Shredded Paper For Pet Bedding? The 127 Detailed Answer

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Maintaining the whelping box and providing a clean and healthy environment for a new litter of puppies can be a chore. When my dogs wither, I make sure the mother is comfortable in her new home. The mother sleeps in the box for at least a week before giving birth. My Lab’s litters are born on a smooth plywood floor. This way the mother can clean the puppies and of course the new puppies do not get lost in the bedding. During the first 7 to 10 days, the mother will keep her young and the floor of the whelping box clean, but bedding material is a must when the pups approach a few weeks.

I have used many different materials for bedding. Wood chips work great but can be hard to find. Newspaper is cumbersome because it gets pushed around the crate by mom and the puppies and doesn’t pick up waste very well. However, shredded newsprint from the recycling center is excellent because the material has the bulky properties of wood chips and absorbs moisture like paper towel. In addition, the puppies can easily move in the material. A downside to this material is that, similar to wood shavings, it can be dusty when the puppies become active and move around the crate.

Check with your local recycling center for the shredded newspapers. The material is packed in a handy plastic foil and is about the size of a straw bale. Our local recycler here in Minnesota sells it for $2 a bale. Two bales have enough bedding for a litter of eight active black Labrador puppies. I also had extra material for night crawling beds.

Unlike their smaller guinea pig and hamster cousins, rabbits don’t necessarily need bedding in their cages as they don’t use it for burrowing or warming. However, for litter training and general everyday toilet use, there is no substitute for a soft and comfortable material that your rabbit needs to get used to.

If you’ve recently run out of bedding or bedding for rabbits – or just don’t feel like buying bedding at all – you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of inexpensive alternatives. And with just a little ingenuity and effort, you can turn ordinary household items into useful accessories for your fluffy friend’s living space. We’ve got five alternatives below, and a few alternatives you should never use.

Alternatives to rabbit bedding

1. Fleece

With just a little sewing skill and a soft, fluffy material like fleece, you can easily put together an inexpensive pillow that will keep your bunny in luxury all year round.

Even if you have no sewing skills at all, making a fleece pillow is not out of your reach. Check out this tutorial video from OnlineSewingStore on Youtube and you can learn how to make a completely new no-sew fleece pillow.

2. Shredded paper

Any paper that hasn’t been ink printed or chemically treated can make a nice addition to your rabbit’s litter box. In a pinch, you can easily tear up toilet paper, paper towels, and extra napkins to make an absorbent and inexpensive solution for your rabbit’s potty breaks.

3. Shredded cardboard

Keep cardboard boxes around your bunny and they will very likely do the job of making shredded cardboard litter for you! Rabbits love to dig, chew, and tear on cardboard, and the discarded bits do a great job of absorbing urine in their litter boxes.

4. Hay

If your rabbit is anything like ours, it probably has the ability to smell the difference between hay fresh out of the bag and anything that’s been there for more than a few hours. Rather than fret over their sophistry, why not use their leftover “stale” hay to create a comfy and warm bedding for your furry friend?

5. Newspaper

As long as your rabbit doesn’t come into contact with the ink in newspaper — or worse, eat the ink — it’s perfectly acceptable material for his litter box. It’s not our favorite material for rabbit bedding or bedding, however, as it’s not particularly absorbent.

What NOT to use for rabbit bedding

With the options in the list above, you should be all set to find new bedding for your rabbit. As a final warning, please do not, under any circumstances, use the following materials for rabbit litter:

Corn on the cob, sometimes used as part of a rabbit litter mix or bedding products, can cause serious problems to your rabbit’s digestive system if eaten. And since they often smell sweet and delicious to your bunnies, this can become a real hazard before you know it.

, sometimes used as part of a rabbit litter mix or litter products, can cause serious problems for your rabbit’s digestive system when eaten. And since they often smell sweet and delicious to your bunnies, this can become a real hazard before you know it. Kitty litter has no place in a rabbit’s life as it can produce harmful and toxic dust that can quickly lead to respiratory problems and infection.

has no place in a rabbit’s life as it can produce harmful and toxic dust that quickly leads to respiratory problems and infection. Softwood chips, particularly those of pine and cedar, are also sometimes used as part of small animal bedding or bedding mixes. Because they contain toxic oils that pose a risk to the health of your rabbit’s litter, you should never use them.

