Ever since we bought our three home we have used woodshavings - largely because a pack came with the starter kit and that's what they were using in the store... if ain't broke don't fix it right?
Well not strictly true.
One of the draw backs of having Degus in a cage is that as burrowing animals they like to kick their bedding about and in the early days we would end up sweeping our lounge two or three times a day depending on what mood they were in (thank God for laminate flooring), not to mention the fact they would end up with very little floor covering after a few days.
In order to try and combat this I added four inches of kiln dried pine all round the cage.
This worked well to keep the mess down but the Degus and my good lady were unhappy because they could no longer see the bottom level clearly - the goos couldn't be noise and we couldn't view them.
As a compromise I lowered the front panel by two inches.
However this meant that we would still get some mess.
And the Goos would have lots of pine to gnaw through at the side of the cage...
With the planning of the new Degu palace I sought to eradicate that problem by creating a digging pit and putting them behind sliding doors but wheels began to turn towards us getting a rabbit and I was keen to get a universal bedding that could be shared by both pets and bought in bulk for a reasonable price.
Enter Finacard
To steal some promotional blurb off their website:
Traditionally, for small animals the most common form of bedding/substrate has been woodshavings. They have been readily available and have been relatively inexpensive. Of recent, woodshavings have become a lot more expensive and questions have been raised regarding its suitability for small animals, especially soft wood pine shavings. Now various alternatives to shavings are available. One of the alternative is FinaCARD shredded cardboard animal bedding.
FinaCARD shredded cardboard bedding is an environmentally friendly alternative to woodshavings. It provides a healthier, cleaner environment for all small animals.
FinaCARD shredded cardboard animal bedding is produced from virgin unused cardboard, ensuring that the bedding is as clean as possible. FinaCARD shredded cardboard bedding is very different from other cardboard bedding. It is very much finely shredded cardboard bedding. The way it is produced makes it much more springy and livelier. It tends to be a lot more bouncier than square cut cardboard bedding.
When one thinks of cardboard bedding, one of the first thoughts is that it will be rough harsh uncomfortable bedding. The way FinaCARD is produced, it makes the bedding surprisingly soft and comfortable and kind to the little feet.
During the production process, FinaCARD is dust extracted. The process makes the bedding virtually dust free. This provides a cleaner, healthier enviornment for your animals. Most small animals have a very sensitive respiratory system and dusty environment trigger off respiratory infections. Being dust extracted, FinaCARD minimises this dust hazard.
This sounded ideal to me and we placed our first order the week before this little cutey arrived.
The Finacard arrived within 3 days which considering it is free delivery was awesome.
And the amount was huge.
The maxi-bale filled a domestic black rubbish bin and a black rubbish sack so it was well worth the price and will last for ages.
In addition to this we got the 'Soft Nest bedding' add on to the bale.
This is a softer tissue paper for the nesting box/rabbit bed.
Having lived with it for two weeks now I can say it is great - it does the rabbit hutch very well.
And the Degus love it.
This is in part due to the occasional 'treasure' of a large chunk of cardboard that hasn't been shredded down and both animals grab these with joy and run around like crazy before ripping them up.
From our perspective the larger pieces don't come out of the cage as much as woodshavings, meaning we are not constantly sweeping, the carcboard is actually very soft and extremely absorbent and a bale will seriously outlast the same amount (money wise) as shavings.
No comments:
Post a Comment