It’s disgusting how unsafe beddings are still allowed to be sold

I would just like to say something about the fleece, if anyone has fleece you should consider adding a dig box in their cage! It is a great way for your rat to still dig, without an entire floor of bedding :)

I seriously can’t put into words how grateful I am rn, you’ve been so so helpful when information is hard to find or verify online im really happy you didn’t let idiot’s rude comments keep you from posting this

I love coconut fibre. It’s easy to store a few packs, and can go in the garden when used 🙂

This came at a perfect time, I am currently trying to find the best option of bedding for me and my rats due to their allergies and my allergies and this is very helpful

i’m about to get a few female mice, your videos have helped me make sure that they will have an amazing life. thank you so much for everything you do!!

do not let comments get to you ever. no one has that kind of power over you except mum. thank you for this information, I am 52 and took to one of my daughters rats that had to be separated from the females after an accidental litter. he is a smart, yet somewhat shy and skittish little fella. I want him to be safe and happy. this video helps me out.

I’ve been considering getting rats so I’ve been educating myself and I have to say, thank you so much for these videos! I was a bit scared of rats before but I’ve realized that they seem to be quite friendly and social

i want rats since 2018 but my living situation doesn't allow me to so i am really living that dream through you and your cute boys

Bedding has always been the thoughest thing to figure out with my rats. I am in North America so fleece is the norm. Lots of people also use corn cob (it's absorbant and dust free, so I would say fine for the litter boxes, but not something rats can dig through). I have used paper-based (expensive, and I got some really bad batches). Now I have bioactive at the bottom of the cage and I am loving it. In other parts of the cage I use hemp but my rats are a bit more sneezy on that so I will have to look for some dust free aspen.

I got a bad batch of hemp a month ago, I thought it was ok….. it wasn’t my poor baby rat got a respiratory infection after only having him for 2 weeks at one point I didn’t think he would make it he stopped eating and drinking but luckily he came around and has now made a full recovery after 3 vet trips :)

i got two rats today and i’ve been binging your videos for a couple months and they’ve helped so much :) i love my boys so much already and im so happy to have them !! thank you

My rat saddle pass away last night I thank u for all of the advice that has helped me

Why are all of Emi's videos so relaxing?? 💕

It's very relaxing sitting at my desk, watching Emi's videos with some iced coffee and pocky. (while doing online school)

I used both carefresh and plain organic soil for my mice. The soil was amazing as a main bedding! They loved how it held tunnels, it was not dusty and it had no smell.

Thanks for the advices ! I used corn bedding and linen litter (no dust) and my little ones were very happy.

you are literally the best. if I ever have a little question in the back of my mind I always come to your channel and find the answer🥰 thank you for saving so many rat / mice owners!!

Your videos are so helpful. Thankyou so much for making them!

Thank you for this video, today my rats said bye to fleece, and hello to coco fiber as main bedding, and natural paper litter! Such a great video. I won’t be making it a bioactive, but I’ll be changing and cleaning the cocofiber often.

I've been thinking about going semi bioactive. My ratties currently have fleece with a decent size dig box made with untreated top soil and they adore it!🥰

I've tried quite a few different beddings. Never used carefresh since I've got a bad batch which was very very dusty. So I ended up using back 2 nature as litter in the litter tray and Aspen bedding as their main bedding it's very soft and absorbent.

I've been using back 2 nature for the whole cage and wondering why they were still popping a little outised the tray, this was so helpful! I'll be changing their bedding! Thank you ❤️💙

My rats love having a large box filled with crinkle paper, they dig through that and make little nests in the bottom. I leave the top open in a spot and allow them to make their own exit holes, then replace the cardboard box after one or two cleans depending on how filthy it is. I switched from fleece bedding to woodchips recently and immediately there was both a respiratory and odor improvement. It's difficult to find without too much dust and in the amounts I need for my quadruple CN in the US though, I have to store it in plastic drawers so that I can shake the dust to the bottom before adding it in. Soon I'll be switching from larger aspen chips to less chunky kiln dried pine shred, it's much cheaper since I can get large bales from farming shops. Cheap hemp is impossible to find in the US, or I'd use that!

