What can I line my rat cage with?

[MrsLego]

I got two female rats at the weekend and don't know what to use as cage lining. They have kitchen roll at the moment, but they are quite smelly. I've always used woodshavings for the rabbit, hamster and chickens, but have read this is no good for rats. So what does everyone else use? Thanks

[drivinmecrazy]

We've tried various things, but favourite of ours and the rats is masses of shredded paper. We take donations from all our friends so are never short. Benefits are that it's free, easy to change and the ratties love making little nests all over the place. their favourite day is Sunday (if) when DD changes the paper, they spend an hour busying themselves rearranging the cage. We haven't found any disadvantages, except maybe the volume we need but friends are very generous with their rubbish

[drivinmecrazy]

Also we've found the wee can smell more depending on what you are feeding them

[Naoko]

I use Aubiose hemp. It's incredible stuff, really keeps smells down and the rats like digging around in it too. You need somewhere to store it though because it comes in huge bales.

[Naoko]

Oh and they get shredded paper too for nest building, I agree new paper day is their favourite :o

[midori1999]

Lots of people use Carefresh, which is available at Pets At Home now. I have tried shredded paper, but found it got really messy and disgusting tbh.

I've used Easibed, which is a horse bedding and similar to auboise, that worked quite well.

[MurderOfGoths]

We used cat litter made of recycled paper or Carefresh along with shredded paper and we also found that using a small amount of this under all the litter helped.