Eating carefresh?!

[NicodemusRattus]

Ughhhhhhh. I recently noticed one of my girls Tikki is having some abdominal bloating, and pretty sure it's constipation. She's not pregnant, as she's had no contact with any males. She's probably around 5-6 months old, so I don't think it's megacolon, since she's never appeared bloated before, and megacolon would have been apparent an earlier age? I've only noticed the bloating within the past week. Coincidentally, we'd put her on Carefresh bedding about 2 weeks ago, she'd previously been on Aspen. I really think it's constipation, because I just put her in a separate cage to feed her some pumpkin and watch to see if she pooped (she gets nervous when not in her own cage, and usually poops within a few mins) she was in there almost 20 mins and no poops. But while she was in there, she picked up a piece of Carefresh and appeared to be eating it!!! I'm not 100%, she may have just been shredding it, but it looked more like a nom-ing and less of a shredding type bite, if you can tell the difference. That would also explain why she's only been like this since she's been on Carefresh... Is this normal???? I've never had a rat try eating carefresh before, although I've heard of it happening.
Obviously I'm planning to take her to a vet, but it might take up to a week:/ She's been switched back to the Aspen, but I've never dealt with rat constipation so are there any tried and true remedies? I've been told feeding her canned pumpkin might get things moving, so we started doing that today, I was thinking of setting her in a bowl of warm water and seeing if it helped? like bath-style, just making sure to leave her in the water long enough for it to warm her belly up a bit. She's not acting like she's in pain or anything, but I'm sure this can't be good.

 

[Avery]

That must be constipation and nothing to be worried about lemon water empty stomach in a little warm water can help a lot for that.
I guess that all is normal completely try that may be it will help.

 

[mia9_28]

You could maybe take her off carefresh and put her on fleece to see if she will get better? I could see how her eating carefresh would cause bloating.
If it doesn't get any better, definitely take her to a vet as soon as possible.. it would be late Megacolon, which is rare.

 

[jorats]

Eating bedding can also mean pain or stomach upset.
If she's bloating, it could also be pyometra if she's not spayed. I'd get her checked by a vet asap.

 

[NicodemusRattus]

I took her off the Carefresh the moment I noticed her eating it. Then I looked up how common it is for rodents to eat Carefresh... and it is VERY common apparently. Not as much for rats, but apparently rabbits and hamsters are often caught eating Carefresh. Then I read that eating too much may cause blockages, because Carefresh expands when wet. Ugh. So yea, she's going to be taking a trip to the vet. This really upsets me, and I'm seriously thinking of boycotting Carefresh bedding. I was always told what a great bedding it is, and how it's so much safer than most other beddings... but this is the second problem I've had from using it. Not long ago, I had put a pair of rats on Carefresh bedding then soon after I noticed them crawling with lice. They did NOT have lice before that. From now on the only beddings I am using will be aspen and fleece.

 

[victoria]

I don't think it's very likely a rat can get a blockage from eating Carefresh, as mentioned earlier, she was probably eating it because she didn't feel well. Rats would have to break it down to small pieces to ingest it and even if those pieces expanded, they would still be easy to digest. Rabbits and other herbivores that eat too much bedding could go into stasis (although they too would likely be eating too much because of existing issues) and a blockage could develop but that could happen with any bedding. Eating aspen could cause the same issues as eating Carefresh so I really would not consider it safer.

Pumpkin is given to rabbits in stasis and it may help but the issue is not the same with a rat. Imagine if you ate large amounts of Carefresh or paper/cardboard (our digestive system is much more similar to rats than a rabbit's), it would be unlikely to cause serious issues. If she's still bloated, she needs to go to the vet because the issue is very likely NOT Carefresh.