I use bedmax, and back 2 nature in the litter tray! My rats are all from a good breeder and had bedmax in their old home so they’ve never had issues with it :)

Emiology your rats & mice are so cute and very smart!! I love to see them use their little hands!!

I’m getting a two rats in 12 days! I’ve been watching your channel for 4 days now trying to learn stuff thank you

Just as a nesting material I LOVE using tissue paper, they can shred it super easy and its really cheap too. One of my girls actually discovered a sheet of tissue paper while our free roaming and I’ve been using it ever since.

This was a really helpful video! I think I’m going to make a switch to paper based bedding now instead of fleece like I’ve been sticking to. One of my girls (mouse) eyes are starting to look irritated and wet I think this’ll benefit her lots.

Thank you for this! I have rats and mice, they both get a mix of aspen, hay, and paper bedding as their main bedding (my rats get 10 inches and my mice get about 6). This is my first group of rats ever and from my research most people recommended fleece in the US but I decided to make a deep base anyway. Turns out that my rats dig more than my mice! My mice all sleep on the surface and my rats almost always sleep in their burrows. I think deep bedding should be a necessity for rats like it is for mice personally, it’s just best to give them that option.

Ive used shredded paper for my mice and they were happy and healthy, lived 2.3 years and my other is 2.5 years old! They love it

Your videos are amazing and I always learn so much

I just adopted two new babies and need to revamp and upgrade my rats cage by a lot. I'm using your videos as a starting point, and hopefully slowly but surely I'll make an amazing and enriching home for my boys.

You've posted this at the perfect time! I'm hand rearing a wild mouse and need all the advice I can get on what's suitable for him! If you have a video on a good mix to feed mice that'd be great!

Thank you for this! Choosing rat bedding that my rats and I both like has been the biggest struggle

Yess! Kaytee Clean and Cozy EXTREME odour control (grey and white paper mix) is amazing!! 🤩

thank you for your videos. i find it very helpful as i have trouble finding anything, i can understand , on the internet. i've never cared for any small animals but i've recently saved 3 mice and had no clue where to start.

Highly considering getting two male rats I’ve been doing research for a few months now this has been the most helpful channel. I am building a list to see the cost and I will be adopting a pair when the time comes so excited for the day!

i switched from fleece to yesterdays news cat litter, so much better 💕

I've been doing research pretty heavily for the last 6 to 8 months on caring for pet rats. I'm really starting to lean towards a bioactive cage setup. I know that it's one of the more complex cage setups out there, but I think that would be best for both my lifestyle and my future rat babies. Now to find the best pet safe soil/coco fibre and plants!

great video as always! for my mice i use megazorb which i’ve heard mixed things on but for me it holds borrows and is quite absorbent so it’s works well for us, the only con is that when you first get it it has a certain smell but it fades after a while !

My ginger kitty loves watching you 🤗

When i got my first rats i used fleece for a bit but it was so much work i had to change it about every 4 days. They would just rip up the fleece and hide under it and i had a dig box in there but they just kept using it as a litter box so i took it out. Then i switched to paper bedding and is is SO much easier to clean. :)

i started to use a chopped straw betting. its so soft and has no dust at all. i love it so much better than pink and so on. its also less messy!! and last a long time!

We used fleece in the beginning as the car had wired floors and wanted to cover it but it was so smellyyyy, so glad we moved to paper then to hemp :)

after watching this video I'm relieved that the bedding I'm using is safe ngl as I was very paranoid. Thank you. 👍

Very informative 👍🏼 helpful for choosing hamster bedding to 🐹

I use a few different types of bedding/ materials in my rats cage, and enclosure. For the flat levels in the cage I use fleece, the very bottom gets carefresh, their liter boxes get yesterday’s news cat litter, they have a dig box filled with coco soil, a foraging box filled with meadow hay, and oat sprays, and a roll of toilet paper for them to play with. I love to spoil my baby bois ❤️✨🐀✨❤️

I like using shredded hemp or linen. Its very absorbing. Outside the cage they have a crdboard and a cocosubstrate dig box

Thank you so much for this information ❤️🤗🐹

A mix of bedmax and cute n cozy have been fine. And 2 of my rescue girls make massive tunnels.

