# Bedding



## courtney+ella (Jan 7, 2014)

I have noticed a lot of people use material or fleece on the bottom of there rat cages, what is the benefits of that and how does it go smell wise? Let me know what you guys do


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## ratty_milkshake (Feb 24, 2014)

I put some towel as lining 3 days ago and this is what i woke up to yesterday morning:








Sooo yeah...not very sustainable..
I usually just use Newspaper as the lining of the cage as it is very inexpensive. The smell is not too bad either. I usually replace mine once a week.
Lots of people say the pee soaks through the bedding (fleece/towel/newspaper or whatever) but my rats dont really pee all over the cage. They have one spot in the top corner of the cage (they probably think its the urinal) that they pee in. I just put some extra newspaper here.

I find that the smell is usually the litterbox (I replace litter once every 2-3days - I only have 2 rats)


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## ratswithfoxandbear (Feb 12, 2014)

I use fleece with a cheap $1 towel underneath each pan. As ratty_milkshake pointed out, they will burrow and play. However, I really enjoy the fleece. Once the girls are 100% litter-trained, it will be much easier to clean. My DCN does not have low-pans, so anything that I put down will get pushed out to the floor. I feel like fleece is the only way to go in that situation.

As far as smell, it is fine. Each morning, I spot clean since we are still working on litter training. Regardless, it never hurts to do a morning check-up. I do a full-cage clean weekly since I have four girls running around in there. I bought enough fleece to make two sets of liners, so I rotate them then. I throw the used ones in the wash and put a half-cup of white vinegar in with the dye-free/ scent-free detergent. I have not had any problems.

The cost of the fleece was inexpensive. I hit a sale at Joanne Fabrics, although I feel like that place secretly always has sales. My fleece cost $40 in total, and I expect to use it for quite some time. You'll need to buy binder clips (the largest ones that are available) to hold it down unless you choose velcro or know how to sew and sew "pillow style" to cover the pans nicely. If I had a machine, I would totally do that because the binder clips are good, but I feel it could be better.

I love it, but I know it is necessary to hve that extra towel underneath since they also like hiding and playing a bit. I wash the pans and everything weekly (as I mentioned), and I have not had any problems in regards to smell. I tend to be sensitive to that, too. If I had the time, I'd clean every day. It's a weird thing that I have to do.


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## Voltage (May 15, 2013)

I have three layers. Bottom layer is newspaper, middle layer is towel and top layer is fleece. I sprinkle baking soda between the newspaper and the towel to absorb odor.
It works pretty well usually...except I don't have anything to keep the fleece down so the girl's pull it up and then chew holes through the towel and shred the newspaper to use as bedding. They are crazy but I love them.... My boys cage works differently so they have newspaper in the tray under the cage and fleece covering the wire floor with a little space on the sides so the poop falls off to the side and into the tray

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## Crezzard (Jul 20, 2013)

Get some bulldog clips to hold your fleece down. I got. 20 from amazon for about £4


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Fleexe has the benefits of being reuseable, not messy in terms of being kicked out and looking appealing, however personally i dont like it as i dont think its the best form of bedding for the rats (and to me they should come first not the appearence stuff). The trouble is it doesnt allow them to satisfy there natural behaviour of foraging and digging. A digging box can help with this though its not the same as having a large area to dig through and move around. I scatter feed too to help encourage foraging and keep them entertained and this would be pretty rubbish on a fleece or towel. Ive also found that fleece tends to jsut wick any fluid through it, leaving often a fairly smelly layer underneath, whereas a decent substrate absorbs and locks it away. This means you generally need to clean out more with fleece/towels.

The main difficulty with substrate is that it gets kicked out, but its fairly easy to remedy, just by making some kick guards out of perspex sheet or corregated plastic, or if you fancy a longer term option you can have a deeper tray made. Its well worth it for the pleasure they get digging around.

Foraging in some substrate looking for there dinner


Foraging on some vet bed (equivalent of fleece, jsut thicker and more absorbant)


And jsut because its fun for them, foraging with extra challenges, hidden in a taped up egg box


and a digging box (with real soil)


And in a set of drawers they ahd to open themselves


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## ratty_milkshake (Feb 24, 2014)

Very nice Isamurat!!! Is that cardboard used for the substrate?? Where did u get this from, so nice!


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## Voltage (May 15, 2013)

Crezzard said:


> Get some bulldog clips to hold your fleece down. I got. 20 from amazon for about £4
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


My girls cage is a Martin skyscraper, the bar spacing is half an inch by an inch. And the inch is vertical. So unless I can find half inch clips I can't use them on their cage. The one drawback of their cage...

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## sherlockandwatson (Feb 22, 2014)

I use really cheap fleece in case it gets destroyed you can get it for like three bucks at bi-mart. The benefits is you don't have to constantly buy bedding you just buy some fleece once or twice. It doesn't smell bad at all unless you didn't clean it out for a while. It is really easy to clean you just pop it in the washer during play time and it's ready by the time your rats need to go back in the cage. Also if you have wire shelves it keeps the rats from getting bumble foot.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

ratty_milkshake said:


> Very nice Isamurat!!! Is that cardboard used for the substrate?? Where did u get this from, so nice!


It is, its sold commonly as horse bedding over here so I get it from local farm shops or online. It about the best bedding ive found overall.


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## kenzierey (Jan 27, 2014)

Isamurat said:


> And in a set of drawers they ahd to open themselves


Love the little drawers! thats such a good idea! Did it take them a long time to figure it out when you first put it in there? Just curious. I am gonna go find drawers like this as soon as i get out of work! love ittt!


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Nope unfortunately they sussed it in about 15seconds but to be fair my rats are brought up having to solve problems and hunt for there food. Its a double edged sword as theh get dangerously good at breaking into there food tub and the treat jar, and most puzzels are too easy for them.


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