How to choose a safe bedding for your rabbit

While it’s true that rabbits don’t need bedding in their cages, providing more comfortable places to lie down and do their toilet chores can only contribute positively to their health and happiness.

With that in mind, we recommend you look for litter that does one of two things for your rabbit:

Make them more comfortable. Anything soft and squishy can provide your rabbit with a better place to sleep, play and enjoy life. Pillows and blankets go a long way in making wire cages friendlier to a rabbit’s sensitive paws.

. Anything soft and squishy can provide your rabbit with a better place to sleep, play and enjoy life. Pillows and blankets go a long way in making wire cages friendlier to a rabbit’s sensitive paws. Keep her clean. Absorbent materials help mitigate accidental messes and can be a real lifesaver while training your rabbit with litter.

With these qualities in mind and the various DIY bedding options you explored earlier, choosing the right bedding for your rabbit and you will hopefully be easier.

Final Thoughts

While not essential to your rabbit’s health and happiness, providing a comfortable bedding can improve their overall quality of life while maintaining their hygiene. Before you buy another commercial bedding option, try one of the alternatives on our list and let us know how it goes!

Featured image: onkelramirez1, Pixabay

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Packing peanuts are the oil sludge of packing materials. If you have some laying around, reusing packaging peanuts is always better than throwing them away, but once you’ve banned environmentally harmful packaging materials, there are many alternatives that either recycle waste or provide a usable material for the recipient.

10 alternative packaging materials

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1. Newspaper: Balled up, torn into strips, or just used to wrap items, your daily newspaper can be used as packaging material (before it’s eventually recycled).

2. Magazines: Magazine pages are great for separating breakable items, and you can crumple them up like a newspaper.

3. Old clothing: Cut up worn or torn shirts, jeans, and other clothing and wrap them around all items for padding, or use larger pieces to protect fragile items.

4. Junk Mail: Junk mail is notorious for producing unnecessary junk and can be crumpled up to fill space in packets.

5. Office Paper Scraps: Shredded paper waste from your office makes a great filler for many packages. (Tip: Even if it’s shredded, you probably shouldn’t use paper that has had sensitive information printed on it.)

6. Resealable sandwich bags: Wash and reuse air-filled resealable bags to cushion packages that aren’t quite full.

7. Wrapping Paper: Some people reuse wrapping paper from larger gifts, but it never looks quite as fresh the second time around. Instead, save wrapping paper to fill in for future gifts that you’ll need to send in the mail.

8. Yarn: Forget useless packaging—stuff knitters’ and crafters’ boxes with a skien or two of yarn. 9. Plastic Bags and Wrapping: Flexible plastic wrapping and plastic bags are great space fillers and do a good job of cushioning fragile items. 10. Popcorn: It sounds crazy, but if you’re sending a package to a friend or family member, you can fill any extra space with little bags of freshly popped popcorn. It’s an added treat and provides excellent cushioning for many items.

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Originally published: January 11, 2012

Many owners are unsure what type of bedding is best for their guinea pigs. This blog won’t tell you what the best bedding is, but will provide an overview of the main bedding options. There are several options for guinea pig litter/cage liner material. Each has its own pros and cons and it’s important to make a choice that works for both you and your guinea pig. Every owner has different priorities when choosing a bedding/cage lining material.

Aspects of bedding material to consider:

Comfort – A good bedding material is soft on guinea pigs’ feet. Abrasive substrates can contribute to pododermatitis (foot lesions).

Absorbency – ideal substrates are very absorbent so your guinea pig doesn’t get wet feet or legs (they’re potatoes on legs, after all). The best cage liner materials also wick moisture away, so the layer that comes in contact with your guinea pig stays dry.

