Bedding for my rats cage

Question
QUESTION: My daughter Crystalyn has 2 pet Dumbo Rats, both males. Since we have had them we use Carefresh pet bedding. I think that it works very well, but it is expensive! I am looking for a cheaper type of bedding because we don't have very much money. I have heard of people using fleece for bedding and then you can wash it and re-use it. Is this OK to do? Is it dangerous in any way? If it is OK to use fleece, do you shred it or keep it in large pieces? Any advice on bedding would be greatly appreciated:) Thanks

ANSWER: You can do it but its really messy.  What I do is litter train them and this way the only place the litter goes is in the litter pan. I put down fleece just to line the cage instead of having them walk all over the plastic floor plus it seems so hollow and cold, and I put aspen in the litter tray, which can be anything, even a cardboard shoe box but if you use that, prepare to change out a new box every few weeks.  Litter training them saves tons of money.  If not, you can still buy a nice big bag of aspen for $7.99 and it lasts a month or two.

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QUESTION: They are potty trained. I guess I was looking for something cheaper and more warm and cozy for the winter. I am a CLEAN FREAK and I clean the cage out very often because they are boys and I know that they pee all over to mark their territory, right? So, you are saying that it is OK to have fleece for their bedding, as long as they are potty trained, right? Thanks so much for the advice!!!

ANSWER: Oh yes yes sure, the fleece is fine.  I tend to forget bedding is bedding and litter is litter. I give my rats white bounty paper towels to rip up make nests in their hidey huts. So I guess I use paper towels for bedding and aspen for litter. I never really looked at it that way and always thought of bedding and litter as one of the same....which I am wrong, they are not used for the same thing I guess. So yes, fleece is fine.  I line the cage with fleece cut to fit the entire bottom of the cage and they dont urinate on it since they go in their litter pan. I have males too, all intact, but they are old men, ages 2 and 3.5 years old and sleep more than anything else. The lazy lugs actually go back in their cage during playtime, worn out or bored or whatever....but about 30 mins later, if I cant find them, all I need to do is look in their huts or hammocks and there they are, snoozing.

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QUESTION: I have another problem with my rats. We have had them for about 4 months and they are about 8 or 9 months old. One is much bigger than the other and it is very obvious that the bigger one is the boss. They have never had any kind of fight until 3 days ago. The larger rat beat up the smaller rat pretty bad. Nobody saw what happened but the smaller injured rat was not able to walk for 24 hours. He just layed there on my daughters bed and would not move much. If he did move at all he would just move a few inches and he would drag his hind legs and pull with his front legs. We were very concerned. I told me daughter that we would call the vet if he was not better within a day. By the next day he was better, has was walking. And now I think he is almost recovered. But when you touch him a certain way he will still cry and squeak. But he is able to run and jump and climb. Do you think he will be OK and heal on his own? I would also like to know what to do about the bigger rat. Ever since the fight he is a bully to the smaller rat. I bought him another cage and separated them for a day. I am trying to get them to live in the same cage again and when I put them together the bigger rat keeps bullying the smaller rat. Today he made the smaller rat bleed a little bit on his nose. How do I know what to do? I don't want them to live alone and be sad but I don't want them fighting either. Where do you draw the line????

P.S. How can you tell if your rat is peeing outside of the cage or litterbox. It is such a small amout how do you see it or feel it???

Answer
This is the age that males go through puberty. Sometimes due to hormones, esp testosterone, they feel the need to be the alpha.  The bully may outgrow it, but to be honest, I would make it easy on everyone and have him neutered by a qualified exotic vet (if you need one, I will find one for you) Remember, its best to find an exotic specialist that is certified but many times you will simply find a general vet that sees exotics and there is a huge difference.  Anyhow, the surgery is not real invasive like a spay and they heal pretty fast. I have had to have a few males neutered due to aggression with other rats and after that they were sweet as pie to each other.  I would really think about it because if the males hormones cannot level out due to the way he was bred (was he a pet store rat, by chance?) he may never stop trying to be the king of the cage and will really hurt the more submissive rat worse than ever.  Sounds like the little guy twisted his leg pretty good and by laying around being immobile, he healed. usually we isolate them when this occurs and give them anti-inflammatories like metacam or childrens ibuprofen.  If it were a break he would not have been up and about as fast. Vets (exotics at least) are able to fix a broken leg in rats by inserting a tiny pin in the leg to make it stable and to set it so it heals properly!

As for knowing if they urinate outside the litter pan...if they are going in the same spot, it will eventually smell or get sticky.
Males also mark with urine and there is not much you can do about it....well wait I  take that back....neutering helps a bit with that if its territorial. In the wild  , rats travel at night often in tunnels and they will mark their trail with urine. This is one way for them to find their way back to their nest so they dont lose their way, kind of like Hansel and Gretel and the trail of bread crumbs.    They may even pee on you, which, gross as it sounds, is the highest compliment a rat can give his keeper. This means he is marking you as HIS property. Now thats love!  :)