When we were thinking about getting rats all of your videos were so helpful for us to have enrichment and modern ideas for rat keeping! We currently out the pressed wood pellets in litter boxes and as a layer in the bin at the bottom with Carefresh on top for them to dig and forage in. We get the pellets at the local feed store and it's very affordable. We have 6 girls from a reputable breeder. They're all super sweet. First three just turned one, second three are about 6 months old now. They're so fun! Thank you for all your videos!

Love this video

I prefer aspen,I have never seen hemp or flax bedding but would love to try it. Lately I have had to use care fresh (or a similar bedding) and I don't prefer it because it doesn't keep the odor under control and gets dirty much faster. Most pet stores or grocery stores have cedar ☠ pine and paper, and sometimes aspen but it's been sold out lately.

I use fleece in my rats cage (Winnie, Cypress, & Dumbo) I just find it easier. They do get a dig box though

Coconut fibre mats also work pretty well for shelves and such. They are decently absorbent and don't smell too bad, can be washed and dried multiple times and the rats love shredding it up to make nests. The fibre planters also can be used as nests, hammocks, etc. Just make sure they are not chemically treated in any way. I would not recommend them as the main bedding though.

My mice personally do not burrow. But they do love their dig box. I use purely paper bedding. But I do plan to add Aspen bedding as well

I have a suggestion for room spray you can use in the room your rats and mice are in. I like to get a spray bottle and fill it up with water and add a few drops of almond extract. my mice love fleece but they really like paper based bedding its just the warmth or the fleece so i cut the fleece up into tiny pieces and mix it in with the paper based bedding and dollar store pompoms and paper shreds usually and they seem to really like it.

I've used littlemax with mine the whole time I have had them, using it in 3 rat cages (and also with my gerbils) and never had any issues with it. I did use hemp with the gerbils but found that was really dusty so never used it with the rats.

Can you do a mice diet vid

I personally use fleece bc it’s a cheaper alternative but they have a dig box they can use during their playtime.

F the haters!!!! Thank you for your knowledge!!!!!

Kiln dried pine is safe, but sometimes the kiln drying process fails. You can easily spot it due the smell, as it will smell extra fresh. The dustiness can be combatted at home. You can go outside and give it a few tosses in bigger bags. You can also leave the bedding out on the open to let it air out, it will help reduce any possible issues related to it.

I have care fresh for my mouse and a few soil dig boxes around with soil in :)

I’m just getting mice and the main bedding isn’t enriching on it’s own but I plan to mix it with a different one and also include a dig box

This would make such a good tier list video lol

I personally swear by sophresh Aspen bedding, hemp is very expensive where I live but sophresh holds burrows very well and have low dust for being a wood bedding.

Hey, a possible, I haven't checked it out with rats before, cheaper alternative for paper based bedding for litter boxes maybe use this pellet bedding that is used for horse stalls. You're supposed to wet them inside the stall a little to fluff it up for their comfort but instead you could leave them as pellet form. The work basically the same and clumps up urine well. I can honestly say if it can handle a mares wee during her cycle I think it could handle the rats wee. I would say to not add directly from the bag as the bag itself can be dusty but the pellets themself don't seem to be.

I got more for paper bass bedding but I also make sure that is not scented and I like paper-based bedding I never had a bad experience with them so that is a bedding I would go more for

Hi there, I have 6 ten week old WILD babies. I have been using wood shavings so far. I just wanted to say thank you to you for all of the great information you provide to all of us! Have you ever had wild babies, and if so how was your experience with them?