Non-toxic – the material must not have any adverse effects on contact with guinea pigs. It also doesn’t have to be appetizing for your guinea pig to not enjoy eating it.

Dust-free – to reduce respiratory problems and allergies.

Neutralize odors – everyone benefits from this, including your guinea pig. Nobody likes a lingering aroma!

Insulation – ideal bedding will provide some insulation to keep your guinea pig warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Cost – Understand your budget when choosing material. Some options may seem expensive at first, but may prove more cost-effective in the long run.

Eco-Friendly – Environmental impact varies between options.

The main bedding substrate options for guinea pigs include fleece, cloth, paper and wood chip cage liners.

Fleece cage liners:

These are quickly becoming a very popular option, especially for indoor guinea pigs. Not all fleece linings are created equal. Some have fleece on both sides, some have a water repellent base layer and others have a central absorbent layer.

I personally believe that a good cage liner should have 3 layers. The top layer is soft and allows urine to pass through. A middle, highly absorbent layer that wicks moisture well away from the top layer. Finally a base layer, this could either be fleece again or a water repellent material.

Fleece liners are the most expensive option in terms of initial cost, but are very cost-effective in the long run because they can be washed and used repeatedly.

Pros – Soft, dust-free, absorbent, eco-friendly and cost-effective in the long term

Expensive initially, requires frequent washing, rare for guinea pigs to chew

Cloth:

Essentially the cheaper version of the fleece liner. Towels or bedding can be reused for guinea pigs. Ideally, natural materials such as cotton should be used, they tend to be more absorbent than synthetic materials. Cloth materials don’t wick away moisture as well as fleece linings, so they need to be changed more often.

Advantages: soft, dust-free, cheap, non-toxic

Disadvantages: moisture wicking not good, can get smelly quickly, needs to be washed more often

Paper:

There are a number of ways to use paper. I would generally advise against newspaper. The type of ink used for printing can vary and newsprint breaks apart when wet. Commercial paper bedding can be found as pellets, confetti, or shavings. I would look for options that have no additives and have the least amount of dust. Good brands of paper bedding are highly absorbent, can reduce odor and are soft on your feet.

Pros – Soft, absorbent, recycled varieties, eco-friendly

Cons – may still contain some dust, needs to be changed regularly so can become more expensive over time, some guinea pigs may try to eat it

wood chips:

If you choose the wood option, it is important to have shavings and not sawdust due to dust exposure. It is important to understand what the chips are made of. Safe woods for guinea pigs include aspen, ash, and kiln-dried pine.

Pros – initially quite cheap, readily available

Cons – can be chafing on paws, can be dusty, not as absorbent as other options so can be more expensive in the long run. Remember that your choice of litter/cage should be what is best for you and your guinea pigs.

Hamster husbandry: bedding and nesting

Chewing on a mattress spring may sound painful to us humans, but your hamster will have no problem eating its bedding. This is exactly why it is important to buy digestible and non-fibrous bedding material for your hamster.

Bedding made from paper products, wood, vegetables or grain is absorbent and is generally considered the safest type of bedding for your hamster.

Shredded paper (like paper towels and plain paper) is fine when you’re in a pinch. However, this type of bedding is not absorbent and tends to get damp easily. Avoid shredded newspaper; the ink can be dangerous.

Timothy Hay or dried grass can be a suitable bedding source and are available from your local Petco.

Wood shavings are a common source of bedding, and aspen shavings are best recommended for your little one. Stay away from cedar shavings as they can cause nasal and bronchial irritation in your hamster.

Shredded cardboard can be a safe source of bedding, but it can also be rough and uncomfortable for your hamster. It’s a bad idea to use leftover fabric, so avoid using it at all.

Hamster husbandry and habitats

There is no lack of variety when setting up a hamster farm. With patience, you can even go beyond housing and build an entire city for your furry friend. From lavish mansions to quaint cottages, consider these points when picking up your hamster’s home:

Although hamsters aren’t great swimmers, tanks without water make great homes for these little guys. If you decide to use a tank as a home for your hamster, make sure you cover it securely with a mesh cover or vented plastic lid that is specifically designed for this purpose. Today, most plastic covers are modified to accommodate accessories such as hoses or hanging water bottles. An important side note here is that you should never use a solid cover on any type of tank as it will restrict ventilation and cause condensation to form inside the tank.

