Best Bedding for Gerbils

Your gerbil's habitat is a safe haven where he loves to play, eat, and rest. You've carefully shopped for all the necessary items and chosen the best toys, bowls, and accessories for your pet. But you can't forget his bedding! The type of bedding in the habitat can have a big impact on your pet's day-to-day life. Choosing the best bedding for your gerbil is an important decision, so let's look at a few things you need to consider.

What to Look for in Gerbil Bedding

So what should you use for your gerbil's habitat? The most important thing on your checklist is bedding that's safe for your gerbil. Also, look for soft bedding to cushion your pet's feet and encourage his burrowing instincts. It should be great at odor control and absorbent to keep the habitat dry. Finally, find one that's as dust-free as possible to protect your pet's respiratory system.

Best Bedding Options for Your Gerbil

With those qualities in mind, finding bedding that fits the bill becomes a little easier. A few to try:

Soft paper bedding

One of your very best options is a paper-based bedding designed specifically for small pets. It's good at odor control and not dusty, and many options are recycled. Paper-based bedding offers gerbils a chance to engage in their natural burrowing behavior because the paper bedding holds its shape and won't collapse when your pet builds a tunnel. Paper bedding is easy to store, use, and clean, so it makes life easy on your end, too.

The Kaytee Clean & Cozy line offers super-soft bedding that's 99.9% dust-free. It's highly absorbent and offers an odor-control guarantee. Clean & Cozy is made of high-quality soft paper instead of the leftover "sludge" byproduct used by other brands. A few options you might want to try include:

*Based on Nielsen data 9/7/2024.

Aspen shavings

Non-aromatic aspen shavings are another great choice for your pet gerbil. This type of aspen shaving is safe for your pet's respiratory system because it's free from oils produced by other wood shavings that can irritate your pet's lungs, liver, and skin. However, aspen isn't as absorbent as paper, and gerbils can't tunnel in it as well as they can in paper bedding.

Kaytee Aspen Bedding is a great choice to try. It's natural, biodegradable, and free of aromatic oils or inks. Plus, it's specially processed to remove dust.

Bedding to Avoid

A quick look at any pet store will give you a lot of options for bedding. However, you want to avoid a few types:

  • Cedar or pine: Wood bedding made from pine (not kiln-dried) and cedar are commonly used for many pets, but they're typically not ideal for gerbils. These woods contain oils that can cause respiratory issues. Also, they are not great for burrowing.

  • Sawdust: Sawdust is too dusty and much too irritating for your gerbil's nose and lungs.

  • Newspaper: Newspaper isn't very absorbent and isn't great at controlling odors. The inks used may also be harmful to your pet. Also, it's not ideal for tunneling.

  • Straw or hay: These types are not great at controlling odor or absorbing urine. More importantly, straw and hay are hard and sharp and can injure your pet.

  • Cat litter: Cat litter can cause digestive issues if ingested and respiratory issues due to high levels of dust.

Choose Your Pet Gerbil's Bedding with Care

Choosing the best small animal bedding for your gerbil is easier than you think. Choose a bedding product that's safe for your pet and highly absorbent to keep the habitat dry, and you're well on your way to keeping your pet happy.

And keeping your pet's habitat clean is a top priority regardless of the type of bedding you choose. A daily spot clean followed by a thorough weekly clean goes a long way to keeping your pet happy and healthy.

For the weekly deep clean, remove all the bedding and litter and wipe down everything in the habitat. To remove unwanted smells, wash any soiled items in a vinegar solution (50% vinegar and 50% water) and thoroughly dry items before returning them to the habitat (to keep moisture levels down). With a clean habitat and new bedding, your gerbil should be good to go for another week.

You have a variety of bedding options to choose from, and you can feel confident that you're providing a safe and happy home-sweet home for your gerbil.