If you own rats, you already know they need comfortable bedding. Rodents require a soft material where they can nest, sleep, dig, forage, and live their daily lives. You may be a veteran rat owner and understand the tremendous benefits of hemp bedding for your rats.
However, this article explains everything you need to know about selecting the best hemp bedding for your rats, including why our premier product ranks number one. In addition to that, you’ll find helpful tips on the best bedding products, safety, absorbency, and which types of beddings are best for reducing or eliminating odor.
But just before we answer the question “what’s the best hemp bedding for rats?”, let’s take a look at the types of bedding available for rats.
The 3 Main Rat Bedding Needs
To help you decide which type of bedding is best for your rats, you should examine them according to the ‘everyday needs’ of your rats.
- Digging and foraging: The type of bedding that serves this purpose is called substrate bedding, or simply bedding. It is the main bedding that lines up the base of the rat cage, and it serves two essential purposes.
First, substrate bedding allows your rats to dig, build tunnels and nests, and engage in other natural activities that keep them engaged and active. Secondly, it serves as an absorbent bedding, which soaks up the pee and poo of the animals, keeping the cage clean and free of odors.
- Nesting and sleeping: Rats need to build nests for resting. Note that the bedding material here is different from the one discussed above; the most popular option, in this case, is paper or ripped-up newspaper. The paper bedding is used to line bedding boxes, hammocks, and baskets. It must be soft to provide the comfort the animals need when it’s time to rest.
- Toileting: For toileting, the rats need an unscented 100% absorbent paper litter in the cage. If they are trained, they’ll naturally use the litter trays when they need to pee and poo. Typically, what is used here are pieces of shredded paper that can absorb urine and feces easily. Rats are easy to train, so you can encourage litter training and good toileting habits by simply providing paper litter pellets in a corner litter tray.
Once you’ve figured out which corner of the cage they mostly use for toileting, you can then add a sizable amount of paper bedding under the substrate bedding to improve absorbency.
Keep in mind that wood shavings and pine shavings do not work well in this case. They give off strong smells, which are bad for your rat’s respiratory system. They’re also quick to break down into dust when wet. Besides, your rats are very much likely to eat their litter. You can avoid this by using paper bedding.
Substrate Bedding Option for Rats
Since many activities are happening in the substrate bedding, it is ideal to make it deep, say 3”-6” deep. If you don’t want to make it so deep, you can introduce a digging box or more, depending on the number of rats you have in the cage. This helps to keep them engaged and comfortable. Here are some types of substrate beddings for rats:
Cardboard Bedding
Although cardboard beddings were initially used for horses, they are now also used for small animals. They are basically shredded cardboard papers placed on the cage floor, where the animals can easily dig around and play. If you’re going for cardboard bedding, ensure you buy good quality bedding with good absorbency.
Paper Bedding
Paper bedding is an excellent alternative to cardboard bedding, especially for rat owners who have allergies to natural products. There is even more variety when it comes to options for paper bedding in different regions. Some are now softer than paper cat litter and even more absorbent than usual shredded paper. Watch out for the dusty and scented ones, though, as they can cause respiratory irritation.
Wood Shavings
Not all wood shavings are safe for rats. Some wood shavings are quite okay, especially those created for horses. The good quality ones that have been kiln-dried and dust extracted are good for rats. Again, wood shavings, such as pine shavings, contain essential aromatic oils that smell nice, but they are unhealthy and dangerous for rats.
Many wood shaving options have a strong smell and oil, which are not suitable for your rats. So you might want to avoid them altogether. The biggest advantage about them is that they are pretty cheaper than other bedding options, so be sure to double-check that it’s good quality before buying.
Coconut Husk Bedding
Coconut husk bedding is originally designed for reptiles but can now be used for rodents, too. They serve as allergen-free natural alternatives to wood shavings. You can also mix it with other types of bedding, such as hemp, shredded paper, or kiln-dried wood shavings. Note that coconut husk bedding does not have good absorbency, but you can add it into a mixture of substrate beddings for variety.
