Choosing the Right Pet Bedding: Our Tips & Advice

Let’s talk pet bedding!

Whether you need bedding for a horse or small animal like a rabbit or gerbil, choosing the right bedding can be tricky—what is the right material? 

For example, what’s best for a horse (pine pellets or cedar shavings) can be toxic for a rabbit, since rabbits like to chew and eat just about anything. The chemicals in cedar shavings can health issues for rabbits, however.

We asked our parent readers for their favorites and came away with several tips and advice:

• For rabbits, make sure the bedding is dust-free. Mice and hamsters are also sensitive to dust.

• For horses, pine pellet bedding is excellent. It absorbs moisture and more friendly to the environment than pellets processed with additional chemicals.

• Bedding is different from litter. When it comes to small animals, bedding is there to help protect their feet—and sometimes give them something to do (bunnies like making nests out of bedding). While bedding should be absorbent, it is different from litter (some rabbits use a litter box).

• Replace the bedding once a week. Keeping the cage clean is important—and even rabbits that use a litter box will occasionally “think outside of the box,” as the saying goes!

After interviewing expert vets and gathering recommendations from our readers, here are the best bets for pet bedding:

About the Authors

Denise & Alan Fields are consumer advocates and best-selling authors. The Fields have authored 12 books with three million copies in print, including the best-selling guide to baby gear, Baby Bargains.

The Fields have been featured and quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.

As consumer products experts, the Fields have been guests on the NBC Today Show, Good Morning America and ABC’s 20/20.

How We Pick Products To Recommend

We often turn to our readers (3 million strong!) to find products to recommend. We ask our parent readers for their favorites and consider their real-world experiences in our recommendations.

When we test a product, we always purchase it with our own monies. We do not take free samples, as we believe that compromises our independence.

We also fact check manufacturer information with our own measurements. If a maker claims a product weighs X pounds, we will weigh it to make sure. If the battery life is supposed to be six hours, we will see how it stands up in the real world.

In some cases, we will do interviews with experts in the field to get additional feedback on products.

To get hands-on time with products, we regularly meet one-on-one with gear companies and even tour manufacturing facilities. (When we do this, we pay our own travel expenses).

Why Trust Us

We’ve been rating and reviewing products for the home and families since 1994. We do extensive research, evaluating products with an eye toward quality, ease of use and affordability.

We make our living from affiliate commissions, but we always recommend what we think are the best bets for our readers (not the ones that are the most expensive). We are always looking for products that offer the best bang for the buck.

Our independence is a key reason why we have been doing this so long. As we mentioned above, when we purchase a product for hands-on testing, we do so with our own money.

Here’s another key point: we don’t take money from the brands we review. No free samples, no sponsors, no “partnerships.” Our work is 100% reader-supported!