Been thinking about trying out Petco's aspen, but the chips look too big. I am going to start adding the Petco paper pellets, see if it helps more with the odor, since mice like to dig a lot.

 

[wstphal]

Some of the fancy mice breeders say NOT to use softwood. I did when I kept mice, and nothing bad seemed to happen, and it does keep down mousy odor.

 

[ratsncorns]

I buy huge bales of harlan shredded aspen. It lasts forever and its really cheap. The only problem is finding it. You can usually get it at reptile expos, though.

 

[ZoologyGirl]

I use a bale of shredded aspen as well. 5 bucks for 45 pounds, can't go wrong with that.

 

[Raptor]

I use pine pelleted horse bedding. I've used both aspen and pine shavings. I found those went nasty very quickly. I tried some paper bedding stuff. It went nasty even quicker and was very dusty. I saw on another forum that someone used equifresh. So, I got a bag of that. It works pretty well and can last several weeks before it needs changed. It's cheap too. $5 for a 20 lb bag. It lasts me several months. I haven't seen any issues with it thus far.

 

[sweet~nichole~marie]

I use a bale of shredded aspen as well. 5 bucks for 45 pounds, can't go wrong with that.

Where did you find that? What a great price!

 

[wade]

Use pine. You can get it at the feed store for horse bedding. It works fine and all the stories you have heard were started by the aspen producers.

 

[Raptor]

Use pine. You can get it at the feed store for horse bedding. It works fine and all the stories you have heard were started by the aspen producers.

Back when I was a kid and had hamsters, I used cedar. None of them had breathing problems and all of them lived a long life. Although the older ones tended to balloon up, but I suspect that they had tumors which happens in older hamsters.

 

[ZoologyGirl]

Where did you find that? What a great price!

I get it at a local place "Mill's Fleet Farm", I think they are only in something like Wisc, MN, and ND I think. Basically a wal mart for farmers/hunters/etc... :laugh: you might check out a local farm supply store, particularly one that sells horse equipment and supplies (my bales are sold as "horse bedding")

 

[sweet~nichole~marie]

Ohhh, horse bedding. I hadn't thought of that ~smacks forehead~ It has been so long since I went into a feed store, I forgot about stuff like that.

Thanks, Heather and Wade!

 

[Arpolis]

I use a few hand fulls of Petco Aspen on the bottom and then I use shredded newspaper/phone book/mail.... to give plenty of nesting material for next to nothing. I change out the bedding one to two times a week with not a real bad smell problem.

 

[MysticExotics]

When I had my colony, I used the horse bedding pellets as well, since I use it for litter for my cats & ferrets. It helps a TON with odor, & it's super cheap! I get mine at a local Co-op.

 

[Raptor]

When I had my colony, I used the horse bedding pellets as well, since I use it for litter for my cats & ferrets. It helps a TON with odor, & it's super cheap! I get mine at a local Co-op.

The only thing I've noticed with the pellets is that if you have a water bottle that leaks it can really ruin the bedding fast. It can also cause breathing issues with the dust. What I end up doing is putting a layer of pellets just so it just fully covers the bottom of the tank and then I put shredded paper in for nesting. The mice love it and they're not directly on the dust.

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Use pine. You can get it at the feed store for horse bedding. It works fine and all the stories you have heard were started by the aspen producers.

Yeah, I don't really want to argue with you there but I raised gerbils for over 10 years and lost a lot of them when I used pine. Changed to aspen and had no issues, healthier and larger litters. No red noses, no wet tail. The bedding was all I ever changed. I raised well over 100 gerbils in that time so . . . .I'd say that is at least circumstantial evidence that pine is no good for small animals.
Also vets don't get kick backs on small animal bedding so why are so many telling their patients to get off pine?

I will stick with aspen and when I can't get it I use shredded paper. Always with a layer of regular clay litter for absorbing urine and odors.

 

[Raptor]

Clay litter can cause a host of issues if it's ate. Mainly blockages since it's designed to gel together.

I have my mice all on the pine pellets and used pine bedding for awhile. Never had any issues and my mice regularly have 10+ litters.

I actually had more issues when I used aspen. I had small litters, poor growth rate, cannibalistic mothers..

Hm. I guess that aspen is bad, then. It all boils down to use what you want to use.

 

[Dorgrim]

the problem with cedar, is a lot of rodents are allergic to it. Cedar doesnt harm them like it can other animals, but the saps and juices of the cedar are irritating to rodents as well as insects. The ballooning can be from the irritants and the redness is what the cedar causes. it can cause discomfort and inflammation of all sorts. I used to raise dwarf hamsters and mice.

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Clay litter can cause a host of issues if it's ate. Mainly blockages since it's designed to gel together.

I have my mice all on the pine pellets and used pine bedding for awhile. Never had any issues and my mice regularly have 10+ litters.

I actually had more issues when I used aspen. I had small litters, poor growth rate, cannibalistic mothers..

Hm. I guess that aspen is bad, then. It all boils down to use what you want to use.

I keep hearing that about clay litter but have YET to see anything actually eat it or die with it in their stomach. So far as I am concerned its a myth.