Tanks also have the benefit of being leak proof, so shavings and litter stay nice and contained. Water bottle holders are available and can hold a water bottle with a simple screen cover. The main disadvantage with tanks is that they are more difficult to clean than other habitat styles. When looking for the right gear for a tank, freestanding exercise bikes are a common favorite.

There is a variety of hamster habitats to ensure your companion has everything they need for a long, happy life.

Some Habitats have a plastic base topped with a rigid, snap-on wire cover. These habitats come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are sometimes equipped with running wheels. While a little plain compared to flashier options, these habitats are relatively inexpensive and highly customizable with different hamster furniture and toys. In addition, the air circulation in these habitats is better than in an aquarium.

Hamsters feel safe and secure when they have a hiding place, so giving your hamster a home within a home is a smart idea. Many hamster homes already come with a hiding place, but if not, there are also custom homes made out of plastic, wood, or ceramic. Sometimes using cardboard or a toilet paper roll works just as well.

Clear, plastic, container-like habitats designed for hamsters have many customizable options and add-ons available. These structures can seamlessly blend home life with exercise as your hamster travels through tunnels, tubes, spinners, or anything else your heart desires. This type of housing most closely simulates the tunnel environment in which hamsters naturally live.

Hamster habitats with tubes can be great for your little one, but they can also mean more work for you. These playful contraptions can have hard-to-reach spots that could make cleaning difficult. When buying a modular housing for your hamster, always make sure the connecting tunnels are large enough for your hamster to easily walk through. Also note that these habitats can sometimes be destroyed by your bucktooth buddy.

Nobody likes cramped quarters, so your hamster’s home should at least be large enough for a running wheel, sleeping area, food hoarding area, and toilet area. There should also be enough space left for your hamster to romp around. Also remember that bigger is usually better when it comes to living spaces.

As a pet parent, you need to keep your pet safe, and hamsters have a few particular concerns:

Make sure your hamster’s habitat has no sharp edges.

A habitat’s door or roof should close tightly to ensure your hamster cannot push it open and escape.

Doors should always open outwards.

If you’re using a tank with a screen cover or plastic lid, make sure the lid fits snugly on the sides to prevent your hamster from squeezing out.

If your hamster’s habitat is plastic, make sure there are no exposed edges that could be chewed through.

Hamster husbandry: bedding and nesting

Cage bedding or substrate forms a large part of the home environment for house mice. It is therefore really important that the types of bedding we choose are safe, comfortable and allow our rodents to express their natural behaviour.

The content of this article was contributed by guest author (and rodent wrangler at its best) Beri Instone.

There are three types of bedding that house mice need

substrate

This is the main bedding that fills the bottom of the cage. It has two main purposes:

it lines the cage and

absorbs urine (rats and mice tend to pee where they want) which protects both the animals and the cage.

It is important to distinguish between absorbency and drainage:

Absorbent bedding soaks up urine, keeps it safe from contact with animals, and reduces odor.

Bedding with good drainage, like many chicken bedding products, allows urine to run to the bottom of the cage but doesn’t really absorb it, allowing the urine to pool and cause problems.

The other important use for substrate is to allow animals to dig and build tunnels and nests. This is a crucial natural behavior for both rats and mice that must be provided in the cage. Rats housed in flat-bottomed cages can be maintained with large digging boxes with loose substrate inside the cage. Mice, however, really need a deep-bottomed cage with a thick layer of substrate, both because they are not trained on litter like rats and because burrowing and nesting are particularly basic behaviors.

throw

A 100% paper, unscented cat litter placed in the corners of the cage where the rodents like to pee and poop is important to absorb urine and feces. For pet rats, providing paper litter pellets in a shallow or corner litter box will also encourage litter training and good toilet habits. Mice are much more difficult to scatter, but they have an instinct to preen in one spot. The best thing to do is determine what area of ​​the cage they are using and place a good handful of kitty litter under the substrate to aid in absorbency.

