Aspen Pellets

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.