# Bedding-less DCN??



## morgang23 (Jun 25, 2010)

I'm getting a DCN tomorrow night, and I'm also in the process of litter training my boys... and so far its not going so great, as in their food bowl makes the perfect litter pan...

So has anyone gone without bedding with a DCN? and if so could they share stories etc, I'd also like to hear from the ones with fleece... how to do secure the fleece on? I used to have guinea pigs and and for their cage I always used clips for the fleece


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## naley_2006 (Aug 19, 2013)

I have yet to get a DCN, but during the end of the summer, I started using just a towel in Meredith's cage while attempting to litter train her. Honestly, picking up a few pieces of poop to put them in the litter box (with a tissue or something of course) and taking the towel out to wash it beats having to do a full cage clean once, twice, even three times a week.


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## KelseyShea (Jan 20, 2013)

I don't really use bedding... I had a bunch of old t-shirts and towels they love to play in. A good way to recycle, and they're washable. I'll hang long sleeves so they use as a tunnel. As far as sleeping, I have these heavy duty plastic baskets that I hang from the sides of the cage, with t-shirts inside. They love to curl up in those. Other than that, I have the plastic trays that came with the DCN for flooring. It's an easy clean up.


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## Siringo (May 7, 2012)

I tried using nothing as bedding in my DCN and it was pretty awful. If you aren't completely on top of wiping it down every hour, then your rats will be walking through their pee puddles all of the time, which of course tracks the pee everywhere and it's so bad for their toes. It also makes their food crumbs stick to the pan really bad.

I secure my fleece by folding the excess fabric under the trays and securing it in place with small binder clips. With my rats, litter training is easier with fleece. I think it's because the fleece is dramatically different from the loose bedding used in the litter box. I dunno.

This is one of my shelves to demonstrate how it's (messily) tucked and clipped under:


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## morgang23 (Jun 25, 2010)

Where do you guys get your fleece from?


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## Luminescent (May 28, 2013)

When I first got my rats (they live in a Ferret Nation, so basically the same cage, just the bar spacing is wider), I used bare pans until just a week or two ago. Of course, I always gave them some newspaper to nest with, crazy girlies. <:3 It worked out fairly well, until they started hauling and kicking their litter out. 

Not fun, by the way.

There was always litter strewn _everywhere_, probably because in their old home, they had bedding in their cage. I thought it would keep mess down, because the trays are so shallow. And as Siringo mentioned, they do leave puddles of pee everywhere too, which is a pain.

In short, I found that a thin layer of Carefresh or something in the pans does a fine job. They like piling it up in a nest too.  But, if you insist on not using loose bedding, I'd go for fleece with towels underneath, something like that.


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## naley_2006 (Aug 19, 2013)

You can get fleece from any fabric, hobby or Walmart store. Also, baby blankets and fleece blankets would probably also work.


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

I get mine from dollar stores they sometimes have big fleece blankets there that are ment for adults and baby blankets also pet blankets that fit my cage if I cut in half the big adult blankets would fit more then enough of the cage I don't have a DCN but I have a feisty ferret cage and they are about the same size. 


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## Eden10 (Aug 11, 2012)

If fleece doesn't work out [didn't for me, my boys destroyed it & peed all over it making it smell awful!] you can always buy a big cement mixing pan from Lowes [can't remember the price, but it was cheap like $15 maybe?] trim the top down a bit [had my fiance do that] & use that as the bottom pan for bedding. It stops the mess/bedding being kicked out & its cheaper than paying like $40 for the actual CN deeper replacement pan.


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## Siringo (May 7, 2012)

morgang23 said:


> Where do you guys get your fleece from?


I just bought a 10 yard bolt for $15 (clearance) at walmart.com.


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## Trenix (Aug 30, 2013)

Siringo said:


> I tried using nothing as bedding in my DCN and it was pretty awful. If you aren't completely on top of wiping it down every hour, then your rats will be walking through their pee puddles all of the time, which of course tracks the pee everywhere and it's so bad for their toes. It also makes their food crumbs stick to the pan really bad.
> 
> I secure my fleece by folding the excess fabric under the trays and securing it in place with small binder clips. With my rats, litter training is easier with fleece. I think it's because the fleece is dramatically different from the loose bedding used in the litter box. I dunno.
> 
> This is one of my shelves to demonstrate how it's (messily) tucked and clipped under:


Are you clipping it to the shelf? Do the shelves have a easy grip for you to clip the fleece onto? Do the clips get in the way of anything?


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## Siringo (May 7, 2012)

Trenix said:


> Are you clipping it to the shelf? Do the shelves have a easy grip for you to clip the fleece onto? Do the clips get in the way of anything?


Yes, it is clipped to the shelf (well the tray that sits on the shelf). The part where I have it clipped is pretty thin (but slightly textured) plastic so it's easy to get the clips over it. Sometimes the tray won't slide back in the cage as smooth as it would without the clips, but it's fine if you move the silver metal loop parts out of the way. I have the clips on all sides of the trays.

Here's a picture of the underside of the tray, so you can see the thin lip thingy that goes over the metal shelf frame thing.










Oh, also the tray doesn't sit all the way down with the clips being where I have them. You can see in my other picture that the bottom metal loop is in the way no matter what, but it's not an issue at all.


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## LittleJaws (Jun 4, 2013)

I use bath rugs. I think the 50 x 80 fits the pan perfectly. It absorbs smells so freakin' awesomely. The rats don't go under, and I assume its harder to destroy. They haven't tried anything yet. For the shelves, I cut one of the rugs in half and tucked it under. ​plus, they're so soft for little rattie feet​




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## Soupskin (Sep 28, 2013)

I really like the bath rugs idea. I think I'm going to go that route.


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## Trenix (Aug 30, 2013)

LittleJaws said:


> I use bath rugs. I think the 50 x 80 fits the pan perfectly. It absorbs smells so freakin' awesomely. The rats don't go under, and I assume its harder to destroy. They haven't tried anything yet. For the shelves, I cut one of the rugs in half and tucked it under. ​plus, they're so soft for little rattie feet​View attachment 82738​


I'm surprised how that even works, they don't even grab the ends and pull the mat over?


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## HeatherElle (Aug 16, 2012)

My boys are slobs (refuse to use litter boxes) so they recently lost most of their shelving privileges, lol. They only have one shelf in their cage now- one of the smaller ones. I cover that in a towel and put a layer of fleece over that. The baby blankets from the dollar store are the perfect size but I've also bought fleece at Joann's and garage sales. I stopped clipping the fleece on because if my boys want to pull it up and can't, they'll destroy it. So I just fold it under.


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## LittleJaws (Jun 4, 2013)

Surprisingly not, I did get the largest size I could find though (52 x 84 I think) so I could tuck the sides under. But my rats have never really been bad at chewing things up, so I couldn't talk for the more mischievous ones lol​


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