Aspen Pellets

This came to mind from another thread, so I wanted to keep this in its proper place. I started using aspen pellets for my rodents. I thought I would share my experience with this substrate as I was using pine shavings.

In using the aspen pellets I found that I now have a pleasent aspen smell instead of that fowl rodent smell(you know that smell that never goes away no matter how often you clean the cages). I have a control group that I have not changed the substrate in two and a half weeks, I have added extra aspen pellets once 4 days ago. The smell is still pleasent aspen. My other cages I have changed 5 times now. I should also mention I have twice the number of rodents in my control group than I have in all my other cages. Up to this point I am sold on these aspen pellets as far as the aroma aspect.

My other side of this little experiment of mine is will the snakes eating habits change because of this new substrate? Will they stop eating because the rodents do not smell like the rodents they are used to eating?

As of this point my snakes have not changed their eating habits at all because of the smell difference. The snakes I am feeding are my strongest eating. My strong feeders have all eaten without any hesitation.

I also have 4 snakes that are problem eaters that I included in all of this. I have tried feeding them once so far, 1 Surinam and 1 Ball Python has eaten 1 Surinam and 1 Ball Python have not. The 2 Ball pythons and 2 Surinam Boa Constrictors are my problem feeders. Up to this first feeding each of the problem snakes had eaten 3 weeks ago(surprised me too) rodents that were kept on the pine shavings for bedding.

This experiment of mine is small and has not been used for a long enough time to give large numbers. I am currently using 52 snakes in this project, including the 4 problem eaters.

This is a little something for me to do while I sit through my boredom. Hope it will help, I will give updates in the future if anyone is interested. If this does not make sense I blame the heat.

Michael, can I ask what brand of aspen pellets you're trying? The only one I am familiar with is made by Green Pet and is called Aspen Supreme. It's marketed especially for small animals, and I can honestly say that it would be the LAST bedding I would want my rodents on. It doesn't smell like aspen, and turns to mush as soon as it gets peed on. Within two days, the odor is unbearable. I'd like to know if there are any brands out there that are worth trying though, as I haven't necessarily given up on the idea of pelleted aspen. (right now I'm using pelleted recycled newspaper)

Good luck with your experiment. Let us know what your conclusion is.

Interesting Paul that is the brand I am currently using. With the pine shavings the smell of ammonia would be present within two days. I have been having good luck so far.

I got the idea from a friend of mine who breeds rodents for a side business, breeding thousands of mice and rats. He referred me to the aspen pellets, his facility did not smell like ammonia. I should also mention my friend buys his pellets in 100 pound bags at a time from a private manufacturer. He only cleans out his cages once a month.

There is also Barnaby Farms that sells aspen pellets. We did try the newspaper pellets but they did not seem to do too well for us.

Is your home a humid place? That is what I am thinking may cause the results you are having compared to mine. I am in the dry desert so it could be causing a difference for me. The pellets do not mush up, just turns to a sawdust, which I am linking to the dryness out here, I am thinking the rodent pee drys out really fast. Humidity out here is 10-12% So maybe this whole little experiment is only good for dry weather. I can understand if the area is humid there would be a problem with aspen substrate.

Something else I am looking into is wood stove pellets. I have read that some people buy these for their rodents, the only downfall is they normally only sell during fall through spring. So at the moment I am out of luck, but I will be looking at all the brands out there as soon as they are back on the market here, I know that the woodstove pellets carry a strong odor. So I figure I can give that a try also.

huh... well it has been a while since I've used them, and I noticed they changed their packaging so perhaps they've reformulated or something as well. For a while we were using it at the store where I used to work in rat, mouse, guinea pig and ferret cages, and the whole room would just stink by the end of the day, even though it was changed every morning. It was not excessively humid in there, but the ventilation left a lot to be desired. The smell stopped when we switched over to pelleted paper (Good Mews) and regular old pine shavings. Maybe I'll pick up a bag next time I'm in there. It's been at least a year since I've used it.

I have been tempted to try the Feline Pine pelleted litter. For some reason, I would just assume that something made for cats would do a decent job at controlling odor.

PaulSage said:

huh... well it has been a while since I've used them, and I noticed they changed their packaging so perhaps they've reformulated or something as well. For a while we were using it at the store where I used to work in rat, mouse, guinea pig and ferret cages, and the whole room would just stink by the end of the day, even though it was changed every morning. It was not excessively humid in there, but the ventilation left a lot to be desired. The smell stopped when we switched over to pelleted paper (Good Mews) and regular old pine shavings. Maybe I'll pick up a bag next time I'm in there. It's been at least a year since I've used it.

I have been tempted to try the Feline Pine pelleted litter. For some reason, I would just assume that something made for cats would do a decent job at controlling odor.

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Paul, I am trying pelleted wood but it is not the same brand y'all mention, will let y'all know how it works out. I do not have high hopes after your review, however: it is 100% pine and you can't reformulate that. I have tried Good Mews and liked it, though.

lucille said:

Paul, I am trying pelleted wood but it is not the same brand y'all mention, will let y'all know how it works out. I do not have high hopes after your review, however: it is 100% pine and you can't reformulate that. I have tried Good Mews and liked it, though.

