# Are all beddings susceptible to mites?



## BlackBirdSeesYou (Nov 4, 2012)

currently, my two rats are using clean and cozy bedding (which i hear often has mites) and they just got over mites so i am now freezing everything for 24 hours.

i'm tired of having to freeze all the bedding, so i'm thinking of using a pelleted paper cat litter (like the one i use for my ferret's litterbox). 

would the paper pellets be safe from mites even if i don't freeze it? my ferret seems fine with it so would my rats be? i just really don't want to end up with mites again.

thanks.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

There's a 99.9999995% possibility that your rats got mites directly from other rodents or from a person that carried the mites from another rodent to yours.

To my knowledge there's no bedding that commonly or even rarely transmits mites to your rats that I'm aware of. Nothing's impossible so I'd suspect that about half of that 0.0000005% of the time the mites might come from bedding, it was used by infected rats to sleep in before the pet shop repackaged it and sold it to you.

Wood beddings are usually kiln dried at way too high a temperature for mites to survive and the recycled paper bedding was a toxic slurry before it dried back into paper... Again nothing mites would survive and cloth bedding usually gets washed before it gets put in your rats cage...

I've had mites kill off mice one by one... they didn't even leave the first infested mouse until it died much less hang out in the bedding. I suppose you could infect your own bedding by getting mites on yourself and scooping bedding our of the bag... but if you don't have mites in your home that's not an issue... As I own a true shoulder rat, we've never even picked up mites from places wild rodents frequent.... 

Mites usually move between rats when they cuddle, they also slough off into your hands and onto your clothes where you apply them to your other rats. I suppose if you reuse your bedding you might want to wash, bake, freeze it or otherwise sterilize it between uses, but as to fresh out of the sealed box bedding, I really don't know where it would get mites from.

We've had mites twice, both times from new pet shop infested rodents, a couple drops of Revolution and they are a gone, no big deal, you wouldn't be finding me freezing my bedding any time soon.

As to freezing, my friend ran a department store and they froze birdseed to kill moths, but they used a deep freezer and not a household freezer. I've frozen birdseed in my freezer and it didn't kill the moths, it did delay their hatching though.

Good luck


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

From what i understand yesterday news has a lower chance of having mites because how its sealed. Now that being said i got mites recently and i have no clue how but Ive began freezing my food and bedding for ---48--- hrs not 24. You can also bake it but fire scares me. The clear bagged bedding and the ones with little vent holes are more likely to have mites. 

To make it easier i got a little food storage bin with a pour lid. I got 4 of them from the dollar store they are 1 each. I always have one in the freezer of food and bedding. They don't take up much space and it makes feeding and changing the litter pans a breeze. After my current bin runs out i fill it up and swap it with the one in the freezer. Generally it lasts me a week and a half on the food and a week on the bedding. Its a lot easier than putting it in zip locks or putting the whole bag in the freezer. 

I believe most mites especially the most common and bothersome mite is species specific. So you will not give or get mites from your rats. But you can carry mites from pet store rats or other rats. 

http://ratguide.com/health/integumentary_skin/ectoparasites.php 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## BlackBirdSeesYou (Nov 4, 2012)

zurfaces: my grandma hates seeing rat food and bedding in the freezer (because she still thinks rats are nasty) but i think a little storage bin would make it less sore for her eyes.


thanks.


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