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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2006 9:44:27 GMT
Just a quick question reguarding degus and shredded paper...
is it ok to pop in their cage, either to use as bedding, or just simply something for them to play with/in?. At the moment im using hay for bedding. But as i work in a pet shop we have black bin bags full of the stuff (shredded paper) regulary, plus i have just brought myself a little mini hand shredder too...
Anybody else use/give their degus shredded paper?, would there be any health worries if i started giving my bunch some?
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Post by ra on Apr 20, 2006 13:15:26 GMT
Hmmm you'd have to be certain the paper shredded did not contain dye of anykind. I think something like plain news-print would be ok.
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Post by Aimeelou on Apr 20, 2006 14:40:30 GMT
My Degus love to shred anything within an inch of its life with anything you put in their cage so when our paper shredder packed up we give any reciepts or anything with our details we give it to them to shred! They dont even take the time to sniff it, all 6 fight and squabble dragging it to their nest!
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Post by Sunshinemeg on Apr 20, 2006 20:17:56 GMT
Same, my degus love paper of any sort, it gets torn up and taken to the bed box!!! Go for it, make suer you still have the hay as an extra, but paper is fine for them, but as Ra said, be careful what the paper has on it, too much ink isnt really good for them.
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Post by marumba7 on Apr 21, 2006 4:09:52 GMT
Hey... yes or no on newspaper? We just started using a paper shredder on the free newspapers we get. We put the shredding in their cage. They REALLY love it when it's in a large mound they can dig tunnles through, but if it's bad for their health....
Please let me know.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2006 9:27:30 GMT
hey everyone thanks for the repiles!...
well the paper that i will be getting from work is shredeed up till reciepts, its amazing just how many they have!....we use it all the time on the hamster/rats we sell and never had any problems with health their..so i imagine it will be fine for my little boys...
the paper that i plan on using from home will be a mixture of junk mail, excess print outs from the printer and newspaper...i havent got enough yet to give them but im hoping by the next cage clean out i will have...
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Post by thegrouchybeast on Apr 21, 2006 10:29:31 GMT
Newspaper can be toxic, because of the ink. I think that these days many papers are printed with soy ink, which is safe, but unless it's mentioned somewhere on the newspaper itself the only way to be 100% sure is to call the newspaper and find out exactly how the paper is printed. Colour inks can be less safe, and supposedly the kind of ads printed on glossy paper may contain heavy metals in the ink and so should be avoided.
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Post by marumba7 on Apr 24, 2006 4:47:53 GMT
Today, after cleaning the cage, we went back to aspen shavings. We just weren't going to take the chance with the newspaper. Sure, having a paper shredder and access to an unlimited supply of free newspaper was nice on our budget, but we love our degus too much to even take the chance.
Thanks for making us aware. Maybe this is something worth adding to the main website?
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