It is important to only use paper cat litter for rodents, as wood and mineral pellets crumble to dust when wet and some may be unsafe to pick up (and rodents will eat your litter!).

nesting

This is material that the animals use to build nests and to line their roosts. Mice in particular are very keen on building complex 3D nests, so it’s important to give them a mix of bedding types, including ones with a longer strand length to work with.

Paper is the most popular option. This can be a handkerchief (paper towel or toilet paper roll) or a torn newspaper. Rats aren’t fussy when it comes to how their newspaper is presented (I tend to just give them the whole page and they’ll do the rest). However, mice that are smaller and want to build nests prefer to tear newspaper into long, thin strips.

Another good nesting option, especially for mice, is natural bedding such as hay or good quality straw (cheap cow straw is overkill). Hay in particular also adds other types of binding to the cage. Rodents are attracted to its smell and can nibble on it, making it more interesting to interact with.

Substrate bedding option for mice – pros and cons of each

Substrate is the type of bedding where owners are faced with the greatest choice and conflicting advice, so let’s take a look at the options.

Cardboard bedding

This comes as shredded cardboard strips or cardboard squares. It is a bedding that was originally developed for horses, but is now also sold in many countries for small animals.

Cardboard litter is popular because the good-sized pieces allow rodents to dig and manipulate in them. There are few downsides, especially when used with another bedding from the complementary properties list. However, it’s best to buy quality linens, as some thinner types lack absorbency and get soaked through fairly quickly.

Paper bedding

Paper litter options have expanded in many countries in recent years with the development of purpose-made substrates that are softer than paper litter but more absorbent than shredded paper (I often use cross-cut shredded paper to pad more expensive commercial litter, but alone it gets flat and stinks pretty quickly).

Paper litter is ideal for rodents and owners who have allergies to natural products, and many brands have benefits similar to cardboard litter. However, it’s important to check your local brands yourself, as some are perfumed (which can cause respiratory irritation) and some can be quite dusty.

Hemp bedding

This has recently become popular as an all-natural alternative to wood chips. There are several brands depending on where you live – I find mine locally available to be a bit fine, and I tend to mix it in with something coarser.

This is especially important when buying bedding for mice or other tunnel-digging rodents, as the fine shreds will collapse inward. However, it is a lovely absorbent bedding that is ideal for mixing with something less absorbent but more structured, such as cotton. B. cardboard is suitable. Using hemp where mice prefer to go to the bathroom can help keep waste costs down.

One thing to watch out for with hemp is that some brands add fragrance to it, which is bad for rodents’ respiratory system. So make sure to choose an unscented option when purchasing.

Coconut shell litter (or coconut)

This is a product that was developed for reptiles but has gained popularity among small animal owners as another natural alternative to wood shavings. I currently use a medium-sized version mixed with hemp, shredded paper, or kiln-dried shavings (see below) in my digging boxes. Some brands are high in fiber, so it pays to look carefully at what you’re buying and see if it’s mouse-friendly.

The downside of coco is that it’s not very absorbent (reptiles don’t pee much), so by itself it’s not a good bedding for temperate rodents like mice or rats. However, it is something that can be added to a mixed substrate for variety.

wood chips

Are Wood Chips a Safe Type of Bedding for Mice? Well, it depends on the type of shave you’re asking about.

Traditionally, shavings for rodents were sold as cheaply as possible – by-products of other wood industries. They were mostly made of pine or (especially in the USA) cedar wood, had a high phenolic content and were very dusty. This made them bad for the delicate airways of small rodents. Hardwoods like aspen, which are popular in the US, don’t contain the same amounts of phenols, but low-quality products can still be dusty.

However, not all wood chips are created equal.

