I've used just about every bedding available so here's my say.
Finacard:
It's a love hate relationship for me, it's great becasue it's made from shredded cardboard. A bale can last a long time and it's not bad for foraging and digging. On the bad side is, last few bales I got were incredibly dusty. I've never seen so much dust. Only reason I noticed is because it was sunny at the time and when I was putting fresh finacard down all I could see was millions of dust particles. Now a lot of people use finacard and I would urge anyone to make sure by using a tourch to see if it kicks up a lot of dust. Most people don't notice it. Well i've had my third bale of Finacard thick of dust so won't be getting it again.
Megazorb:
Best bedding so far for odor control and for keeping the place dry, my issue is that it's again very dusty for Degus. Secondly get's everywhere. It is serious light, Wood Shavings got nothing on Megazorb from the Degu house distribution team.
premier bed:
Similar to finacard but less expensive, bigger bale and the shredding process produces little square pieces of cardboard. I prefer finacards shredding process how it comes out as lacy strands instead of Premier beds squares but premier bed wins hands down in the dust test. Hardly no dust at all. but because of how the shreds are shaped, not as good for digging I think. But overall A very decent degu bedding.
Paper bedding:
I wouldn't bother personally, it just doesn't last at all. may work in conjunction with other bedding materials such as finacard or wood shavings.
Wood Pellets and paper pellets (cat litter):
I hate these and refuse to use them. I find them hard on the feat and Degus try to eat them and they can swell in their stomaches and cause problems or in extreme circustances death. I would not use this crap at all. Pet stores seem to love using them because they have pellets in abundance so why not is their rationality.
Large Wood shavings (P@H)
Now after trying every exotic bedding imaginable and thinking wood shavings weren't good enough for my Goos. I came 360. Turns out at P@H when they say large shavings, they really mean nice large shavings not just the size of the bale. I got the small bale once and it had small shavings. Got the "Large Bale" and the shavings were noticeably larger so it's not just the quantity, it's the size of the flakes haha. Weird I know but it's true.
Anyway the Wood shavings, not to be confused with sawdust which is a big no no. They are great, they have hardly any dust at all. I've done my dust tests and it was seriously good. and they love diging in it. It's quite cheap for thr amount you get which will last for ages. Best of all it's completely safe and as Pets at Home are everywhere in the uk, it's easy to get a hold of. Plus your not paying for postage. Serious if you live in the uk, give Pets at home large woodshavings a try. The bale is worth the money.
I suggest anyone using Finacard to try kicking it up then using a flashlight to see if it's very dusty, don't just put your fingers at the bottom of the bale to check , most of the dust comes out when kicked up and you can't see it without a light source.
It's abit like my loft in my house, I know it's very dusty up there so I wear a facemask but you can't see the dust until light shines on it. Try the test you might just get shocked. I didn't want my Degus breathing in all that dust so that's why I don't use it anymore, a lot of people have also reported this problem with finacard recently. It's ashame because it's a great bedding if not for this issue.
Also I think Degutopia need to update their site, a lot of the bedding like Megazord and Finacard have become veru dusty and they state it as dust free. Maybe that was true in their test batches but not from what people I know are reporting. Maybe the products have changed. I laugh how they say "Dust Extracted".. maybe they just forgot to turn the extractor on.
Anyway that's my advice.
BTW. fleese is fine apart from the reasons suggested by other people such as chewing. but beware in many ways it's more pain staking then just clearing out the cage. Degu have tiny hairs, they will cling to the fleese and if you wet it first they will just stick to it and not come off, you'll have to brush the hair off first. Then you'll have to wash them seperately and change them every couple of days instead of using bedding which you can chaange around once a week.
Just warning you it's actually quite hard keeping up with fleeces especially if they get destroyed. I know because I use to use fleeces with my Guinea Pigs, it was a royal pain I can tell you:)
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