Question About Droppings Pan

[Angelyco]

Hello,

I am a new chin owner and the cage I have has a wire grid bottom, then a pan that slides out underneath that all the waste goes into. Right now we are using Carefresh bedding in the bottom, but since our chin won't be in contact with it, and it uses a LOT of bedding to cover the surface, would it harm anything to just line the pan with newspaper instead?

I tried to search for this and saw some people were concerned about the ink and ingestion of newspaper if it was in the cage WITH the chin, but that isn't the case here.

Just wanted some more seasoned opinions before doing anything that might be a safety issue!

Thank you!

 

[tunes]

I would use kiln dried pine. It's the best at absorbing odor, you only need to clean it once a week, and the chin can't splashthe shavings all over the place because he can't reach it. Biggest bonus, it's super cheap, around $5.00 for a very large bale that will last 1 chin months and months.

You'll also need to put down some marble tiles or wood to get your chin off the wire all the time. I am not a fan of wire bottoms, I think it can lead to infections in the feet when they get cracks in the feet. I would either cover most of the bottom or find a way to yank it out.

Welcome.

 

[Angelyco]

She has a tile, a chew tube, and a ledge to get off the wire. She actually likes to just sit in her wheel a lot.

I can't use pine or any wood beddings, my husband has allergies and they bother him pretty bad. Thankfully her hay doesn't bother him.

 

[Stackie]

What about aspen? I am really allergic to pine, but aspen doesn't bother me.

 

[Angelyco]

I have no problems with Carefresh - I was more hoping to not have to use bedding at all for her cage. Newspaper would be easier to clean up, cheaper, and go through less bedding in general. I have 4 other cages (rats, gerbils, mouse) that already use Carefresh and I wouldn't change what they use, so it would either be Carefresh or newspaper. I'm really just looking for if newspaper used as a lining, nowhere in contact with the chin, is a good or bad idea, or if there might be some health issue because of it that I don't know about.

 

[Maia]

My chin has 4 tiles on his floor, and he really only stands on the wire in the middle of the cage floor to pee. Just give him lots of places to sit not on the wire, and brush the poos into the wire-floored areas every day.

I use aspen also, but I guess if you have wood allergies maybe that's not a good idea. Carefresh is so expensive.

 

[tunes]

Newspaper isn't going to be absorbent enough, IMO, to work as bedding for a chin. I suppose if you change it several times a day it might work, but to me it would be more hassle than it's worth.

As far as newspaper, you can pretty much eat it and it won't hurt you.

 

[Angelyco]

I honestly have no idea how often she pees, we've had her less than a week and haven't had to change the bedding pan yet (I was told once a week). If they pee that often that it would need to be changed several times a day, then I don't think newspaper would be that good of an idea.

 

[Chin_Up_Sunshine]

I used newspaper for about a week, before I decided it wasn't worth it. It tore a lot when trying to pick it up and poos just sort of rolled around a lot. It also didn't do much to help with the urine smell. Sure chins don't have much odor on their own, but the urine soaking did have an odor, though maybe not super strong, but it was enough that I decided to stop. I've been using some aspen shaving and I love it. No smell and I only have to trade it out once or twice a week instead of once or twice a day

 

[Angelyco]

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for, I appreciate it!

 

[Chin_Up_Sunshine]

Glad to help!

 

[Geistkatze]

My cage is the same way- slide out pan covered by wire and tile flooring. I just use newspapers and I change them once a week and it's never smelly/super dirty. Aspen is pretty good too but the newspaper is way easier and free.