# Best rat bedding



## ratie1234 (Mar 12, 2018)

Hi everyone!

I currently use sawdust as my bedding and one of my rats is sneezing very often. I am trying to switch to like careFRESH or Kaytee but whatever I find, there are some reviews that say it is terrible. Could someone please link me a suitable dust-free bedding from Amazon? Please make sure it ships to Australia as that's where I need it to come. I've asked someone on YouTube but they never replied.

Thanks, from me, Salt and Pepper (my rats)!


----------



## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Everyone has different opinions about bedding. In my opinion, no one product is perfect so you have to try different things out to see what works best for you and your rats. I use a shredded aspen on the floor of my boys cage. It's pretty dusty so I actually hand-sift it in a cloth mesh laundry basket to get rid of the smaller loose particles. It's pretty great after that. Some people prefer Carefresh or Clean and Cozy. They have their pros and cons, too. Because of the size of the floor of my cage, I'm not a fan of the price of those beddings. Other options include paper pellet cat litter or shredded cardboard bedding. Breeders Choice cat litter or the woolies brand of paper pellets are very absorbent and heavy so they don't get kicked out of the cage easily. I use paper pellet litter in my boys litter boxes but lots of people use it throughout their cage. I've never used shredded cardboard bedding but it seems to be a popular choice in the UK. It's usually sold in big bales as a horse bedding so I'm betting that it'd be pretty cheap if you have a local source.

I would suggest doing some research and spending some time trying different options out. Some beddings are dustier than others, some are better at controlling odors, some are more expensive, none have all of the perfect properties.


----------



## ChloeJ (Sep 27, 2017)

I have used Kaytee with both hamsters and rats. I only used Carefresh with hamsters and switched almost immediately because it was so dusty it made me sneeze whenever I poured it. I'd say both have pretty decent odor control, but with rats my cage starts stinking 5 days after I clean it so it's not the best out there. Kaytee isn't too bad with dust, but there's obviously _some_ in it. I'd say it's good enough because, as CorbinDallasMyMan said, no bedding will be perfect. I liked how Kaytee held tunnels for my little hamsters and that's why I switched to it from aspen.


----------



## Mizzely (Sep 4, 2012)

I use bath mats that I throw in the wash every 2-3 days. I have 3 sets so that I can always have one ready to go (even if I forget to do laundry one time!) come cage cleaning day. Mine aren't big fabric chewers (they prefer wood and cardboard) so I haven't had issues. They are absorbent, and they don't burrow (though sometimes they flip up a corner if I don't have it weighed down with something), and wash well. I'm really sensitive to smells and it has been good at keeping odors at bay!

Then I use a mix of alfalfa pellets and paper pellets in their litter boxes.


----------



## a1phanine (Mar 27, 2018)

My rats seem to love their hemp bedding, they can tear it up as they want, it absorbs pee and smells and feels natural. They nest under a hanging fleece blanket and on the hemp mat with some pet-safe cotton strip bedding they can move around as they like

I use this stuff: http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/hay_and_bedding/hemp_bedding_small_pets/182988

i've never seen them try to eat it but sometimes they poop and dig up the bedding and bury it and it gets a bit trick to clean!


----------



## Topple (Jan 11, 2018)

I have used CareFresh and I hated it - the rats constantly kicked it out of the cage and made a mess, and it was an ordeal to spot clean because the poop was always buried and I had to search for it every time. I currently use incontinence pads meant for humans that cover the base of the cage and soak up urine, and I can easily spot stray poops. I throw in lots of fleece blankets so they still have lots of bedding material to drag around the cage. I wash it every 4-5 days, but have gone up to 7 days when particularly strapped for time with work, and it doesn't even smell too much by then (but 4-5 days keeps it super tolerable) and the cage cleaning is now super easy and fast. 

I do have a few litter boxes and use Yesterday's News in those which seems to work well. I imagine a whole cage covered in it would be noisy, because I can definitely hear whenever one of my rats ventures into the litter box and moves those pellets around.


----------



## shibezone (Feb 5, 2018)

I used Kaytee with my rats to start with and in two days it stunk to high heaven. It's absorbent for sure, but the odor control isn't great!

I switched them to Yesterday's News for their bedding through the whole cage and it works great for me. The odor control is really good so it's never the bedding that stinks, which makes it easier to tell what specifically needs cleaning. The only downside honestly is it's heavy and it's not as soft as a shredded paper bedding, but if you give your rats fleece strips to sleep on instead they'll do fine! Since Topple mentioned the sound, it's not a totally silent bedding but it's honestly not too loud either. I can hear them move around a bit at times, or it makes their wrestling a little louder, but just regular rat walking is quiet!


----------



## ceeisme (Sep 28, 2016)

I use aspen on the bottom of the cage or paper in the pan under it, and they move it around sometimes but mostly not. To sleep in, I chuck in a bunch of fleece 'blankets' - basically large scraps (15-30cm square-ish) that they can move around. They generally pile them up under their log and nest in there. They also have some double layered hammocks that they sleep in regularly. I have 3 sets of everything so it all goes in the wash regularly.


----------



## Phoene (Dec 21, 2017)

I am still new to rats and have tried both careFRESH and Clean and Cozy. When I run out of the current litter I am going to use Yesterday's News which is a cat litter that I have seen rat people recommend. I use fleece bedding on the floor and paper bedding in the litter box. I did not like carefresh at all, it was dusty and I had to clean the litter box every night or it would stink. The litter itself smelled bad to me. It also makes a big mess and is hard to vacuum up. I like Clean and Cozy a lot more.
I like fleece bedding because it is cheaper than other beddings and you can reuse it. The fleece does get smelly fast (I clean mine out every other day because my girls already have URIs and I don't want it getting any worse), but cleaning it out is as simple as pulling the cloth out and putting another piece back in.


----------



## desdisques (Apr 16, 2018)

I started with fleece, then I tried reusable incontinence pads, both stunk a lot after 2 days. The rats even started smelling like urine themselves because they were laying on the urine soaked fabric. I'm using Yesterday's News now and it is so much better! I'm using the regular critter nation trays but since it is heavy pellet litter it stays in the cage pretty well. They kick out maybe 10 pellets of litter a day, which is nothing to clean up.


----------



## ratie1234 (Mar 12, 2018)

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the replies! I am currently using CareFRESH paper bedding and my ratties seem to love it (they don't even sleep in their hides on the first night when I put new litter in)! I clean the cage once every 7 days and it usually doesn't smell too bad. I do find that poop like mushes on the floor and walls (of their cage) and it is quite hard to get it off. I am going to try Yesterdays News when my CareFRESH runs out, and I am wondering if this one is good: 

https://www.amazon.com/Purina-Yeste...rd_wg=pSHVn&psc=1&refRID=NC791CJVNPC2ARNBV4JW

Otherwise, I might just stick with my CareFRESH (even though it was SUPER expensive).  Thanks for the replies!


----------

