# Do I have to have bedding?



## christinelovesyou (Jan 7, 2012)

Okay, so I started out with shredded newspaper, then changed to fleece. Both are very hard to clean and don't absorb odor. I am planning on getting YN to put in their litter box (then teaching them to be litter trained...), but do I have to have any sort of bedding? My girls barely go down to the bottom anyway, and just to bunch up the fleece into a ball. It seems like it would be much easier to clean without bedding.
What is the point of bedding, anyway?


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## Kinsey (Jun 14, 2009)

I use newspaper, and am trying to litter train. It works fine for me, personally, especially since when I am moving poops to the box I can find them easily.


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## CarolineRose (Nov 18, 2011)

I'd definitely keep the bedding for comforts sake. The plastic floor is hard and cold for ratties, fleece or newspaper even provide a level of comfort and warmth.


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

I used to make fleece/towel liners but my girl Boxxy is a chewer and I ended up just using old towels alone.


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## giggles_mcbug (Sep 10, 2011)

I don't. I use YN/Aspen in their litterbox and give them lots of newspaper scraps and hammocks. But other than that- I don't use bedding.


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## Karagraaf (Oct 14, 2011)

oh gosh i have been on here way more then I should (i blame it on that thread about the pregnant rat.. i'm just waiting to see pics of new babies and keep checking up on her!!)

anyway, it really took a while to find something that worked for me. I got my rat late summer and just now I think I have it figured out and thankfully it seems as though they are finally really litter trained!! ( i don't see any stray poops or pee today- this is a first!) so believe me when I say it took time!

after a recent post i put up about my fleece problem, i tried something new and so far it's working. I felt that with my cage, i couldn't secure the fleece so it would just get balled up, making it pointless and harder to litter train since they would poop in and under the balled up fleece. so now i have a towel under the fleece (To absorb any pee or smell) and then i layed the fleece over and have it hanging out over the cage and secured with larger binder clips. so far it's working like a charm! I got a fleece blanket from walmart for $2.88 and i can make 2 liners and some scraps with the one blanket. all that was left was black fleece, which makes it harder to see stay poop for me to clean but so far there hasn't been any! i think you need something on the bottom for comforts sake. but i gues it wouldn't hurt to try it with out if they truley don't ever go down there. try putting small corner boxes on the shelves,(about $2 at petsmart) that has helped me. mine no longer go on the shelves now (took a day or two for them to catch on) try a few things and it may take awhile to find what works for you and your rats but when you do figure it out, it will be such a relief!i it was driving me crazy and i was getting a bit obsessive about finding the right bedding and litter to keep smell down, so i'm thrilled this week it looks like I found my answer after so many months. and now i am really able to just enjoy my rats and stop worrying! I even tried putting the litter (yesterday's news) all over the bottom but I think that hindered the litter training process. 

if you want to try not having any bedding on the bottom, at least have plenty of fabric scraps around for them to snuggle up with!

I'll post some pics of what I have going on.. but it's hard to see anything with it being black fleece. excuse the bare cage- i am in the process of trying to find stuff to put in there to entertain the girls but they don't seem impressed with much that I have to offer


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## Karagraaf (Oct 14, 2011)




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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

I would use bedding for sure. Fleece is awesome for pet bedding because it doesn't absorb moisture instead it wicks it away. Kindof like pulling any moisture away from our babies and onto something underneath it. I use newspaper under mine but some use cotton towels. 

Mine are litter trained but I clean the newspaper every other day and the fleece like once/twice a week when it looks like it needs it.

Plus if they are not yet litter trained and peed down there with nothing there it would be kindof yuck if they then ran around or whatever I would think anyways.

Plus comfort.  if they r bunching it up then they are going down there. Maybe more at night when you are sleeping. That is when my girls seem to go nuts in their cage lmao.


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## RatMama13 (Aug 20, 2011)

I am litter training my rats as well and I use fleece in the bottom. I switch it out every few days so that it can be washed and i've noticed they are actually peeing in the litter box now!! They do occasionally ball up the fleece some times, but the more scraps and shredded paper I give them the less they ball up the fleece. Rats usually love to cuddle up and burrow in things so bedding is definitely a good idea. However I didn't put bedding in the cage for the first couple weeks of litter training and that seems to help things along.


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## christinelovesyou (Jan 7, 2012)

RatMama13 said:


> I am litter training my rats as well and I use fleece in the bottom. I switch it out every few days so that it can be washed and i've noticed they are actually peeing in the litter box now!! They do occasionally ball up the fleece some times, but the more scraps and shredded paper I give them the less they ball up the fleece. Rats usually love to cuddle up and burrow in things so bedding is definitely a good idea. However I didn't put bedding in the cage for the first couple weeks of litter training and that seems to help things along.


How did you train them? And what did you use in the litter box?


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## christinelovesyou (Jan 7, 2012)

My girls have been pooping and peeing more and more on the shelves, especially in the little dip around the edges. I have to wait until this weekend to get the Yesterday's News so I don't even have the litter box in there right now. Any ideas of how to keep them off the shelves? I'd much rather have them going in the bottom part, but since they barely ever go down there, I guess they're too lazy.


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