Bloody nose on Aspen bedding....

[RitzieAnn]

Ok, I'm thinking this could either be in the bedding section, or the health... I'm picking bedding because I know how to take care of his nose.....

I gave 3 little boys to my boyfriend's brother, and they're on Aspen bedding. Well, I noticed the other day that Vanilla (siamese) had a bit of a bloody nose. Then I noticed today that Chocolate (back) has a little on his nose too, and Vanilla's is much worse! Orea, (spotted black, the 3rd brother) is ok for now. I put them into a different cage, and gave them a roll of toilet paper until Matt (their owner) comes back. All they have is aspen, and the rat is on it, as well as the hamster, and the gerbils have been on it since Easter. BUt they're just now showing signs. Also, I use Corn Cob and Carefresh. (but mostly I've switched over to corncob now.....) Any thoughst?

[gerbil]

So far, I've used corn cob and that Aspen Pinefresh thing. I've also used sand and paper. I've found that Corn cob doesn't create any problems, in my experience. The Aspen Pinefresh makes my gerbils' nose runny with goey stuff (reddish?) and paper and sand is just too hard to deal with.

[RyanF]

My little Siamese has the same problem. She was allergic to all wood, so I put her on shredded newspaper.

[sandy]

Ritzie, as you saw, I use recycled newspaper kitty litter as a substrate, and soften it with a little Aspen. I've also used Hemp, or even just the cardboard that they chew up into bedding. Works quite well for gerbils with sensitive noses. He should grow out of it, eventually.

[RitzieAnn]

Hemp is out of the question. 1, it's pricy over here, and 2, my boyfriend would never let his brother use hemp as bedding because my sweetie deer is strange, and swears that it's a hippie thing, and he's totally NOT for the hippie thing. (My boyfriend's weird, but you met him Sandy.....) ;D

I'll advise Matt to get some KayCob bedding. I also think it last longer! The smell counteracts and nutrilizes any gerbil oder! That's great! But my gerbies also make lots of cardboard for bedding. For a 10 gal, I only put in 5 or 6 cups of KayCob bedding. All the rest is cardboard!

I"d say Matt probably doesn't give them as much cardboard as I had given them, but he's getting better at it! Should he just mix some aspen into the KayCob? Should he start it 50/50, or more like 70/30?