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Author Topic: Freezing Bedding?  (Read 142 times)
DracheDame
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« on: November 17, 2008, 11:01:33 AM »

I've seen a couple posts about freezing bedding. I use Carefresh. What is the point of freezing bedding?
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Selestine
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« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2008, 11:10:52 AM »

Bedding can have mites and other nasties living in it.  Freezing it for 24-48 hours kills off the little buggies and then when you put it into your rats' cage, you won't end up with an infestation.

Not all bags of bedding *will* have bugs in them, but you never know.  Better to be safe than sorry!
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DracheDame
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« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2008, 11:12:40 AM »

Hmm...Interesting. i never thought about that in bedding, but I have definitely come across weevils in the seed. >.<
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Selestine
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« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2008, 11:16:48 AM »

You can freeze their food before use, too.

Curiously, do you feed seed mix to your rats?  If so, you may want to look at switching to a quality lab block (such as Harlan Teklad or Oxbow Regal Rat) or a homemade mixture such as Suebee's and dog food.  Seed mixes don't provide adequate nutrition for rats.
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Shazza
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« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2008, 12:49:13 PM »

Hmm...Interesting. i never thought about that in bedding, but I have definitely come across weevils in the seed. >.<
oh god yes, i had weevils in seed once T____T  this particular type i had gotten was different from what i normally get because my normal kind was out that day, and this type had bits of dried fruit in it (which the rats loved.)  apparently they were in the fruit and one day i was mixing the boys' food before bed and had just gotten Ian's bowl done and was going for Ahren's when i noticed a bug crawling out up the side of the bag.

so naturally, i squealed and jumped back like 2 feet ahahha.

in less than two minutes the bag was COVERED in weevils T_____T it was the nastiest thing i had ever seen.  i checked Ian's bowl to make sure he didn't have bugs in there since i'd noticed them after i mixed his food, but luckily there were none.  my boyfriend and i spent the next 5 minutes hunting down weevils in the carpet and killing them  icon_puke_r  thankfully i had moved the seed to a big ziplock bag so i could close it and keep the buggers inside.


and in case anyone asks they eat Suebees but i can't buy the corn and sunflower seed seperately so i buy the seed mixes and just pick out the bad stuff lol.  my family thinks i'm crazy and OCD because i'll be sitting there with 3 big bowls of rat food picking the tiniest thing out haha
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Selestine
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« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2008, 12:53:10 PM »

Have you considered ordering sunflower seeds online?  You could likely save yourself a fair amount of money over buying a big bag of things that you're mostly going to throw out just to get a few sunflower seeds!

Also, you don't have to use sunflower seeds.  You can throw in another seed that is available to you locally.  I wouldn't worry too much about hunting around for corn to give to them -- corn isn't considered a high priority in a rat diet, and I know many people won't even consider a food with corn as a main ingredient.  Dried corn is even considered harmful to rats.
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Pink
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« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2008, 03:08:08 PM »

I don't believe Suebee's calls for corn.  Like Selestine said, it can harbor fungus and mold.

I replace the sunflower seeds with pumpkin seeds sometimes, they LOVE it.  Does your grocery store have a bulk food section?  I can buy unsalted sesame seeds there.

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DracheDame
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« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2008, 03:32:50 PM »

I feed my rats an easy mix. One bowl with LM Lab Blocks and Oxbow, and another bowl with LM Vita-Vittles (A seed mix). I know that seed mixes alone aren't good, but they seem to be happy eating mostly Oxbow and lab blocks.
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PotHBP
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« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2008, 07:35:15 PM »

Is 24 hours good enough, though?
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