I would just like to say something about the fleece, if anyone has fleece you should consider adding a dig box in their cage! It is a great way for your rat to still dig, without an entire floor of bedding :)
This came at a perfect time, I am currently trying to find the best option of bedding for me and my rats due to their allergies and my allergies and this is very helpful
i’m about to get a few female mice, your videos have helped me make sure that they will have an amazing life. thank you so much for everything you do!!
Bedding has always been the thoughest thing to figure out with my rats. I am in North America so fleece is the norm. Lots of people also use corn cob (it's absorbant and dust free, so I would say fine for the litter boxes, but not something rats can dig through). I have used paper-based (expensive, and I got some really bad batches). Now I have bioactive at the bottom of the cage and I am loving it. In other parts of the cage I use hemp but my rats are a bit more sneezy on that so I will have to look for some dust free aspen.
I’ve been considering getting rats so I’ve been educating myself and I have to say, thank you so much for these videos! I was a bit scared of rats before but I’ve realized that they seem to be quite friendly and social
I got a bad batch of hemp a month ago, I thought it was ok….. it wasn’t my poor baby rat got a respiratory infection after only having him for 2 weeks at one point I didn’t think he would make it he stopped eating and drinking but luckily he came around and has now made a full recovery after 3 vet trips :)
@@Emiology yeah, that was the exact make, I have now switched to hugro hemp as I don’t want to risk aubiose again and so far I’m very impressed it has basically no dust which is good x
I ordered carefresh cause it said 99.9% dust free with good reviews but it's very dusty, yesterday I ordered fibercore eco bedding I hear good things about it. You should ad that bedding or litter with baking soda is not good for rats
My rats love having a large box filled with crinkle paper, they dig through that and make little nests in the bottom. I leave the top open in a spot and allow them to make their own exit holes, then replace the cardboard box after one or two cleans depending on how filthy it is. I switched from fleece bedding to woodchips recently and immediately there was both a respiratory and odor improvement. It's difficult to find without too much dust and in the amounts I need for my quadruple CN in the US though, I have to store it in plastic drawers so that I can shake the dust to the bottom before adding it in. Soon I'll be switching from larger aspen chips to less chunky kiln dried pine shred, it's much cheaper since I can get large bales from farming shops. Cheap hemp is impossible to find in the US, or I'd use that!
I seriously can’t put into words how grateful I am rn, you’ve been so so helpful when information is hard to find or verify online im really happy you didn’t let idiot’s rude comments keep you from posting this
im alergic to the hemp bedding too! makes my eyes swell up and go very dry and itchy. ive bought some aspen shavings, hope the rats like it just as much as they loved digging in the hemp! update! i got the aspen, though not very good. my boys started sneezing as soon as I put them in the cage :(
Fleece is good for shelves covers and hammocks. You put a pocket in the shelf liner they love sleeping under it. Of course they have to be changed if they get smelly! I don’t think it should be on the floors.
Thank you for this video, today my rats said bye to fleece, and hello to coco fiber as main bedding, and natural paper litter! Such a great video. I won’t be making it a bioactive, but I’ll be changing and cleaning the cocofiber often.
i got two rats today and i’ve been binging your videos for a couple months and they’ve helped so much :) i love my boys so much already and im so happy to have them !! thank you
I've been thinking about going semi bioactive. My ratties currently have fleece with a decent size dig box made with untreated top soil and they adore it!🥰
I use bedmax, and back 2 nature in the litter tray! My rats are all from a good breeder and had bedmax in their old home so they’ve never had issues with it :)
All my boys from breeders came from breeders who use bed max! If I didn’t have rescues I’d be tempted to maybe try it again but they’re sneezy boys already 😬
I've been using back 2 nature for the whole cage and wondering why they were still popping a little outised the tray, this was so helpful! I'll be changing their bedding! Thank you ❤️💙
I’m currently looking into switch my rats from fleece to loose substrate I would like to go either the hemp or aspen route, but I’m open to any suggestions, my problem is finding a good brand that is affordable and safe to use, as in not dusty absorbent and you know not going to cause any problems for my girls. Does anyone have any suggestions on good brands available in the U.S.?
I also use fleece, but I put a washable puppy pad underneath it to help with the absorption of pee. If you have a critter nation cage (I have a double) then you can find ones on Amazon that are much cheaper than custom liners!
do not let comments get to you ever. no one has that kind of power over you except mum. thank you for this information, I am 52 and took to one of my daughters rats that had to be separated from the females after an accidental litter. he is a smart, yet somewhat shy and skittish little fella. I want him to be safe and happy. this video helps me out.
Thank you for this! I have rats and mice, they both get a mix of aspen, hay, and paper bedding as their main bedding (my rats get 10 inches and my mice get about 6). This is my first group of rats ever and from my research most people recommended fleece in the US but I decided to make a deep base anyway. Turns out that my rats dig more than my mice! My mice all sleep on the surface and my rats almost always sleep in their burrows. I think deep bedding should be a necessity for rats like it is for mice personally, it’s just best to give them that option.