Wood shavings bedding specifically designed for horses are now becoming widely available. The thing about horses is that they’re just as sensitive to their bedding as rodents, but they’re also immensely valuable – which means the horse world has invested to find safe options. It has been discovered that when wood chips (including pine) are heat treated, the level of oily phenol, which could otherwise cause metabolic problems, is reduced to negligible levels. Meanwhile, dust collection methods allow for a product that is low in dust content and unlikely to cause respiratory irritation.

So, wood chips can make safe bedding for rodents as long as we buy ones that have been heat treated (e.g. oven dried) and dusted. Stay away from cheap bedding made from raw pinewoods (these are often the brands marketed for small animals) and avoid sawdust (too fine) and wood shavings (not absorbent enough) – you’re looking for soft, large flakes.

The downside to horse bedding is that it is usually caused by the towing capacity – which is a little more than the average mouse owner needs! It’s worth looking around though – my local independent pet shop recently started stocking kiln dried shavings in 20 liter bags. I’ve bought a few and so far they’ve been a hit with the Horde.

fleece and newspaper

Mice should always be housed on a thick layer of one or more of the loose bedding listed above. They need the absorbency and rooting ability that a well-chosen loose bedding provides. However, many mice and rats (including my pack named Horde) are housed in large, flat-bottomed cages that are not suitable for full substrate coverage. Owners of these cages have two options – build or buy a deep cage base to put substrate in (which I do in one of my cage sections), or use a shallow substrate to cover the cage base and provide large trench boxes with loose substrate for the engagement.

The two materials commonly used to cover flat cage floors are non-woven fabric and newspaper. Fleece has gained a lot of popularity lately because it is washable and reusable, and many owners like the look. Personally, I’m not a fan. To me, looking neat isn’t what mice and rats are all about – I like when they have the flexibility to change their surroundings, which includes digging up and ripping up their flooring. Fleece also has very poor absorbency, so it is prone to smelling and if not used with something absorbent underneath (puppy pads, pet bed or a good bedding layer) and changed very frequently, it can cause ammonia burns or skin problems in rodents.

Newspaper also has absorbency issues, but it has the advantage that mice and rats can tear it up and do whatever they want with it. I use newspaper to line the flat parts of my cage where the rats are active but not sleeping or peeing. In areas where they’re weeding, digging, or sitting around, I set up boxes and baskets with litter or loose substrate.

So what is the best bedding for mice?

The best bedding for your mice will depend on the brands available where you live, but the principles for choosing are universal:

All mice need a sufficiently loose substrate for digging, which should cover the bottom of the cage with a thick layer.

, and this should cover the bottom of the cage in a thick layer. Any substrate must be absorbent (rather than just free-draining), with bedding added in areas used for toilets.

(and not just free draining) with waste added in areas used for toilets. Bedding should be low-dust and free of artificial fragrances, and if wood chips are used, they should be heat treated to remove phenols.

Often the best results can be achieved by mixing litter types to maximize absorbency, burrowing opportunities, and rodent engagement.

They may like the smell of pine and cedar shavings, but Herbert and Harriet don’t. Although aspen shavings are indeed suitable and safe, as are maple, beech, birch and poplar shavings, these are not. Your poor mouse needs to avoid inhaling gases given off by oils in the wood. Corn on the cob litter won’t work either, as it can mold and choke Mickey if he starts eating it.

Buying bedding for mice can be an expensive proposition, especially if you buy it in small quantities from pet stores, which often charge the highest prices. Buying in bulk can be cheaper, but there’s an even more economical alternative: making your own homemade mouse litter. You can do this with simple materials you have around the house and it only takes a few minutes.

new paper

Newsprint or any type of paper is one of the best bedding materials for mice. It’s cheap, readily available, and easy to throw in the trash or recycling bin. Newspaper or other types of paper used should contain as little color as possible (don’t use the slick, colored ads that come with Sunday papers), and don’t use pages of the newspaper that are full-page ads that use a lot ink included. The less ink there is, the better. Cut the paper into thin strips, about 1 to 2 inches wide and 6 to 12 inches long, and spread them around the cage.

wood chips

Wood shavings can make fantastic bedding for mice, as long as you don’t use wood that contains aromatic oils. Stick to unflavored wood shavings and — if you can cut them yourself — try to avoid sharp corners. If you chop the wood chips too roughly, the mice may not be able to find an area that’s comfortable enough to sleep in and instead spend their days running around their enclosure. Try to cut the wood shavings as thinly as possible, no longer than about 1 to 2 inches.

