Hay For Rats?

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cookiemistress

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I'm just wondering wether its safe to give hay to rats, to play in or for bedding etc????????
He is now very lazy and is sleeping most the day :shout: Lucky for some who dont have to work :D
 
Lots of the really fussy people say NOOOO to hay because it might poke their eyes or have sharp bits blah blah blah... I used to think so because everyone told me that and it made sense!!

But when i was breeding rats, mice and hamsters (about 3-4 species of each) i used a lot of hay and we must have had *thousands* of rodents pass through the doors whether bought, bred or rescued and we never hadeven a single eye poking incident with hay!! I think its one of those things where one or two people had a problem and caused mass hysteria over it via the internet.

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That said... there is one important factor!!

Doesnt matter where the hay comes from, all farmers have rabbits, mice, voles, rats, foxes etc running about in and living in the hayfield. This means than about 6/10 lots of hay have a parasite of somekind in it, and only about 1/6 time of that does it actually cause a problem. The most common being the little white lice... absolute beasts to get rid of and reproduce enough to drain a rodent of blood!!

My advise...

Buy smaller bags of hay so it isnt left around for ages, buy two bags so you have two going and get some of the Beaphar Insect Repellant (kills all lice, mites, fleas and ticks and also acts as deterrant) and open a bag and spray the insect repellant in and give bag a good shake... leave a few days before using....

If you have 2 bags of hay, you can have one sprays and drying for a few days whilst you use up the other bag and so on...

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Look at the hay, does it have lots of big bits in? Sharp and uncomfy... or does it have lots of dust in the bottom of the bag (or on the outside of the bag for that matter! dont use hay thats been in a petshop for ages! gets dry and musty).

Timothy hay is better...

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Try getting a kitchen roll tube, cutting a few holes in it, stuffing it with hay and a few treats (ones that smell strong) and using string, wire or cable ties, hang it up in the cage!! Instant rat toy!! (might take em a while to figure it out tho!)
 
well, they can't digest it from what I have heard, so if you were wanting to add it to their diet, it wouldn't be worth it. As litter, I would be meh about it, I don't find hay/straw to be worthwhile in terms of absorbancy, and in a cage in your house, it's gonna end up everywhere, it's also not exactly hypoallergenic if anyone in the house happens to have grass/hay allergies. If it's just something for the rat to play in, though, it's probably fine.

Look for soft hay, orchard grass and second cutting hay is usually soft, but may be pricey.

as for parasites, this is certainly a concern, but I wouldn't bother spraying the hay itself. I don't know the stuff that was recommended, but I'd be concerned about my rats ingesting it. Monthly dosing with Revolution will take care of any lice or mites that your rat might pick up from hay, or other bedding. You'd need something different if you suspected internal parasites.

personally, I would just avoid it all 'round. Shredded paper is a safer thing to offer as nesting material and in digging boxes.
 
The Beaphar spray is ok sprayed on the hay, stops them spreading through the house to other animals and 2-3 sprays (barely enough treatment for a guinea pig) in a whole bag of hay is going to kill parasites but not cause damage.

Rats can digest hay (what do you think the grass pellets in their food are? Alfalfa is just a form of hay!) but it also makes good nesting material (they make nests out of dried grass (aka....hay) in the wild.... and it can make grey toys and fun for them to bury in and play with!
 
Rats can digest hay (what do you think the grass pellets in their food are? Alfalfa is just a form of hay!) but it also makes good nesting material (they make nests out of dried grass (aka....hay) in the wild.... and it can make grey toys and fun for them to bury in and play with!


As I said, I am working off of anecdotal evidence, but I would say that the alfalfa pellets in some foods are probably more, if not fully, digestible, because they are chopped up specifically to BE more digestible. I don't believe you will find that with stalks of hay, I find it unlikely that the rats would chew it enough to gain much nutrition from it. In any case, my rats have never shown the least bit of interest in doing anything with hay other than kicking it around and making a mess, and they aren't fed any food that has a remarkable amount of it, if any.

I agree, as nesting material and for digging boxes, it has its place, but for GENERAL bedding or as a purposeful addition to the diet, meh, I'm not a fan.
 
I never used hay or wood shavings with my rats (used to have 6 girls and two boys- the boys of course were kept seperate from each other and the girls) and I used to use a granula wheat product kitty litter with the rats as well as a news paper kitty litter (it was processed into pellets) but by far the best base for the rat enclosures was lucerne kitty litter. Even though the rats never stank (like mice :sick: do), I found the lucerne kitty litter made the rats smell really nice (if you like the smell of lucerne that is). I know plenty of people who only use straw or hay with their guinea pigs and I don't think they have ever had a problem although you do have to make sure you never use mouldy hay or hay that has got wet. And just to point out the obvious rats and mice are always living in hay sheds, it's warm usually dry does give them somthing to chew on and is usually undesturbed until it's required by the farmer. A million odd rats and mice world wide can't be wrong.
 

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