# wood chippings instead of carefresh?



## Maplewood Stud (Jan 2, 2009)

heya,

have just been to the petshop and the carefresh in there has got so expensive, nearly £5 for a small bag.. i was taking it to the till anyway but then saw a bag of wood chippings that was a lot cheaper, so i picked them up instead to give them a try...
has anyone used small wood chippings before, theyre little pieces of wood and have no dust or smell to them so i figured theyd be ok..

i will post a pic and get some answers from u guys to make sure its ok before i use it  x


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## Maplewood Stud (Jan 2, 2009)

ive also just gone and got some paper pellet litter, biocatolet..
gonna try using this too. as carefresh is getting so expensive..... :roll:


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## Effy (Dec 30, 2008)

I've never used wood chippings, but I know that occasionally, they can be pretty much the same as shavings, phenol and dust wise...but obviously, couldn't say more than that!
As for paper cat litter, just make sure it's got no clay in and that it's not rock solid. =]


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

I LOVE Biocatolet! It smells absolutely fab for days, but sadly they don't do it big enough bags for me to bother with, I'd need about 5 bags a week. If I only had a few cages to worry about or they sold 15kg bags, it's definately what I'd use.

I have a friend who keeps her rats on the reptile woodchippings and she likes it, but I found it rather unabsorbant.

Sarah xxx


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## Maplewood Stud (Jan 2, 2009)

they do do it in 15kg bags hunni at pets at home, they had the bigger bags yesterday... i went in there cause carefresh is generally cheaper in there.. but they had some rats in there and theyd used the paper pellet litter in the bottom of their cage so i asked if itd be ok for mice and the guy said yes.... i brought the smaller bag thats still got more in than carefresh and i think it was just under £4, i thoughtd itd be worth a go as long as u guys thought it was ok.
the wood chippings are.. i dunno how to describe it, they are like little chunks of wood like bark rather than shavings and as 1 of u mentioned its the sort often used in reptile tanks, it doesnt smell and above all unlike carefresh it doesnt have tonnes of dust in it so i thought itd be generally better for them?
im cleaning them out in a while and will probably give that paper litter a go, as long as u think its ok? x
will wait for a reply before doing so. x


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

That's great, I shall try and find some 15kg bags now i know they exist  I used to use that just for litters because it really does keep the smell down in the house, and rat litters are smelly. I'll bed all my animals on Biocatolet if I can find the big bags.

Neither of your two options will cause any harm, so don't worry. I found that the wee collects underneath the wood chippings rather than being soaked up, but that was for rats so it might be ok for mice.

Sarah xxx


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## Maplewood Stud (Jan 2, 2009)

here u go sarah, i found the petsathome.com link for the biocatolet...
its a 25 litre bag and its £8.99
http://www.petsathome.com/find/category ... t-is-19975
hope this helps.... 
i cleaned rusty and smokey out today and used the biocatolet pellets, they are brilliant and id definately recommend...theyre not dusty at all and u dont need to use a lot.. am really pleased..x


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

Thanks hun, much appreciated! 

Sarah xxx


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## Maplewood Stud (Jan 2, 2009)

no worries,  xxx


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## sarahh (Mar 6, 2009)

I like Carefresh we use it for our mice and alot of the hamsters aswell. We get the large bags either from pets at home or I order online at VetUk. I use megazorb for the rest of the hammies. I'm personally not a fan of shavings because of the dust.


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## bud (Feb 22, 2009)

Hi could you plz tell me what the best litter is for keeping smell down im using shavings at the moment


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## Paul (Jan 3, 2009)

Hi Steve - I use Aubiose and find it is very good at keeping the smells down. You can buy it from horse supply shops.


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