Peace, Love & Rats!!
BEDDING!!!
Bedding is an essential part of rat care & has the requirement with rats of needing to be LOW DUST & CONTROL AMMONIA. This is the number 1 importance as ratties have sensitive little respiratory systems. Because of these sensitive respiratory systems they also can not have bedding with ANY added scents. There are a few avenues to take when looking at bedding and I will recommend my favorites down below!
PS. There may be alternative brands than what I recommend, just use these as a guideline to get something similar.
I DO NOT recommend ANY paper bedding that is not pelleted, they have horrible odor control & even with most saying dust free, they are usually all incredibly dusty which leads to many issues with URIs.
1. KILN DRIED PINE OR ASPEN:
Kiln dried pine is what I personally use. It is cost effective & the best thing I have found for my rats that controls ammonia very well & is low dust. Aspen is your other choice when it comes to wood flakes but it is pricey. The only con of these is if you do not like wood smell. You want to get flakes & not fine shavings as these will be too dusty. I get mine from my local feed/farm store.
2. PELLETED PAPER BEDDING:
This is a great option as well and one I started out with.I switched for cost reason but for someone with 6 or less rats this is a good option. you MUST get an unscented one.
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/purina-yesterdays-news-unscented-cat-litter
3. FLEECE:
Fleece is only a viable option for someone with few rats, or someone who is planning on potty training their rats. It will require MUCH more cleaning than regular bedding and they will chew and destroy the fleece eventually/often.