# Eating bedding?



## k_petersen5 (Jan 26, 2008)

My rats want to eat their bedding! I use Yestersays news, and I have caught them at times munching on a piece of it. It looks similar to some food pellets, but I cant imagine it smells good. They get lots of different foods so I dont know why they want to nibble on bedding. I dont think it will hurt them but I was wondering whether this was okay for them to do?


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## Phobie (Jun 3, 2007)

Mine do this with kitty litter. They're just tasting it, usually.

What do you feed them? They might be lacking something nutritionally and resorting to bulking on paper :/


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## Neophyte (Feb 12, 2008)

Rats know what to eat, I think. If they want to eat it, don't worry about it! Rats actually will sometimes eat their own poop, I think it has bacteria they need to digest. That's what they may be doing..


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## Leala (May 31, 2007)

They might not even be eating it. They could just be chewing it. Ratties generally love to chew anything you will give them.
Do they have many toys to chew in their cage?


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## k_petersen5 (Jan 26, 2008)

Thanks. They have toys, but they don't seem to chew on them, so I will probably get them some new ones to see if they will chew on those instead.


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## Kima-chan (Jan 12, 2008)

Rats eat their poop because they need vitamins. They digest very quickly, so often they eat their poop so that they can get the vitamins out of the food the second time around.


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## eclecticnoise (Jan 4, 2008)

I just posted on this as well and the general agreement was that they were probably not eating it just giving it a little chew. I use yesterday's news as well - it's not toxic so even if they do swallow a bit then they are not going to hurt themselves


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