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Bedding
Floor Bedding
It's
a big issue for rat owners. Softwood shavings (pine, cedar) is known to
increase the risk of a rat getting respiratory probelems. My rats used
to sneeze and wheeze when I didn't know the bad effect of this type of
bedding. And I changed it to "Bio-Catolet" (Midas-Products Ltd, UK), safe
and eco-frindly recycled paper pellet designed as cat litter, and it was
wonderful. It's easy to clean and my rats seemed happier with it.
TopTip If you decided to use a cat litter as rat bedding, make sure that it is made of safe material if it gets chewed. It also often contains chemicals that coagulates the litter when it comes in contact with liquid, and that is not a good idea for rats. As rats pee,you really don't want some solid mass of litter stuck to the backside of the rat. Ouch!Hardwood (aspen) is said to be the best type of floor bedding for rats, and apparently it has a deodorant effect too. If you can get these it's worthwhile sticking to this traditional method. Unfortunately I haven't seen the hardwood bedding in my local shops. Nest Bedding
is
also needed, plenty of it to keep our rats cosy and warm. I occasionally
buy shredded tissue paper in petshops, but I normally use shredded highly
absorbant kitchen papers instead. I personally prefer to use white ones,
not because my rats are fussy minimalist but because it is easier to spot
for any unusual stains, such as mucus or blood when I remove any soiled
bedding every night and replace it with clean ones. I actually have never
seen my rats building such thing as 'nest'. They squash the pile of tissues
by lounging on top of it. That's it. That's their nest. They pee, they
poop in their own nest and they seemd to think it's my duty to clean it.
Hey, that's cool by me. It doen't smell at all. If your rat decided to
move their tissues to the other side of the nest, let them be. They know
where is the comfortable place in thir nets.
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