Isamu Rats
Isamu Rats
  • Isamu Home
    • Who, What, Why?
  • Meet the rats
    • Loved and lost - past rats
  • Joining the Isamu Family
    • Current and Planned Litters
    • Past Litters
    • Varieties expected at Isamu
  • Rat Care at Isamu
  • Contact us
  • Links and useful places
  • Rat Information and Care
  • Thinking about Pet Rats
    • Getting your First Rats
  • Starting out with Rats
  • Rat Habitat
    • Choosing Bedding
    • Choosing Substrate
    • Choosing Cages
    • Choosing Accessories
    • Cage Enrichment
    • Setting up a Cage
  • Behaviour
    • Individual Rat Behaviours
    • Rats Interacting with Other Rats >
      • Rats Fighting, Aggression and Dominant Behaviour
    • Introducing Rats >
      • The Carrier Method
      • The Neutral Space Method
      • The Heavy Supervision Method
      • The Cage Swap Method
    • Rat Noises
    • Rats and their humans >
      • Rats Biting Humans
      • Training your rats
    • Rats interacting with their enviroment
    • Rats interacting with other animals
  • Feeding and Nutrition
    • Options for Dry Mixes
    • Vegetables and Fruits
    • Foods to avoid or limit
    • Fresh and Wet meals
    • Suppliments and Treats
    • Feeding for different Times of Life
    • Enrichment Feeding
    • Feeding FAQS
  • Condition
    • Judging Condition
    • Fixing condition issues
  • Health
    • Health Checking
    • Common Illnesses >
      • Kidney Issues
      • Hind Leg Degeneration
      • Heart Failure
      • None Cancerous Tumours
      • Abscesses
      • Respiratory Issues
      • Cancerous / Malignant Tumours
      • Parasites
    • Quarentining

Choosing Bedding

Here are some of the options available for rat bedding and my opinions on them.

Shredded paper

Most shredded paper (e.g. from your home office) is fine to use for rat bedding.  Paper that has been printed on with toxic ink should be avoided as rats will attempt to eat most bedding.  Shredders that cut longer strips of paper are more suitable as shorter (or cross cut) shreds are very fly away and aren’t as good for building extravagant nests.  Shredded paper can also be quite dusty (a by product of the cutting process) so it may be worth avoiding for rats with known respiratory problems.  Shredded paper is also pretty poor in absorbency which can lead to smelly rats if you have rats that insist on urinating in there bed.

Shredded tissue/J cloth bedding

Picture
shredded tissue bedding
This covers the main 2 commercially available small animal bedding.  Both have similar absorbency (though the J cloth bedding is slightly better) and are similarly insulating.  The J cloth bedding is pretty rubbish structurally but can be popular to line big newspaper nests and the shredded tissue can be good depending on the length of the strips (the longer the better for nest builders).  

Paper towels

This is primarily sheets or strips of kitchen towels.  They seem very popular with rats and are reasonably absorbent and can be structural.  They do tend to get a bit smelly (as with all paper based nesting material) after a few days of lazy rats urinating in there beds but it’s often nice to throw a couple of sheets in for the rats to tear or play with.  An alternative to this and much appreciated by the rats is to pop in a cheap roll tied to the bars and let the rats dispense there own.  It will result in a cage full of paper towels but the rats will love it.

Material

This is generally the most absorbent and insulating bedding.  It’s usually off cuts of fleece or towels (from hammock making) and is my preferred choice for bucks for these reasons, unfortunately it’s a bit heavy to make proper nests out of so I’d tend towards the shredded paper for nest enthusiasts.
Picture
Stacey's Artemis with some J cloth to use in her nest

News Paper

This is a popular rat bedding, especially as nearly all newspaper in the UK is now printed with vegetable inks (none toxic).  Rats, especially manic nest building girls, seem to love newspaper over pretty much all other beddings as it can be torn and carried very effectively.  Placing a pile of roughly torn up news paper in a corner will let the rats distribute it where they like or alternatively provide a few sheets folded up and let the rats tear there own.  This is a cheap (often free) nesting material and whilst it isn’t great on the absorbency front, if changed every few days is a popular option especially as it is highly structural and makes good nests.

Cotton wool bedding

This is traditionally sold as hamster bedding and provides a nice warm insulating nest.  However as rats are almost always kept in groups and so are less likely to need such insulating nesting material.  This bedding has also been known to get caught round toes and ingested so it is definitely worth avoiding.
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