what is the best thing to use to cover the bottom of my rats cage? i use shredded paper for bedding.

i use yesterdays news or bio catolet cat litter as it absorbs and makes cage much easier 2 clean out. and rats dont get repiratory illnesses from it either most supermarkets do bio catolet 2 so its easy 2 get hold of. i know sainsburys do it. hope this helps

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Owned by

1 dog JRT Monty

1 cat Star

2 Rabbits Orange rex Mischief and beige lop Jack

10 rats Frankie, Johnny, Gucci, Louis, Harley, Merlin, Ralph, (Ver)Sace,Emily and Luci

1 mouse Seymour

2 gerbils Sooty and Cosmo

can you shred and use daily newspapers? what about the ink?

i have alwaysed used dust extracted shavings
i always have and never had problem

I used to use pine shavings before i knew of the dangers and that my rats had a very bad reaction to it and are still living with it almost a year now.

I use cut up cardboard and aspen cost me around £50 for month mixed together they last about 3-4 months.

Ive heard MegaZorb is good i can get you a link where its just £5 plus P&P for a large bag, ill be changing over to it soon.

What happened to good ol' sawdust then? lol.

I suppose someone's going to correct/tell me how awful it really is and that it's dangerous? If it is, I never knew!

I have had too many hamsters, rats and so on in my younger years and they were all kept in sawdust (bottom of cage/tank). But used different stuff for bedding area.

Do you mean the dusty "proper" sawdust like you get from drilling and sawing, or the flakey woodshavings that people also call sawdust?

Actual dusty sawdust can cause lung problems when they inhale it - it's like inhaling needles. Sometimes the type of wood can cause problems as well depending on the oils it might release. Plus it gives splinters to feet and noses.

Is that the kind of lecture you were expecting? lol

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Home of Heidi - JRT x Lancs Heeler
Gerbil boys - Domino, Grub, Cameo, Chalky, Sokiro aka "Socks", Batman, Duma, Mali, Sputnik, Skip, Luka, Woody
Gerbil girls - Pumpkin, Togo, Mottle, Speckle, Luna, Kenya, Chibi, Flick, Waffle, Blaze, Shubie, Foxy, Bunny

what looks the natrualist?

I wouldn't have thought that anything other than sand or compost looked particularly natural but I wouldn't personally use either.

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Please visit my website and sign my guestbook!

Home of Heidi - JRT x Lancs Heeler
Gerbil boys - Domino, Grub, Cameo, Chalky, Sokiro aka "Socks", Batman, Duma, Mali, Sputnik, Skip, Luka, Woody
Gerbil girls - Pumpkin, Togo, Mottle, Speckle, Luna, Kenya, Chibi, Flick, Waffle, Blaze, Shubie, Foxy, Bunny

The flakey woodshavings, is what I used to use .

Lol, I was just expecting people to say that it was dangerous/bad, because I keep seeing people say they use different stuff for flooring. I thought most people used sawdust (flakey woodshavings)... so expected there to be something wrong with using it