Theletterv
Member
Hello all,
I have five female rats who live in a double critter nation. (Their names are Clove, Sage, Nutmeg, Saffron, and Juniper.) I love them to pieces, and I'm always trying to make sure I give them the best life that I can. When I first got them, and up until quite recently, I had them on fleece, with U-Haul furniture pads underneath. I used binder clips to secure the pieces of fleece and U-Haul pads to the cage pans. It was an okay system -- it didn't get very smelly, so I could do a full clean only every week. The only real problem I had was the destruction of the fleece and furniture pads -- the girls loved to chew holes all over them and even crawl under the fleece. But they are really cheap materials, so it wasn't too much of a problem.
However, in looking around a bit more into rat care, I saw that a lot of people think fleece is not a great bedding for rats and that aspen, hemp, or another suitable type of loose bedding is much better, especially for enrichment. (Because they can dig and burrow to a degree.) So, after a bit of thought, I modified their cage with a cement mixing pan and two small plastic bins attached to the shelves with zip ties, and started using aspen.
I noticed rather quickly that, even though the aspen I buy is kiln-dried and dust screened, there is always some amount of dust at the bottom of the pans when I clean. Along with this, I have noticed a fair bit more sneezing, and even droplets of porphyrin around the cage, such as in their food dish, that looks like it was sneezed out. Before I switched to aspen I didn't see anything like this, which leads me to wonder if there is some amount of irritation being caused by the bedding.
Because of this, I have been debating whether I should switch back to fleece. For the most part, I don't observe a lot of digging or burrowing behaviours, although having bedding does allow for scatter feeding, which I do at least partly most of the time. (However, it would be possible to put a dig box in a cage that uses fleece to enable this as well.) The girls were also well potty trained to use their litter boxes before I switched to aspen, and they now ignore the litter boxes for the most part. Along with this, obviously fleece and U-Haul pads are more reusable and economical than buying bedding on a routine basis.
I guess I'm just wondering whether anyone can advise about whether fleece with an absorbent layer beneath is a good bedding or not, and whether I should be worried about these minor respiratory issues. And whether I should value the potential enrichment loose bedding might offer over the dust-free nature of fleece. I don't think the respiratory issues they're experiencing are severe -- they aren't sneezing constantly, or having laboured breathing, or anything like that -- but like I said, it's definitely more than there was before, which has really given me pause.
Anyway thanks for any feedback anyone can give me!
I have five female rats who live in a double critter nation. (Their names are Clove, Sage, Nutmeg, Saffron, and Juniper.) I love them to pieces, and I'm always trying to make sure I give them the best life that I can. When I first got them, and up until quite recently, I had them on fleece, with U-Haul furniture pads underneath. I used binder clips to secure the pieces of fleece and U-Haul pads to the cage pans. It was an okay system -- it didn't get very smelly, so I could do a full clean only every week. The only real problem I had was the destruction of the fleece and furniture pads -- the girls loved to chew holes all over them and even crawl under the fleece. But they are really cheap materials, so it wasn't too much of a problem.
However, in looking around a bit more into rat care, I saw that a lot of people think fleece is not a great bedding for rats and that aspen, hemp, or another suitable type of loose bedding is much better, especially for enrichment. (Because they can dig and burrow to a degree.) So, after a bit of thought, I modified their cage with a cement mixing pan and two small plastic bins attached to the shelves with zip ties, and started using aspen.
I noticed rather quickly that, even though the aspen I buy is kiln-dried and dust screened, there is always some amount of dust at the bottom of the pans when I clean. Along with this, I have noticed a fair bit more sneezing, and even droplets of porphyrin around the cage, such as in their food dish, that looks like it was sneezed out. Before I switched to aspen I didn't see anything like this, which leads me to wonder if there is some amount of irritation being caused by the bedding.
Because of this, I have been debating whether I should switch back to fleece. For the most part, I don't observe a lot of digging or burrowing behaviours, although having bedding does allow for scatter feeding, which I do at least partly most of the time. (However, it would be possible to put a dig box in a cage that uses fleece to enable this as well.) The girls were also well potty trained to use their litter boxes before I switched to aspen, and they now ignore the litter boxes for the most part. Along with this, obviously fleece and U-Haul pads are more reusable and economical than buying bedding on a routine basis.
I guess I'm just wondering whether anyone can advise about whether fleece with an absorbent layer beneath is a good bedding or not, and whether I should be worried about these minor respiratory issues. And whether I should value the potential enrichment loose bedding might offer over the dust-free nature of fleece. I don't think the respiratory issues they're experiencing are severe -- they aren't sneezing constantly, or having laboured breathing, or anything like that -- but like I said, it's definitely more than there was before, which has really given me pause.
Anyway thanks for any feedback anyone can give me!