Darn, she's allergic

[gerbilgrl89]

After a year of searching for rescue gerbils I gave up and just bought 3 from Pets At Home ( ) yesterday. Almost straight away on introducing them to the new tank I noticed one has developed a really sore nose. Looks very much like an allergy to me. Poor poppet keeps rubbing at it, it's clearly bothering her.

I'm thinking it's probably a reaction to the Carefresh. Bother, I love that stuff! So practical and pretty and great for tunnelling... but what can you do! Anyway, I flare up with Aspen so that's out, so in your experience what's the best bedding for gerbs who react to Carefresh? Would 'Fitch paper bedding' be an alternative, or is it basically the same thing with a different name? I really don't like megazorb. I find it just pants for tunneling and it's ugly, and dusty. What else is there for sensitive noses?

[theia]

One of my girls sneezed a lot with carefresh so I had to switch too (I liked the colours of carefresh but the smell was pretty awful so in a way I was happy to switch lol). I now get dust extracted card from Finacard it's cheap, you get a huge bale (so you do need storage space for it, I'm about to order my second one, the first has lasted me about 4 months for 2 cages) and she barely sneezes at all now. I also get shredded tissue/paper bedding for soft nest making and the Hide 'n' Seek nestables in confetti to add a bit of colour as brown card and white tissue is pretty boring to look at.

[rilence]

Kaytee Clean & Cozy?
I have issues with Carefresh myself. It sometimes smells mouldy and wet, and the recent issues with their new bedding causing deaths in a few species of rodents totally put them on the bad bedding list myself.

[asher]

I use eco-bedding, because one of my gerbils are more sensitive to other beddings. It's a bit pricier, but completely dust free.

[blanknote]

Are you sure that your gerbil hasn't just been busy digging and that's why their nose looks sore?

[asthehind]

I don't know how it is for tunnelling and suchlike, but hemp bedding like Aubiose is a great substrate. I kept my rats on it for years, and though bits of it get everywhere, it's great for keeping smells and suchlike down. It's a horse bedding and I don't remember it being particularly dusty. You can buy small amounts of hemp in pet shops, or you can buy a huge bale of Aubiose online for about a tenner. If you have a lot of small furry things it's very economical.