Good Bedding

Bedding is an important part of keeping rats. Pet stores continue to insist that cedar and pine are the best bedding, but they are very wrong. The aromatic phenol oils in pine and cedar (yes, even kiln-dried!) causes nerve and liver damage in rats and rabbits (this has been proved by numerous laboratory tests - labs will not keep their animals on these materials, since the damage the bedding does throws off their results.) Additionally, wood chips tend to be very dusty, which can really irritate a rat's sensitive respiratory system.

Aspen chips and shavings do not contain the aromatic oils, but can be very dusty and often have trouble absorbing odor.

Paper-based bedding such as CareFresh and Cell-sorb are safe, but can be dusty and some people object to the smell of the bedding. Some rats have allergic reactions, and light-colored rats may find their feet and bellies stained by the inks in recycled paper bedding.

Yesterday's News is widely regarded as a safe bedding, but it should be noted that it contains pine and therefore is not as safe, though the amount of pine it contains is generally small.

Hardwood chips such as Harlan's Sani-chips do a fantastic job of absorbing odor and are fairly dust free. However, since the pieces are very small, there can be a lot of kickout and the bedding can end up all over the house!

Some people find problems with lice or mite laying eggs in bedding which has stayed in the back of stores or storage facility for some time - the best way to handle that is simply to freeze your bedding in a chest freezer (or the trunk of your car during the winter!) for 24 hours after purchase before you use it in your rats' cage.