I have a pet rat. Can I use rice as litter for her or is it hazardous?
2006-11-10 13:54:23 · 6 answers · asked by MKL 1 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
The best thing to use, since rats are alot like mice, they like to build nests and hide, is put in old newspapers, shredded. Rice would not be a warm and fun place to live.
Rat owner for 12 years, My rats live between 4 to 6 years of age.I dont use them as feeders either.
2006-11-10 14:03:23 · answer #1 · answered by Moose 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rice would be uncomfortable and would start to rot with the animal waste. Also she'd be enormous because she'd eat until she couldn't eat anymore and probably hurt herself.
I use CareFresh Ultra and love it (so do my girls). It's soft and made from paper waste. It's kind of pricey in terms of litter, but I think it's worth it.
Shavings are a bad idea for bedding, but if you insist, go for aspen bedding because cedar and pine bedding irritates their respitory systems. Also, newspaper is a bad idea because the ink could poison her. And sand is only good for reptiles. Just stick to bedding that pet stores sell.
Also, she needs a cagemate or she'll get lonely. They live in colonies naturally and need to bond with other rats and have help with grooming. Rats that live with other rats tend to live longer too and get sick less often.
2006-11-10 22:01:19 · answer #2 · answered by fireflyfangirl 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
actually- carefresh or carefresh ultra is what we use at our petstore.
Rats are very suseptable to not only upper respratory infections caused by some beddings such as pine and cedar... we've found at least 1 out of every 4 rats are allergic to aspen and begin sneezing like crazy and developing rashes. Hairless rats also develop skin conditions very easily with improper bedding.
for the 3 out of every 4... Aspen is a good bedding. Its less irritating, and there is less of a chance of causing upper resp. infections.
However, carefresh is the safest way to go for your rat.
Not to mention- it tends to last longer cleanliness wise, and reduce the urine/defication smell. Rats urine/defication can be odiferious. Especially if you have more than one. As long as you spot clean it daily then give it a good cleaning once a week, it tends to last a bit longer than aspen for rats and g. pigs.
2006-11-10 22:07:29 · answer #3 · answered by Aravyndra 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
She will eat it up! The best bedding is called Kay-Kob. You can buy this at any Petsmart. It works great! I have jumped around from different beddings forever and this is the best I have come across.
2006-11-11 01:35:41 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
let me warn you because i dont see other warnings...if you dont use bedding from pet stores that has been treated for bugs your taking a big risk with your animal no matter what animal..domesticated animals who need bedding get different bugs easily because they have no built emune (spelling?) system...so be careful? gl
2006-11-10 22:39:47 · answer #5 · answered by Jake S 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't! Have you ever fed rice to pigeons? It's NOT pretty!
try shredding up some old newspaper or if you have sand or sawdust/wood shavings these will be better.
2006-11-10 21:59:54 · answer #6 · answered by DarkDeb 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