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Lucille, I see what you mean but I think a lot of it has to do with how they process the wood/paper. For example, there are three pelleted paper beddings that I have tried: Good Mews, Yesterday's News and Cell-Sorb Plus. I have used all three, and I can definitely say that Good Mews wins hands down. The other two seem to have a weaker pellet structure and there is a considerable amount of more dust in the bag. Good Mews seems to almost have some sort of sheath around the pellets that keeps them from breaking down as easily. Also, I think the Good Mews has a much better scent to it than the other two.

There are two other recycled paper beddings out there that I have tried: Care Fresh and Pet's Preference. Care Fresh looks more like shredded egg carton, seems to be rather dusty but is incredibly absorbent. Pet's Preference is a much smaller particle size and has the lowest dust content of any paper bedding I've tried so far. I've been mixing the Care Fresh 50/50 with pine shavings for some of the rodent tanks, and it seems to last quite a bit longer because it doesn't pack down easily.

FWIW, that's just my opinion and experience with different beddings. But I am still tempted to try some of the other wood pellets, as I am in search of the perfect bedding for my Freedom Breeder mouse rack.

I have tried the CareFRESH Pet Bedding which I would recommend running from, it is like the Yesterday's News after it has been used, it seems to not dry out and does not contain the smells. Again I think a lot has to do with the fact that the weather here is so dry, so if the substrate dries out quickly after being urinated on than there is less odor to remain, than the pellets have a better chance of containing the smell.

I work with ammonia, if it is not replenished than the smell does not stay around, it does dissipate. If I continue to refill the ammonia than the smell will stick around. Similar to the rodents, they urinate constantly on the substrate, thus replenishing the ammonia, if it dries out fast it does not linger.

I only use a handful of pellets, just enough to cover the bottom of the cage, were the pine shavings and Carefresh I was adding about 1/2 to 1 inch depth of the substrate. It seems that much substrate would not allow any airflow causing the urine to not dry out. The pellets just barely covering the cage would easily dry.

So that is my theory....

Junkyard said:

Again I think a lot has to do with the fact that the weather here is so dry, so if the substrate dries out quickly after being urinated on than there is less odor to remain, than the pellets have a better chance of containing the smell.

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That could very well be. I wish it wasn't so humid here. On top of the climate, all my animals are kept in the basement. Even though I have a dehumidifier and a gigantic fan running 24/7 down there, the humidity still stays pretty high. Having large fish tanks doesn't help I'm sure.

In all fairness, I should really try the aspen pellets again now that I have the new racks. Those tubs are only a few inches deep, and the last time I've used the aspen pellets was in 10 gallon tanks which are 12" high. Perhaps with better air circulation and lower humidity, the pellets really would do the trick.

I'll pick up a 2nd dehumidifier and a bag of the aspen pellets within the next few days. It would be nice if they work out because from what I remember they're significantly cheaper than the paper pellets.
Thanks Michael.

I hope it works for you, I have trouble sometimes making sure my tanks are humid enough. I am constantly spraying down my reptiles, I had built my own cage which is holding humidity really well, I know because my Green Tree Pythons are in there shedding very well. Also it is really large 2x2x2 feet cube. Let us know how it goes. I will keep adding to this later on with my results, I am still in the early stages and I have a lot to feed. I am starting to convert pellets in a few other rodent cages as well. But I still have not changed out my main control cage.

I love the Barnaby Farms pellets. But I don't use them for my rodents. I use pine shavings and I sprinkle baking soda in the shavings when I change them. I also use 8 drops of imitation vanilla extract to the water in the 8-13 ounce water bottles I use. It knocks down the odor tremendously.

A word of caution when using vanilla extract. You cannot use the vanilla in the water if you have a watering system like is used on the Freedom Breeder racks. I did this, it causes blockages in the hoses.

Well, my wife decided she did not like the "looks" of aspen pellets, so she added some pine shavings to my control group. That was not a good idea as I now need to change the substrate out all togther. Adding the pine shavings to the substrate was a bad idea as I noticed a difference within 2 days of the pine being mixed in, now the substrate is starting to smell. So I get the opportunity of starting all over. Here I was thinking I was on to something that would really help me out in controlling the smell of rodents. Oh well. I guess after 3 1/2 weeks without changing the substrate is pretty good rather than every other day.

I use the aspen supreme and a similar product from sun seed "aspen crumbles" on the majority of my display snakes and many of my lizards. I have found it to be the best substrate I have used by far. I wouldn't use it on my rodents however because of the cost. I don't like to let my rodents go more than 3 or 4 days 5 max without cleaning no matter what they smell like so the aspen pellets would probably be prohibitively expensive.

Steve

I know this is old but I just wanted to post the results of having tried the aspen pellets again.

Basically, my opinion still stands as far as the aspen pellets being a poor bedding for rodents. I had changed out the Good Mews pelleted paper bedding with the previously mention Green Pet "Aspen Supreme" in my FB rack. I had to change it back a few days later. The odor after just 2-3 days was worse than Good Mews at 2 weeks.

The aspen pellets broke down and turned into dust which got compacted in one corner of the tubs. The Good Mews holds its shape really well and doesn't deteriorate anywhere near as fast as the aspen did.

I had actually left one of the gerbil tubs with the aspen in it, and I could still smell that ONE TUB. I think it must be influenced by personal preference though, because I can barely stand the smell of the aspen pellets when I open a new bag of it. For some reason it reminds me of ferrets.