# smelly aspen??



## Mama Rat (Jan 23, 2017)

Hello! I just bought my first bag of aspen and it has a very strong barn/cow type smell?
Is this normal? Is it bad for my rats?

The brand is Nepco shredded aspen.


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## Endlessmtn (Apr 18, 2017)

With any aspen you're going to have a sort of subtle sharp woody smell - I honestly like it though  Just remember to freeze (and then re-warm, of course) the bedding before use to kill any unwanted hitchhikers.


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## Ratologist (Nov 24, 2016)

Well, oddly enough, I was just coming here to ask about smelly aspen bedding. I never had a smell problem using the small bags of aspen from Petsmart (can't remember the brand) or Petco (SoPhresh brand). But, I recently purchased a larger, bulk bag of SoPhresh, and I have been scratching my head trying to figure out why my rats smell like a barn all the time lately. I finally figured out that it's the bedding. It's not so terrible straight out of the bag, but I grabbed a handful and got it wet with plain water, and it smells awful. I never had this happen using the smaller bags of what is supposedly the very same stuff! So, I would say that it's not normal for aspen to smell like farm animals, and if yours does, there's something wrong with it. I'm going to try going back to the smaller bags tomorrow and see what happens.


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## Ratologist (Nov 24, 2016)

So, I bought new aspen today (one of the smaller bags from Petsmart), and it's like night & day difference. The new stuff smells like wood chips. I got it wet with plain water, and it still smells like wood chips. The SoPhresh from the big bag smells like farm animals. There's no doubt that these are two very different products.


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## Mama Rat (Jan 23, 2017)

Strange...
Perhaps they are stored in different areas before being packaged?

Mine had a manure/cow smell to it.... 
It also turned out to be way too dusty. Put a pinch in my boys cage and they started sneezing like crazy. I know there are some small sneezes that come with trying new bedding, but the fits they were having were definitely not normal. My big boy Nicodemus was even sneezing outside the cage while on my shoulder because of the dust that had gotten on my shirt when I was handling the bad bedding. I changed my shirt, then he stopped his sneezing.
It was pretty awful...
I don't know if it varies from bag to bag or bag sizes, but I'm not taking a chance on that bedding again.

Just got myself a bag of aspen chips (similar to sani chips) from the same brand that made the smelly/dusty aspen shaving.
There's a world a difference. From what I see so far it isn't dusty, it actually smells like wood and my boys didn't have sneezes when I put them on it.
Hopefully over the course of the week it stays that way.


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