Cloth

Cloth, cloth, or old clothing that has been cut into strips makes excellent bedding for mice, and cloth has the advantage of being reusable, unlike newspaper or wood shavings. Make sure the cloth is clean before cutting and do not wash with detergents that will leave an odor or residue. A mouse’s best sense is its sense of smell, and foreign odors in its bedding can make mice uncomfortable and develop allergies. Like newspaper, cut the fabric into strips about 1 to 2 inches wide and 6 to 12 inches long.

avoid bedding

Try to avoid bedding that contains a lot of dust, such as sawdust or hay. This type of litter can irritate your mouse and cause it to develop allergies. Also, avoid pine shavings or any type of wood that contains aromatic oils. These can be harmful and even fatal to your mice.

Toilet paper rolls and paper towels serve a dual purpose as your rat can use them as both bedding and bedding. On top of that, you don’t necessarily have to do the shredding yourself. Place a partial roll in the cage and let your rat have fun tearing it to pieces. However, if you’re replacing the litter entirely, you may need to start the process by shredding enough to line the bottom of the litter box until your rat tears up enough to meet its needs.

By Nichole Royer

Whether you use

hardwood bedding,

paper sheets,

pelleted litter, or

a combination that

important is the

health of your pet.

In this issue we cover paper bedding and pellet bedding.

paper products

Paper (wood pulp) based products have become very popular as bedding for rats and mice. There are now even several alternatives to try. A major reason for their popularity is that they don’t get littered and messy like many other “traditional” bedding.

CareFRESH™

CareFRESH™.

This is the most widely available alternative bedding on the market. All Petcos not only carry CareFRESH™, but also use it as bedding for their small mammals. CareFRESH™ is a greyish cellulose product and is ideal as bedding for all our little creatures. It is soft, absorbent and very popular with mice and hamsters for building nests. Some people don’t like using CareFRESH™ directly on rats as it tends to smell a bit like “wet paper” and its gray appearance is also not particularly pleasant for some. It is often used in combination with Sani-Chips® and is very popular with breeders. It’s a bit more expensive than some products, but it’s worth it.

Manufactured by Absorption Corporation, 6960 Salashan Parkway, Ferndale, WA 98248, 1-800-242-2287, (360) 734-7415, Fax: (360) 671-1588, email: [email protected], [Is Healthy Pet Now, 3/23/16] https://www.healthy-pet.com/pages/carefresh.

CareFRESH® Ultra™

CareFRESH® Ultra™.

This is one of the newest products on the market and is available in the pet industry right now. It’s a white, unbleached, fluffy version of CareFRESH™ that I was very happy with myself. It has a softer, finer texture than regular CareFRESH™ and my mice thought it was the greatest thing in the world to build nests out of. It’s a nice, clean white that, surprisingly, doesn’t look dirty any faster than non-white bedding. It also doesn’t smell like “wet paper” like regular CareFRESH™. I really liked this product, both pure and mixed with Sani-Chip®. The only downside is the price. To order, please contact Absorption Corporation at 1-800-242-2287 [Is now Healthy Pet, 3-23-16] or visit their website at https://www.healthy-pet. com/ pages/freshly groomed.

Newspapers, shredded paper, etc.

Many people have tried using newspaper, shredded paper, paper towels, etc. as bedding for rats and mice. Newsprint should be avoided (unless used under a grid floor and changed daily). Although newsprint is said to be free of toxins, it does come off on our animals’ fur. This results in the animal preening itself almost constantly (neurotically) and ingesting a significant amount of ink (to what harm we don’t know). Shredded newspaper and paper towels can make acceptable bedding if enough is used; However, they do not help control ammonia odor and must be changed every 24 hours. They also turn into a squishy, ​​damp mess when they get wet.

