# Choice of bedding? How much do you spend a month?



## Cashew1992 (May 18, 2012)

I'm just looking at different beddings for the rats i'm adopting in 12 days and was wondering which are the cheapest to use? I was talking to someone at Pets at Home and they spend £40 a month on bedding for 2 rats O_O Thats more than i spent on bedding for 3 guinea pigs and 2 rabbits :/

I was considering polar fleece and i have a few lying around the house already but the rats i'm getting aren't litter trained so i think it might get very messy; 

I was thinking of using PAH's recycled paper or safe small animal bedding? Any thoughts?

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/safe-small-pet-bedding-by-pets-at-home-55004
[URL]http://www.petsathome.com/shop/recycled-paper-pet-bedding-by-pets-at-home-86009[/URL]


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## Reikiru (Apr 9, 2013)

I use the Edible Shredded Vegetable parchment bedding from Wilkinsons, its much nicer and cheaper than the pets at home one. I also give mine a few plain tissues to shred, roughly a month it costs me about £2-£3 for bedding, their cage flooring though is Carefresh though i am switching over to Freshbale/FinaCard, locally i can get freshbale in 20K bale for £6 and im about £6 at PAH for Carefresh confetti and dont get half as much, personally though im preferring the FreshBale, both for value and quality. 

I also put down on their shelfs old towel scraps that ive cut to size as mine dont tend to pee on the shelves these days, oh and sometimes i give them each a little animal fleece if all the hammocks and what not are in the wash (althouh my boy gets his more often as he prefers to sleep at the bottom of the cage). Which again I bought 2 out of poundland so again its pretty cheap and its easy to wash too, buit you already have fleeces. I'd definitely wait til they are a little litter trained before fleece though unless you test run it on the shelves in your cage.


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## PandaBruja (Feb 10, 2013)

I make my own newspaper bedding, and i mix that with Aspen.
Here is an article and tutoral on how to make the newspaper bedding http://thegreenists.com/pets/tip-of-the-day-make-your-own-kitty-litter/1044
Mixing them together means that i dont have to buy aspen as much... I spend maybe 10 dollars every 2 or 3 months.
I'm currently learning to sew, so i'll be making fleece hammocks and mats as well!


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

I buy recycled paper cat litter for the litter pans for my gals... not sure what brand you'd use in the UK but I spend $12 for 2-3 months worth. My girls are litter trained, though, and mostly what I have in their cage is fleece.


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## Reikiru (Apr 9, 2013)

Ah, well i use PAH's back-2-nature recycled paper pellets in their litter trays thats like £6 for a 10litre bag or £17 for a 30 litre bag, but a 10 litre does me a month and a half at the moment since Mina's needs changing more frequently just now. So okay my monthly outgoing on full cage changing supplies ranges from about £8-£15 depending if im needing a bale or not, but then the bedding actually lasts me longer, so its not really always a monthly thing as sometimes i'll buy in bulk and wont need to get anything in for a few months.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I use greenmile shredded card or fitch recycled paper bedding, you can get the first from rat rations and the second from ebay or there own site. Both are great and even better mixed and come up about £15 for 3 months worth, they come in big bales so delivery is the bulk of that cost. Finacard is also good and they have a pellet called paperlit which is as good as back to nature or biocatolet. Definitly all are better and cheaper than what you would find at pets at home. Check out rat rations for there food and toys too, much better option.


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## Reikiru (Apr 9, 2013)

rat rations are great for choice but their postage is somewhat expensive, though that didnt stop me shopping there lol.


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## 3 ratties (Apr 6, 2013)

Ive used a couple different ones and my absolute favorite is Yesterdays news. Its a paper based cat litter. They are pellets. Its 99.7% dust free. and it cost about 14 dollars in my area. but the bag is HUGE and lasts me about a month. Since switching from Carefresh, my girls have had no pee odor anymore and I dont see dust coming off it when i put it in like i did with the Carefresh


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## RosesRufflesandRats (Apr 25, 2013)

3 ratties said:


> Ive used a couple different ones and my absolute favorite is Yesterdays news. Its a paper based cat litter. They are pellets. Its 99.7% dust free. and it cost about 14 dollars in my area. but the bag is HUGE and lasts me about a month. Since switching from Carefresh, my girls have had no pee odor anymore and I dont see dust coming off it when i put it in like i did with the Carefresh


Is it soft?


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## Cashew1992 (May 18, 2012)

Oh wow! Thanks everyone so much choice :S! hehe


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## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

PandaBruja said:


> I make my own newspaper bedding, and i mix that with Aspen.
> Here is an article and tutoral on how to make the newspaper bedding http://thegreenists.com/pets/tip-of-the-day-make-your-own-kitty-litter/1044
> Mixing them together means that i dont have to buy aspen as much... I spend maybe 10 dollars every 2 or 3 months.
> I'm currently learning to sew, so i'll be making fleece hammocks and mats as well!


WOW!!

That was pretty interesting on how to make bedding! 

It looks similar to carefresh, but it didn't seem to have the dust that carefresh has. 

I might give that a try.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

I use fleece and $15 USD worth of fleece made into cage liners lasts me a year. The litter pan is filled with hardwood pellets, a bag of which costs $5 USD and lasts six months. Overall, $20 USD per year for litter and bedding.

Also keep in mind that I buy my fleece brand new from the fabric store, which is more expensive than alternative methods such as buying used blankets and such.

Rat husbandry, excluding health, is only as expensive as you want it to be.


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