Bedding is essential for keeping your small pet’s habitat clean and livable. With so many choices on the market, selecting the right type of bedding can be a bit overwhelming.
Bedding in your pet’s cage serves a variety of purposes:
1. Absorbs moisture
Bedding absorbs moisture created by urine and waste, as well as food or water spills, keeping the cage and your pet clean and dry and allowing for pet parents to simply spot clean daily and deep clean only once a week.
2. Controls odour
The urine of some small animals can have an overpowering smell. Bedding helps to control odours from waste by neutralizing ammonia and trapping odours for a fresh smelling and healthy environment.
3. Provides comfort and security
Adding bedding to your pet’s cage provides them with a comfortable resting and nesting area. It keeps them warm and cozy and helps them feel safe and secure.
4. Great for burrowing
Burrowing is instinctual for many small animals. This behaviour allows them to feel safe, reduces stress and provides mental stimulation. Bedding in the cage encourages this natural tendency, providing your pet with an outlet for digging, burying, and burrowing fun while saving other surfaces in the house from being damaged.
Several different bedding substrates are available, including paper, straw and wood.
Paper Bedding
Affordable and widely available, bedding made of paper is soft, comfortable and virtually dust-free. However, caution should be exercised as some paper beddings include artificial dyes and scents that can irritate a small animal’s delicate respiratory system.
Straw Bedding
Although 100% natural and economical, straw bedding does not perform as well as other types of small animal bedding. It can be dusty and the dry, stiff straw includes sharp edges which makes it uncomfortable. It doesn’t trap ammonia odours or absorb moisture from waste, which can cause health issues if your pet’s feet are constantly wet.
Wood Bedding
Extremely popular and probably the most widely available, however all wood shavings are not created equal. Though they boast superior odour control and smell great, softwoods like pine and cedar are not recommended as they contain aromatic oils and phenols which can be harmful to a small animal’s liver and respiratory system. These shavings can also splinter, making them uncomfortable to lie on or burrow through and can scratch or cut your pet.
Unlike pine and cedar, aspen is a hardwood and does not contain any aromatic oils or phenols. A great, safe alternative if you prefer wood bedding, Aspen bedding, such as Living World Green Ultra Premium Bedding is soft, comfortable, and highly absorbent; it doesn’t simply mask odours with artificial scents but neutralizes ammonia to keep the cage and room smelling fresh.
Living World Green Ultra Comfort Premium Bedding is made from the highest quality, fresh Nordic Aspen, and produced using 100% renewable bio-energy and FSC® certified wood.
Eco-friendly and biodegradable, Living World Green’s Ultra Comfort Premium Bedding absorbs up to 200% its weight in liquid, providing exceptional odour control and includes smooth edges with no sharp corners, providing a cleaner, dust-free, comfortable environment.
And with a smaller chip size to make the bedding even softer and cozier, Living World Green Ultra Comfort Super Soft Aspen Bedding is available for hamsters, gerbils, mice as well as hairless pets or animals with sensitive skin.