I pretty much save you from the start since I typed in what to do and want to know before having a rat and that’s how I came across you I’ve been watching you ever since I typed in that ever since the newest video you made and the newest video before this one before this one and every new video and subscribe to you and I love

I use fleece but I have the whole bottom floor as a dig box which substrate changes regularly (still looking for the best for them)

i've always used carefresh, but it is getting out of hand, 10eur for 10l and i need atleast 4 to fill up my cage so my babies can make burrows. i went online and for the first time ever, ordered 2 big bags: hay and hemp, hopefully i wasn't scammed because hemp bedding was 13eur for 60 LITRES. 60 LITRES FOR 13 EUROS. sorry got a lil excited, my mind is kind of blown away that it's that cheap, so, anyways, hopefully it's not gonna be dusty or anything, and thank you so much, Emi, i'm also planning on upgrading my 620sq inch terrarium to an IKEA Detolf! ^ ^

I’m jumping into research on rats and I know you mentioned a dig box, but for fabric bedding I heard that old sheets/tshirts work well and are absorbent. How about a set up with multiple floors and the upper floors having a more absorbent fabric and deep bedding on the bottom? I want to keep them happy but would also love to keep waste and cost down!

Thank you for this video, me and my s/o got 3 rats and Pets At Home gave us all the options you recommended not to use, also we only just found out they're a bad place to buy rats from 👀

Thank you for making this video! Apparently in my state there is an aspen shortage so I’m trying to find different safe beddings because I know pine not kiln dried and cedar are not safe 😩

Naturally fresh cat litter is actually amazing for controlling odor, lower dust than wood shavings, 100% walnut shells, easy to dig and forage through... My rats, nice, and asf do great with it for over a year. My 2 hairless are sensitive to wood shavings..

For someone that has had rats for 6 years and has watched all your vids plus some other rat creators, glass cages can cause issues with breathing for your rats and bad temperature control u shouldnt be useing glass / plastic cages, please let me know if im wrong, ik this is one of your old vids but i decided to rewatch the for my new rats. sorry if this sounds like a hate comment, it really isnt one but i love your channel but thats the one thing i have concerns with, lots of love xx

Right now I have a male and a female rat two rats I want to get three because I have a big cage now I had one for not too long at the time because my kids with them big enough but it was pretty big but not for too so I decide to get two rats like you said I want to get three just in case one pass away because you never know what’s gonna happen I’m so excited and happy

Im doing an assessment on an animal of choice i chose fancy rats and im using ur videos and shadow the rats videos for research:)

im alergic to the hemp bedding too! makes my eyes swell up and go very dry and itchy. ive bought some aspen shavings, hope the rats like it just as much as they loved digging in the hemp! update! i got the aspen, though not very good. my boys started sneezing as soon as I put them in the cage :(

Also note that UK newspapers use plant based ink so are safe to use for nest bedding!

what about fleece cut up into strips? I planned on using that as re-usable bedding to save money.

ive been using an "eco bedding" thats basically like shredded cardboard for a while, i really like the sound of the hardwood shavings though (seems more economical as well). i might switch to that and just use the paper stuff for nesting/enrichment :)

I would like to say I am a huge advocate of this channel and solely only use emi's info and the information of reputable vets and vet techs for the care of my 5 mice; a vet tech of 16 years told me new scientific studies have shown that paper bedding does not absorb enough ammonia and was found to contain 44 parts per million of ammonia, the study was done with carefresh paper bedding and had to be canceled after two weeks due to the sheer volume of the ammonia content, a small amount is fine but it's highly recommended to mix it with kiln dried aspen or pine, aubiose hemp bedding or the horse bedding she recommended would be perfect! Hemp does not hold burrows so a mix of 60% hemp and 40% paper would be good for your critters, just make sure if you use paper you clean regularly!

