Kitchen roll vs shredded fleece

[Aalice]

Hi! My boys reeeaally like to tear apart kitchen roll and use it as bedding but we are going through a LOT of towelling

I was considering buying some fleece and shredding it up for them to then use as their bedding as this will probably be more durable and maybe (?) reusable if I put them in wash bags and wash them
...

Any experience or advice welcome

[ElizabethThomas61]

There's not much of a difference. I guess that depends on their preference and costs. Fleece is softer and cuter, so that's something I choose for my cuties

[cyber ratty]

Fleece isn't absorpbant, so doesn't make good bedding.

If you're worried about costs, try shredding the paper packing that comes in delivery boxes.

[LPRattus0]

Hi there,

Just wondering what you ended up using. I was thinking about trying to reduce waste/ok for my girls and this post caught my eye.

I am trialing for their main bedding bath towels cut into strips. I also cut up tissue paper, kitchen roll, and cardboard packaging for variety dotted around the cage for enrichment whenever I get bits and pieces from gifts and such.

LP

[cyber ratty]

Strips of material will have the same issues - lack of absorbancy, and with towelling you'd also need to watch out for nails getting caught in loops.

If you want to virtually eliminate waste, but also want to provide the digging and foraging enrichment they ought to have, you might want to consider a bioactive base.

That's where there's a foot or more of coco fibre + topsoil in a deep custom base (most people use perspex so they can see the tunnels), you can add some wee creatures as 'clean up crew' but I think mine is working purely on bacteria now it is established. They've been set up for over a year now.

[LPRattus0]

Hey Mary,

I came across bioactive areas but not looked fully into it yet. Please could you share how you started off?
I provide a dig box with coir already, so it might be something I could look into.

Thanks, LP

[LPRattus0]

Just came across this. Read Well, wondered what you all thought.

https://azulinerattery.wordpress.com/an ... -rat-cage/

[cyber ratty]

Yes Zoe's article is great - I used that to help me get mine set up. The only difference I think is that I mixed topsoil (25%) in with the coco fibre (75%).

[LPRattus0]

Amazing, I just stumbled across the site after lots of searching around the topic. So I am very glad you know of ger.

Could I ask the reason for adding some topsoil? And do you need to get the sterilised kind?

Thanks,
LP

[cyber ratty]

Topsoil adds bacteria - so don't get sterilised or there won't be any, but make sure it has no added fertiliser.

[LPRattus0]

Thank you, maybe my own garden soil.. or leaf compost might do it...

[cyber ratty]

I'm not sure about that, I would worry about bringing in an infection. A bag of 'clean' topsoil only costs about £5.

[LPRattus0]

That's great info, thank you.