# Rat eating bedding?



## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Hi, today I yesterday I got a 1 month old dumbo baby... And today I noticed him eating the bedding. No, not chewing. Eating. I have given him a wooden chew but he is still eating his bedding. I use critter care from Walmart... Should I just replace his cage with fleece until I can buy some aspen..??? Or...?


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

*yesterday I got him. Sorry, typo.


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

Most rats don't eat the bedding why do you think he's actually eating it? If he is chewing pieces of you might not notice him spit them out three out of four of my rats take tiny bites and break things up in little tiny pieces it is possible he is eating it and if your worried about him eating the bedding I would switch to fleece because if you put another loose bedding he may eat that to if he actually is eating it I can't tell you for sure. 


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Ok, thanks. I am pretty sure he's eating it. I haven't seen him spit it out, he just holds it and... Eats it. I put paper towels and some fleece in there for now. When I intro him to Stitch, I'll do fleece with a litter box full of the bedding.


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

Ok and I think personally litter training with fleece as the bedding and any other kind of loose bedding as the litter is a good way to litter train because you don't have to dig through bedding to get to all of the poops to put in the litter box


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Chances are high that he is not eating it. Rats love to gnaw at things and their mouths are built specially so that they can do this and not necessarily swallow what they gnaw. The bits that are gnawed at won't come flying out of the sides of their mouths like a wood chipper, especially that young, but the bits will accumulate over time and you'll be able to see them if they aren't scattered.


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Ok, well for now I have paper towels in there. I think I'll just try to litter train him anyways. Stitch is litter trained, I just need a good litter box that he can't tip over.


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

Rats won't generally eat their bedding, but some do love eating paper. We have a couple of rats who love it for some reason!


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

And don't use wood chips 
Bad for their lungs. Use a compressed pellet bedding such as Yesterday's News.


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

Wood chips are fine if they're a hard wood such as Aspen.


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

I disagree. But to each his own.


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

No, it's proven that soft woods are what harm rats, and hard woods are completely fine... Aspen is one of the most highly recommended beddings for rats, and that's a fact. You're likely confusing the two. Soft woods are the kind that release phenols that irritate the respiratory tract, not hard woods like Aspen. I'm not going to disagree with using pellets though as that is generally one of the best options. Most recommend one of the following kinds of bedding: Aspen (hard wood), shredded paper, soft tissue paper, 100% paper pellets and Hemp-based bedding.


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

What exactly is hemp based bedding?


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

It's chopped up bedding made from the stem of the Hemp Plant. I use a brand called Aubiose and it works great. There's another one called Hemcore as well that some rat owners like to use in the UK. A lot of breeders here prefer a mixture of a cardboard based bedding such as finaCARD and a hemp based one like Aubiose. Here's a link of some popular beddings we get here (Aspen isn't really used here but popular/easy to obtain in the US):

http://www.ratrations.com/bedding-and-substrate-c-60.html?zenid=6e4555ef003dced215c1219e2cf8e929


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## PurpleGirl (Oct 12, 2012)

Rats sometimes eat their bedding when they're very stressed out, the first time I took my boy Magnus on the bus in a carrier (to go to the vet) he started eating the kitchen roll strips that were in there with him, definitely eating as there were no tiny nibbled bits like rats normally leave. If you've only had the little boy for one day - and if he's all by himself? - he may be munching the bedding as a response to his fear. Sometimes rats that feel sick will eat inanimate things like bedding (a behaviour called pica, wild rats eat dirt/clay when they feel sick) as a way of settling their stomachs. I'd be more inclined to think it's simple nerves on his part. As others have said though, if you look closely you'll probably find tiny scraps of the bedding that he's chewing on.


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Okay thanks.


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

I bet he was seriously eating it. I just watched him eat a piece of paper towel. I also found a spot where the towels had a hole in them, so I checked the whole cage and could not find one scrap of paper towel in there ... Weirdo! I also gave him a rock today because he's too short to reach the water bottle (XD) and he's been chewing on it... Hmmm


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