Bedding
Here you can find information on our recommended husbandry practices.
Please note that this page is a work in progress! We’ll be adding to and updating it continually.
The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing your cage, bedding, food, vet, etc is: will this choice keep my animals safe, healthy, and happy? If yes, then it’s a good choice! If no, then it may be time to reconsider. There are many ways to practice good husbandry, and it might look different from person to person and home to home. If you’re meeting the safe, healthy, and happy benchmarks for your rats, then you’re doing it right.
Meli Rats Husbandry Guide: Bedding
What is the role of bedding?
The bedding in your rats’ serves many purposes. Let’s take a look at what it’s there for.
A good bedding should provide most or all of the below.
The bedding should absorb and hold urine. The bedding should be deep enough that feces do not sit on the surface.
The bedding should ideally have some odor-controlling properties. Baking soda and many scented products are not safe for a rat’s respiratory system, but some wood shaving beddings have ammonia-binding properties.
The bedding should lend itself to nest building. The bedding should be in appropriate sized pieces for rats to carry, push, and shape into nests.
The bedding should be deep enough to form a substrate suitable for burrowing. Rats are fossorial and appreciate the opportunity to tunnel and burrow.
The bedding should create an opportunity for digging and foraging, especially where food is involved. Rats naturally spend a good amount of their waking time foraging for food, and having it scattered around their cage and in their bedding is a good opportunity for everyday enrichment.
Beddings we recommend
Pine: Pine bedding is a safe and effective rat bedding. Its ammonia-binding properties help control the odor in your rats environment. A few inches of pine bedding also gives your rats an opportunity to flex their natural burrowing, nesting, foraging, and digging behaviors.
It’s worth noting that past sources have stated that all pine bedding is harmful to rats, but this has been shown not to be the case. Virtually all pine bedding that is commercially available is kiln-dried. This process removes the harmful phenols from the bedding, rendering it safe for rats.
Aspen: Aspen is an excellent bedding choice for rats, much the same as pine. It tends to smell less strongly.
Beddings we’re lukewarm on
Paper: Paper beddings (such as CareFresh and Yesterday’s News) may be a good choice for some households. If you find yourself allergic to wood beddings, paper could be a better route. Paper bedding will need to be changed every 3-4 days, as it has no odor-controlling qualities and becomes soggy with use.
Fleece: Fleece bedding looks so wonderful! But it is not an ideal bedding for rats. Fleece bedding is not absorbent and does not control odor. Even with an absorbent layer underneath, such as towels or moving pads, fleece bedding allows for higher ammonia levels in the rats’ home than wood-based beddings. Often we see owners describe their fleece bedding as soft and cuddly for their rats. This is a kind thought, but your rats would prefer a few inches of substrate to burrow in, dig through, and nest with.
Newspaper: Newspaper, cardboard, and other paper mat beddings are not a good choice for your rats home. They’ll allow urine and feces to build up on the surface of the cage without any odor control, and do not allow rats opportunities for the important behaviors listed above.
Corncob: Corncob is amazing absorbent, but becomes moldy quickly. It will need to be changed out every 2-3 days to prevent moldy bedding.
Beddings that are dangerous for rats
Cedar: Cedar wood shavings are harmful to rats and should not be used as bedding. Unlike pine, kiln-dried cedar holds on to enough of its phenol content to be dangerous to rats. Cedar bedding use can cause respiratory damage, kidney damage, and chemical burns.
Puppy Pads: Puppy pads absorbent nature comes from the silica gel inside the pad. This material expands when it becomes wet. If your rats nibble and ingest the silica gel, it can expand inside their stomachs and cause sickness or death.