Eco bed linen

This is a product I have not seen anywhere else but Petco. Essentially, they appear to be long, finely shredded strips of heavy brown paper. While it might be good as nesting material, the relatively high cost of this product for the amount in the box makes it impractical for most owners to use as bedding.

Eco Bedding is manufactured by FiberCore, LLC, 15625 Saranac Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44110, 1-800-858-6150, (216) 249-2100, Fax: (216) 249-2112, http://fibercorellc.com /.

ALPHA-dri™

ALPHA-dri™.

This product belongs to the laboratory beds. It is white chips paper bed linen made from alpha cellulose. It is made by Shepherd Specialty Papers. They also make CELLU-dri™ (a recycled cellulosic fiber available in pelleted form and in an extra-soft textured form), ALPHA-Nest™ (a compressed sheet of 100% bleached long staple cotton fibers that allows for easy chopping and incorporation into nest building) and Shepherd Shack ™ (a paper house that resembles an egg carton in texture).

Contact Shepherd Specialty Papers, 8080 Moorsbridge Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49024, 1-800-253-3286, (616) 324-3017, fax: (616) 324-3026, email: [email protected] , www. sponline.com.

Pelleted litter

Several brands of pelleted cat litter have appeared on the market in recent years. Reptile lovers have also developed a fondness for pelleted bedding for their critters. These products are typically extruded pellets about 1/8″ thick and ½-1 inch long. Since many of our animals don’t like the hard texture of these stand/lying products, many people just use a thin layer and then cover it with shavings (Sani-Chips® are the most popular).

Soft Touch™

Soft Touch™.

This is a popular bedding among the people who can get it. No other product has reported as much success in eliminating ammonia. The aspen bark and wood pellets are neutral brown and have a pleasant smell. Many people place a very thin layer of Gentle Touch™ on the bottom of their cage and then cover it with wood shavings (Sani-Chips® are the most popular). This product can be difficult to obtain in California, although other states may not. It is available in two pellet sizes, small (cat litter) and large (pet litter). The cat litter size is preferred for rats and mice. This is the only product on the market that successfully controls male mouse odor (and it makes a great kitty litter too!).

Manufactured by Gentle Touch Products, 12390 S. 234th St. Gretna, NE 68028, (402) 332-0253, Fax: (402) 332-0267, www.gentletouchproducts.com/.

Aspen Supreme™

Aspen Supreme™.

This is the same product as Gentle Touch™ (an aspen bark pellet) only in a slightly larger pellet than the ‘cat litter’ sized pellet. If you can’t get Gentle Touch™ in your area, look for Aspen Supreme™. It is sold by Green Pet Products, Inc., [Ed. Note: 3-7-22 no longer manufactures product, closed pet products division 2019].

Yesterday’s News®

Yesterday’s News®.

This is a pelleted cat litter made from recycled newspaper with an odor absorbing ingredient. It’s great for odor control, but can be quite expensive. As with all pelleted types of bedding, many animals dislike walking/lying directly on it, so many people just use a thin layer and then cover it with shavings. In some areas, it’s easy to find at most pet stores; However, in some places it has to be specially ordered.

Yesterdays News® is manufactured by Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, Checkerboard Square, St. Louis, Missouri 63164, (314) 982-1000, https://www.purina.com/tidy-cats/cat-litter/yesterdays-news.

animal country

animal country.

Another pelleted bedding made from winter wheatgrass and other fibers. This one is sold in the reptile section (although the packaging says it can be used on small mammals). Critter Country is good, although it doesn’t have the odor-fighting power of Yesterdays News® and Gentle Touch™/Aspen Supreme™. It’s quite expensive but readily available.

Manufactured by Mountain Meadows Pet Products, Inc., P.O. Box 778, Lewistown, MT 59457-0778, 1-800-752-8864, (406) 538-2544, fax: (406) 538-2545, email: [email protected].

Part 3: Different bedding and new bedding.

Part 1: Hardwood Bedding.

Part 4: More new bedding.

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