Help...Confusion Re Nesting/Bedding

[Jill Bayles]

Well now I've managed to get myself totally confused over this.

Am I right in thinking that bedding is for the bottom of the cage and nesting means nesting material?

If so then I intend to use Megazorb as bedding and toilet paper for nesting.

Will I also need cat litter for the bottom of that cage or not? If needed what purpose does it serve when mixed in with Megazorb?

Do I need to separate and shred the layers of toilet paper or just put a big handful in a corner of the cage torn off the roll and does it go in a nesting box?

Any help that you can give would be greatly appreciated as that would ease my troubled mind...

[SnuggleHam]

Allot of people use the the words "bedding" and "nesting" freely when speaking about each. "Bedding" to me is what lines the bottom of the cage. Its what the hammy lives on. Another word to call this that might stir up less confusion between people is "substrate"

Nesting material to me would be the extra materials you can give you ham to sleep in. I use aspen bedding for my rodents and give them un-dyed unscented tissue paper for their nesting material.

When I give my hams their toilet/tissue paper I just put the whole ply in and then let them shred it. They seem to love to do it, and they know just where it should go But you could tear it up a bit and just place it anywhere in the cage. They will move it around anyway.

Now who told you to use cat litter? There is no need for any cat littler whatsoever! You could offer a sand bath using the chinchilla sand found at pet stores. (makes sure its sand, not power or dust) But no cat litter. That would probably feel awfully scratchy in their feet.. who does that? Plus most litters these days have clumping properties in it. I would think cat litter would be harmful to a hamster.

[racinghamster]

I think the cat litter/substrate thing comes from people saying they use this as an alternative to shavings because of the phenols in shavings. European shavings are fine however. I use Chipsi-Classic shavings from Spruce based woods in Germany for both my hamsters and gerbils.

The paper based cat litters are Bob Martins 100% paper based cat litter (Asda stores at around £1.95p a bag). I used this for a short while but have went back to shavings. It was okay, but it`s quite dark and does`nt move around aswell as shavings for digging around in.

Megazorb is wood based and is primarily a horse bedding. Lots of Rat keepers use it and I had a sack but found it smelled a bit like chicken poo! I gave up on that too! Although I can`t source it easily anyway.

Basically, Litter/Substrate is what covers the floor in the UK and bedding is what they nest with. x

[Jill Bayles]

I'm with you now...I read in another thread on here about mixing cat litter in with the bedding but that seems to be for other hamster breeds so I'll stick with the Megazorb and the loo roll thanks

[SnuggleHam]

Well, I know I would never use cat litter for my hamsters.

[souffle]

You can get a type of cat litter (Morrisons own paper based) that is very like Carefresh which some people use. At shows long haired hamsters are shown on wood based cat litter and some people keep their long hairs on this but it does not look very comfy to me. We use wood shavings on the floor which are readily available and the chipped J Cloth bedding. Put this under one end of the platform bit in your cage. If you ask the breeder to give you some of the old bedding from the hammies cage and add this in it will help him settle quickly. I would shred the toilet paper but maybe mine are lazy

[Jill Bayles]

I got some Megazorb today from Farmway near where I live...18kilos for about £5 and I've fallen in love with it already cos it's lovely and soft and has a "fluffy" feel to it. I don't think I need to mix anything else in with it. From what I've seen when I've been shopping around (and believe you me I've done a whole lot of that this week) it's a lot cheaper than shavings or the other types of bedding around.

I'll see how I go with the loo roll!