# Fresh News for rat bedding



## Basiltheplant (Jan 2, 2017)

I am getting Fresh News to use in my cats litterbox and I know that it can also be used for rats as well. 
I've seen one brief video where the person had a couple handfuls of it on the bottom level of their DCN. They said that it was really absorbent and since it was so absorbent they could sweep out the dirty fresh news pellets with the rats droppings do a quick wipe of the cage cage pan and then that was it for the weekly cage cleanings.
I know that a lot of others mix a bit in with a span shavings for help with odor control. But has any one else used just the fresh news? Has the absorbency of it made cage cleaning easier/faster? 
I work a 40+ hour week plus am looking for a second job on top of that so I can keep up on bills. So a faster cage cleaning option would be really helpful because the current Aspen shavings and up taking me at least an hour and a half for weekly cages. And 6+ hours for monthly deep cleaning


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

Fresh News is A+ I use it in the bottom of my CN and also inside litter boxes in the other cage. I _was_ mixing it with aspen but atm it's 100% Fresh News because one of my rats has allergies to aspen. 

I didn't have any problem sweeping the aspen in the first place but yes Fresh News is easy to just sweep into the dust pan and into the garbage bag. In my case cleaning is faster just because the aspen was getting stuck in the hammocks, because they were stuffing them full of it! Fresh News isn't messy at all.

I have only 100% good things to say about Fresh News as a bedding. Of course the rats don't think it is as much fun as the fluffy aspen they had, but they don't dislike it. I give them lots of toilet paper and paper towels to bed with so that they still have that burrowing/nesting need satisfied.

Because of the one rat's aspen allergies I am using Fresh News through the foreseeable future and have no plans to change it, it works great.


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## Basiltheplant (Jan 2, 2017)

Coffeebean said:


> Fresh News is A+ I use it in the bottom of my CN and also inside litter boxes in the other cage. I _was_ mixing it with aspen but atm it's 100% Fresh News because one of my rats has allergies to aspen.
> 
> I didn't have any problem sweeping the aspen in the first place but yes Fresh News is easy to just sweep into the dust pan and into the garbage bag. In my case cleaning is faster just because the aspen was getting stuck in the hammocks, because they were stuffing them full of it! Fresh News isn't messy at all.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the feedback, coffee bean! How much do you put in the bottom pan? I have a cement mixing tub that I use for the bottom pan


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Basiltheplant said:


> Coffeebean said:
> 
> 
> > Fresh News is A+ I use it in the bottom of my CN and also inside litter boxes in the other cage. I _was_ mixing it with aspen but atm it's 100% Fresh News because one of my rats has allergies to aspen.
> ...



I use yesterday's news, which is very similar to fresh news (it's basically fresh news without the backing soda and with some softwood shavings). I put about an inch and a half deep of it in my cement mixing tub. The rats don't really dig it out, which is nice, and it's so heavy that even before I got the cement mixing pan, little bedding was kicked out.

My favorite thing about it is that it's so odor absorbent that with 4 rats, I'm cleaning my SCN every 1.5-2 weeks (and spot cleaning every 2-3 days). It rarely even smells by the time I clean it (that honor is delegated to the fabric hammocks the rats decide to pee on ), and considering that I live with someone super sensitive to animal smells, that's the highest praise I can give any bedding.


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

Basiltheplant said:


> Thank you for the feedback, coffee bean! How much do you put in the bottom pan? I have a cement mixing tub that I use for the bottom pan


No less than 1 inch otherwise the pellets can slide around and leave bare spots in the pan. I buy the big 25 lb bag and I use around 2/5 of the bag for one cement mixing tub. One bag is enough to fill 2 of my cement mixing tubs, the floor of a Rat Manor, and the inside of my carry cage.


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