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What is the best pet rat bedding available to me in Australia to stop odour2007-11-24 22:17:04

I had one rat and no odour problems. Now I have bought another, the cage smells very bad after one day. They are in a 24in wide aquarium style cage with ventilated lid. (I know some say this is no good for ventilation) I have tried newspaper (pet store tells me this is toxic), cat litter odour absorbing crystals (supposed to keep a cat litter tray odour free for one month!), straw, regualr kitty litter, recycled paper pulp and wood shavings. The wood shavings worked well but found lumps around the rats neck and am assuming it is mites. Changed the bedding to kitty litter and mite treated the rats and the lumps went away. Tried heat treating the shavings in the microwave oven but still same result (itchy rats). There seems to be products available in America (ie KayKob) which are unavailable here. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Curious how one rat was virtually odour free after 5 or more days, yet 2 rats smell bad after 1 day. Probably a bit of territorial marking going on

Answers:

febreeze

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What kind of shavings are you using? Pine and cedar shavings are not good for rats! The oils in these types of shavings can be toxic to them. I always found aspen shavings work well.

If they had mites once, they may be reoccurring whenever you use wood shavings because you didn't get rid of them properly the first time. Wash everything down REALLY well with hot soapy (mild soap) water and throw away any toys/items that mites could hide in.