I've been doing research pretty heavily for the last 6 to 8 months on caring for pet rats. I'm really starting to lean towards a bioactive cage setup. I know that it's one of the more complex cage setups out there, but I think that would be best for both my lifestyle and my future rat babies. Now to find the best pet safe soil/coco fibre and plants!
You've posted this at the perfect time! I'm hand rearing a wild mouse and need all the advice I can get on what's suitable for him! If you have a video on a good mix to feed mice that'd be great!
great video as always! for my mice i use megazorb which i’ve heard mixed things on but for me it holds borrows and is quite absorbent so it’s works well for us, the only con is that when you first get it it has a certain smell but it fades after a while !
I personally swear by sophresh Aspen bedding, hemp is very expensive where I live but sophresh holds burrows very well and have low dust for being a wood bedding.
I'm assuming your in the US as I think sophresh is a us brand? Here in the UK aspen is extremely expensive for large amounts but hemp can be super cheap as it's a popular horse bedding.
@@C.Woodford sophresh I'm pretty certain is a US brand, it's like a knockoff carefresh with worse paper bedding (can't hold burrows to save it's life, I use it as a texture thing) but they have an amazing Aspen bedding, I can get a 140 liter bag for $10US which gives lots of bedding across all my 100gal(378 liter) tank
@@evie402 wow yeah that would cost like £30+ here... your so lucky you have access to good aspen. I use a mixture of aubiose hemp horse bedding, megazorb wood pulp horse bedding, kiln dried double dust extracted softwood shavings, meadow hay and if I can afford it that month either carefresh or kaytee but it gets expensive. I mix it all together and my hamster and gerbils love it it holds burrows so well when you compact it down. They also have different areas for digging in, my hamster currently has coco fibre, sand, carefresh and paper crinkles as well as the thin ashen shavings and my gerbils have sand, cardboard, carefresh and aspen shreds (the thin ones for reptiles)
Right now I have a male and a female rat two rats I want to get three because I have a big cage now I had one for not too long at the time because my kids with them big enough but it was pretty big but not for too so I decide to get two rats like you said I want to get three just in case one pass away because you never know what’s gonna happen I’m so excited and happy
I use kaytee clean and cozy and so far I’ve had no issues with dust or respiratory infections from my boys 😊 I use the back 2 nature stuff for their litter tray as well
I honestly really dislike the brand kaytee, I feel like a lot of their products are not rodent safe yet are still heavily promoted in pet stores in the US. Like you were saying in the video, their bedding is good for nesting in small amounts, but terrible as a main bedding yet in the us at least, it is constantly promoted as a main bedding rather than nesting material. I’ve also heard from other rat owners that after switching to kaytee food, their rats developed stomach cancer. Yeah overall just not a huge fan of them
Highly considering getting two male rats I’ve been doing research for a few months now this has been the most helpful channel. I am building a list to see the cost and I will be adopting a pair when the time comes so excited for the day!
@Pete Berbee I’ll do some further research but so far I’ve seen many with male rats. Seems they’re less active than females and are more “cuddly” which was one of the things I preferred. I’ll look into it further though
I pretty much save you from the start since I typed in what to do and want to know before having a rat and that’s how I came across you I’ve been watching you ever since I typed in that ever since the newest video you made and the newest video before this one before this one and every new video and subscribe to you and I love
I used both carefresh and plain organic soil for my mice. The soil was amazing as a main bedding! They loved how it held tunnels, it was not dusty and it had no smell.
I use fleece bedding with uhaul in the middle..the ones that are used for guinea pigs. Is that fine. Please help!?!? Me and my sister rescued baby mice from a snake. So this is our first time owning one Ok nvm just watched the whole thing
you are literally the best. if I ever have a little question in the back of my mind I always come to your channel and find the answer🥰 thank you for saving so many rat / mice owners!!
I'd recommend at least trying to put a dig box in their cage as well for them so they can exhibit natural behaviours while you might not be there / while they're most awake :)
I used some old hoodies to make hammocks and wall pockets for my rats. They don't really chew on them and I switch them every week for clean ones. Is it okay to do that?
Just as a nesting material I LOVE using tissue paper, they can shred it super easy and its really cheap too. One of my girls actually discovered a sheet of tissue paper while our free roaming and I’ve been using it ever since.
I use a few different types of bedding/ materials in my rats cage, and enclosure. For the flat levels in the cage I use fleece, the very bottom gets carefresh, their liter boxes get yesterday’s news cat litter, they have a dig box filled with coco soil, a foraging box filled with meadow hay, and oat sprays, and a roll of toilet paper for them to play with. I love to spoil my baby bois ❤️✨🐀✨❤️
You use exactly everything I do I just finally ran out of my yesterdays new they discontinued it. I'm looking for something comparable in quality and the price. I loved it cause I could get huge bag that lasted forever. What are using in there litter now?