Hemp Bedding
This is the most popular and widely-used bedding option for pet rats — and for obvious reasons. Hemp bedding is the best all-natural alternative to wood shavings. It is a go-to option for many rat owners today because of its high absorbency, low dust content, and low palatability.
This revolutionary bedding is not hard to get since we sell our top-of-the-line Italian hemp product by the bag. You can even order a sample and we’ll ship whatever bedding amount you need straight to your front door. The primary considerations when shopping for bedding substrate are dust content, presence of essential oils, palatability and expansion, and the absorbency of the bedding.
Best Hemp Bedding for Rats
Based on popular opinions and our research, here are 4 of the most common and best hemp bedding products available on the market today:
RentACoop Hemp Bedding
For a lot of rat owners, this couple-owned hemp bedding brand is the most preferred choice. And rightly so, considering the benefits that it offers your rat. Three particular reasons why many people choose RentACoop Hemp Bedding are:
- Five times more absorbent than pine shavings
- Ideal for compost and organic waste containers, and
- Grown without any pesticides or insecticides, making it even safer for your rats.
Dr. Hemp All Natural Pet Bedding
Dr. Hemp is another highly absorbent bedding formulated with the environment in mind. The product is widely used for the following reasons:
- You only change it every 6-8 weeks, thereby saving you money and time
- Has low dust content and is low in palatability
- Safe for all pets, humans, and the environment
It is best to change the bedding before six weeks to prevent the accumulation of mold.
Back-2-Nature – Small Animal Bedding
In addition, rat owners opt for Back-2-Nature – Small Animal Bedding. While this may not be suitable for digging, it is known for:
- Litter pan suitability
- Reasonable odor control and high absorbency, and
- Practically dust-free
CanapaOro Small Animal Hemp Bedding
However, out of all these hemp bedding market options, Canapa Oro’s Italian Hemp Bedding makes sense as the best small animal hemp bedding available. We’ve customized our product to provide optimal comfort for horses, chickens, rabbits, and rats. Additionally, we ship across the US for wherever you need rat bedding. Here are some distinct features that make CanapaOro’s hemp bedding a top choice.
- Traps odor and is highly absorbent, holding up to 4 times its weight of moisture
- Completely dust free, so no need to worry about allergens
- Requires low maintenance
- Offers maximum comfort to the animal
- Has remarkably high compostability
Why is Canapa Oro’s Hemp Bedding the Most Preferred Option for Rats?
Whether for waste management, comfort, toileting, or nesting purposes, our premier hemp bedding utterly blows all the other options out of the water. The unique benefits that hemp bedding offer your rats are:
- High absorbency: Hemp bedding absorbs up to four times its weight in moisture. This effectively helps to keep the rat’s cage cleaner and free of bad smells.
- Low dust content: Hemp bedding is low in dust. Hence it won’t cause irritations, making it safe for bedding and nesting.
- Low palatability: If your rats can eat their bedding, then that’s a sign that you should throw it out and get another. Your rats are less likely to make a lunch of their bedding if you used hemp bedding, as rats don’t like to ingest hemp fibers.
- Highly biodegradable: Since hemp bedding is completely biodegradable, they are less likely to cause allergic reactions in rats. You can clear them out and use them as organic compost material.
Choose the Best Rat Hemp Bedding with Canapa Oro’s Italian Hemp
At Canapa Oro, we deliver the finest Italian hemp beddings that are dust extracted, highly absorbent, and ideal for nestling, digging, and foraging. We specialize in quality, easy-to-install hemp beddings for chickens, horses, reptiles, and small animals.
You can order our small animal hemp bedding by the bag, container, or truckload, and we ship across the U.S. We understand how important the comfort of your pet is to you. Feel free to send us a note today on our website or call us at 866.322.5989. We’ll be happy to quote you on how much rat bedding you need and help you during the order process.