I ordered carefresh cause it said 99.9% dust free with good reviews but it's very dusty, yesterday I ordered fibercore eco bedding I hear good things about it. You should ad that bedding or litter with baking soda is not good for rats

I have a cage is any better because it has bars and then it has a tray under our use some clause to put under the bar so their feet don’t hurt also it’s a true story and it’s pretty big bigger than I thought I’m working on getting more stuff for two

Drives me mad how many people especially Americans recommend fleece and say wood shavings will kill your rats.

id like to note with aspen ik for sure, but your rats can get mites/lice from them, which can be really difficult to treat. you must freeze it for at least a month to ensure things are dead

Omg I'm going to cry! I wish I would have found your channel 3 months ago! Oh my God so I saved the mouse from being pet food and I have tried so many different cages and spent so much money, and then he got an eye infection and so then I kept trying different beddings, and I ended up having to take him to the vet to get eye drops and antibiotics for him and he's still sick, and he seems miserable. It's been a struggle to give him his medication so he's stressed out. We live in a ground floor condo so he's in my bedroom on a shelf. It's so hot all the time and dry, because I live in Canada. So now I think he also has ringtail syndrome. The vet told me to get a humidifier. Where do I put it? Anyways, I was told that the habitrail ovos would be the best types of cages to get for him so I have the loft and two of the other bubbles plus a crap load of tunnels and all the extra crap. I'm using this bedding called Uber which is similar to the care but not quite. The girl at the pet store told me that that paper would be the best for him. And now I'm looking at all these wood playgrounds to get him and they are sooooo expensive. Honestly for the amount of money that I have spent on the habitrail ovos I could have spent on a cage like yours! Now he's sick, scared, can't open one eye, and his life isn't enriching. Am I making him suffer with what I have? Great now I'm crying. My husband will freak out if i replace the entire thing, which btw this is all his fault. He has a pet snake and my mouse was subpost to snake food. The snake only ate one, and then he left out of town for work for a week and I had a mouse in my bathtub. Naturally I couldn't leave him there and then I feel in love with his cuteness and now he's my little buddy. I spend so much time cleaning his cage, making sure he has everything and for the last 3 weeks tryibg to figure out what's making him sick. He's been to the vets twice now. I don't know what to do. I don't want him to suffer. The internet is useless, and I keep getting conflicting answers on all my questions from pet store people and even the vet.

I’ve been using aubiose for months but have just switched the finacard, the last bale of aubiose was so dusty it’s been awful and really flared up one of my rats respiratory infections :(

Hi emi! ☺️ I’m thinking about buying the niteangle wheel too, but the shipping will get expensive so I’m wondering if you’re still happy with it? 🙈 I’m also a bit uncertain about the size of it? I thought the wheel has to be 30cm but the niteangle is 20cm so is that also a good size? Hope you have a good week and good luck with your rats 🌼💕

Hi! I have a dig box in my rats cage and am thinking about trying soil in there. Not bioactive just the soil. How often should I change it out?

thank you!! do you mind linking some (at least 3) of the safe bedding I can use so I don’t accidentally buy a bad one?

I use Carefresh, it's okay for my guys... and their shelter gets ripped up kitchen paper... I also throw in a lot of Belvita biscuit boxes, which they love... they'll sleep in the boxes, and when they are done, they'll tear the boxes up themselves and move them into the shelter.

Idk if it’s true if carefresh is dustier that other country’s bc I don’t find any dust in mine :)

i agree…i always used fleece before and it stunk so bad + they completely ripped it up so i would have to change it every few days. not worth it

Many people say that Yesterday's News is a good bedding for the litter tray. It's a 100% recycled paper based cat litter that's basically the same as back2nature except cheaper because it's for cats. I've heard that it's great for odor control and you can get big bags really cheaply. Of course the normal cat litters aren't okay though :)

I've been wanting a rat along with my twin we planned on getting them but then we started to moving houses and so its not the best choice to get them just yet so we are just waiting till we get a new house and move in but these videos help so I can make a note on what would be best for the rats

I used some old hoodies to make hammocks and wall pockets for my rats. They don't really chew on them and I switch them every week for clean ones. Is it okay to do that?