For someone that has had rats for 6 years and has watched all your vids plus some other rat creators, glass cages can cause issues with breathing for your rats and bad temperature control u shouldnt be useing glass / plastic cages, please let me know if im wrong, ik this is one of your old vids but i decided to rewatch the for my new rats. sorry if this sounds like a hate comment, it really isnt one but i love your channel but thats the one thing i have concerns with, lots of love xx
I've tried quite a few different beddings. Never used carefresh since I've got a bad batch which was very very dusty. So I ended up using back 2 nature as litter in the litter tray and Aspen bedding as their main bedding it's very soft and absorbent.
Thank you for making this video! Apparently in my state there is an aspen shortage so I’m trying to find different safe beddings because I know pine not kiln dried and cedar are not safe 😩
Not sure about rinsing, but you should keep it humid. When it is completely dry it gets dusty. You want enough humidity that if you squeeze it in your hand, it keeps its shape a little, but not so wet that water drips out. If your rats don't dig though it regularly, mix it up once in a while.
i know this is a old video but i really hope you can anwser this. is it safe to use hemp bedding that have eucalyptus in it? im asking because that alot easier to get im my country then hemp bedding without eucalyptus in it
Hello! I'm writing a story based on a pre-school show about mice and I have a few questions about them: Can mice be friends with more than one human? (Together, not one at a time) Were deer mice, for example, born with their diseases? Can non-diseased mice get diseases from other mice that have them and get sick like humans do?
Regarding your questions on diseases, it depends. For example, sickle cell anemia is a disease in humans that causes problems with blood cells. Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder, so people have to be born with it and can’t catch it. On the contrary, covid is passed from person to person. It’s like that with mice as well. They can be born with some diseases and they can catch others. :)
I’m jumping into research on rats and I know you mentioned a dig box, but for fabric bedding I heard that old sheets/tshirts work well and are absorbent. How about a set up with multiple floors and the upper floors having a more absorbent fabric and deep bedding on the bottom? I want to keep them happy but would also love to keep waste and cost down!
This was a really helpful video! I think I’m going to make a switch to paper based bedding now instead of fleece like I’ve been sticking to. One of my girls (mouse) eyes are starting to look irritated and wet I think this’ll benefit her lots.
I just adopted two new babies and need to revamp and upgrade my rats cage by a lot. I'm using your videos as a starting point, and hopefully slowly but surely I'll make an amazing and enriching home for my boys.
I have a cage is any better because it has bars and then it has a tray under our use some clause to put under the bar so their feet don’t hurt also it’s a true story and it’s pretty big bigger than I thought I’m working on getting more stuff for two
I’ve been using aubiose for months but have just switched the finacard, the last bale of aubiose was so dusty it’s been awful and really flared up one of my rats respiratory infections :(
Is Pets Pick Über Paper bedding okay? I saw something that said it was bad but im not sure, it doesnt seem too dusty (the dust free) its kinda tissuey? The rats seem to like digging in it, and stays clean for about a week (i deep clean their cage in about that span ^^)
I didn't watch to the end lol, but either way it's about the only accessible bedding in my area, and I dont mind cleaning a little more often they are litter trained so it's not too bad.
When i got my first rats i used fleece for a bit but it was so much work i had to change it about every 4 days. They would just rip up the fleece and hide under it and i had a dig box in there but they just kept using it as a litter box so i took it out. Then i switched to paper bedding and is is SO much easier to clean. :)
Whats your opinion on that kaytee clean and cozy that is what I use it's just not the white but brown paper. It was 18.99 for 72L.i was using the back 2 nater for litter and purple kind of the brand sunseed witch it looked pretty but as often as I change I'm trying to find one that as cheap as I can go but just as safe and works just as well ya know. I use yesterdays news as the litter witch ya probably can't get any cheaper then that I could use it as bedding but not so soft and they just are bout 90% litter trained I wouldn't want that to confuse things. It's nice I can use it as bedding though just for emergency n I couldn't get to store or something only. But does anybody have bedding to recommend cheaper then $18.99 72L? Also anyone reads this If you use yesterday news make sure it's the paper pellets no dust no fragrance I forget what color bag mine is in a tub now.
You totally said your opinion on kaytee but I been ok with it but then again I havnt tried many brands but I mostly just notice the fleece smelling long before bedding but never noticed bedding smelling asmuch I think they poop most in litter n pee more on top floors with fleece lol
I've used littlemax with mine the whole time I have had them, using it in 3 rat cages (and also with my gerbils) and never had any issues with it. I did use hemp with the gerbils but found that was really dusty so never used it with the rats.
I used aspen, paper, and some timothy hay and my mice got mites. I read they can sometimes live in the hay or wood shaving bedding. Any recommendation on how to avoid this in the future?
Mice naturally have mites in small numbers, they flare up sometimes if their immune system is low and need treating. Some people freeze bedding beforehand but I don’t think it helps much
I've tried so many different beddings, including hemp, but one of my rats is so so sensitive to anything vaguely dusty and back2nature is literally the only one he won't sneeze with :(
It's not the smell that is the most dangerous, but the microscopic oil particles and fine dust that comes from burning candles. Oil lamps/vaporisers are the worst. Recommendation: No scented candles/oil burners/incense.
