Bobi!!

[dwarfhamstersmom]

Yes that kind of thing. You can get shredders fairly inexpensively but then you can only use them for about 5 minutes at a time and a 30 minute rest! Which is annoying. I burned our last one out by getting impatient . But you can shred quite a lot in 3 to 5 minutes- especially if it's a roll of kitchen paper as you don't need to keep stopping to pick up paper!

Actually paper bedding is better for holding burrows than wood shavings Although I'm not sure about shredded paper which would be longer pieces.

Kaytee is very good for holding burrows. I noticed Zooplus sell 3 packs of 49.2 litres for 73.49 euros. It says equivalent to 6.3kg. I would think that would fill a 100cm cage when decompressed. Based on the fact I used to get 10kg of Fitch (when they sold it in kg) and used about 2/3 of the bag to fill a 100cm cage. Which is about 6.6kg.

It's not cheap! But - Once you've filled the cage, you would mainly only spot clean for quite some time. I usually go about 4 to 6 months before doing a substrate change, and then only change about half of it and put the clean half back on top (so it still smells familiar). That top half eventually gets spot cleaned out. They have it in white or natural

Kaytee Clean & Cozy Bedding lecho para roedores en zooplus

Kaytee Clean & Cozy Bedding lecho para roedores en zooplus. Superprecios y entrega a domicilio en toda España ► ¡Compra ahora!

www.zooplus.es

Might be better to spend money on bedding rather than a shredder, if you don't have one, maybe. On the other hand if that 6.4kg isn't quite enough, it could work out expensive!

My family has a shredder and it’s available for us The thing is that idk if that “large shredded paper from kitchen towels” is good enough for her burrows. We actually don’t mind expending the money once. But if she has mites, we would have to buy the bedding again

What would you do?

 

[Maz]

If it's going to be an expensive option, changing all the bedding first, then you could maybe do it the other way round and rule out mites first - by going to the vet and asking for a skin scraping (they look under the microscope). The trouble is some vets will just prescribe mite treatment "just in case" it's mites, without doing the test, then the hamster might get an unnecessary dose of Invermectin (which is strong) and if it doesn't do the trick because it's allergy then it's going to be difficult to know what it is.

So if your vet would actually do a skin scraping to get a definitive diagnosis of mites, you could try that route first. Then if it is mites you can keep to the Chipsi bedding. However you would still need to do a full cage clean then! If it's mites. Maybe you could phone the vets and ask if they would do a skin scraping and look under the microscope. If they won't then try a different vet.

 

[Maz]

My family has a shredder and it’s available for us The thing is that idk if that “large shredded paper from kitchen towels” is good enough for her burrows. We actually don’t mind expending the money once. But if she has mites, we would have to buy the bedding again

What would you do?

Just posted above. Yes I just realised it's difficult to work out which way round. If you changed all the bedding to Kaytee and it turned out to be mites, you'd have to change it all again!

 

[Maz]

What would I do? I would try changing the bedding first and see if it clears up - but then that's because I can get bedding cheaper than you can! If I couldn't, as in your situation, I would probably have a vet check for mites, but only if they actually properly diagnose mites and don't just "guess".

 

[dwarfhamstersmom]

If it's going to be an expensive option, changing all the bedding first, then you could maybe do it the other way round and rule out mites first - by going to the vet and asking for a skin scraping (they look under the microscope). The trouble is some vets will just prescribe mite treatment "just in case" it's mites, without doing the test, then the hamster might get an unnecessary dose of Invermectin (which is strong) and if it doesn't do the trick because it's allergy then it's going to be difficult to know what it is.

So if your vet would actually do a skin scraping to get a definitive diagnosis of mites, you could try that route first. Then if it is mites you can keep to the Chipsi bedding. However you would still need to do a full cage clean then! If it's mites. Maybe you could phone the vets and ask if they would do a skin scraping and look under the microscope. If they won't then try a different vet.

Yeah… I think the best option is taking her to the vet and insist in making her a skin scraping. And act depending on the results.

 

[Maz]

I would phone the vets first and say you want a skin scraping to be sure if it's mites or not. And see if they will do that.