Reptile & Amphibian Forums

O.K., I guess this is a question for you experts out there. What can I do with old bedding from my rat rack. I use alfalfa pellets or aspen shavings (more alfalfa by far). When removed, the bedding obviously contains rat dropping and urine.

I thought of using it for compost but have read that you should not use pet excrement in compost heaps. I feel uncomfortable just dumping the alfalfa bedding and rat dropings on the lawn.

Yes, I can bag it up and send it out with the rest of the trash, but, does anyone have a more elegant (strange word to use where droppings are concerned, I know) solution?

Your help would be appreciated, thanks!

Ben

>>O.K., I guess this is a question for you experts out there. What can I do with old bedding from my rat rack. I use alfalfa pellets or aspen shavings (more alfalfa by far). When removed, the bedding obviously contains rat dropping and urine.
>>
>>I thought of using it for compost but have read that you should not use pet excrement in compost heaps. I feel uncomfortable just dumping the alfalfa bedding and rat dropings on the lawn.
>>
>>Yes, I can bag it up and send it out with the rest of the trash, but, does anyone have a more elegant (strange word to use where droppings are concerned, I know) solution?
>>
>>Your help would be appreciated, thanks!
>>
>>Ben

If you don't live in the country I feel for you. I have a 'brush' pile, separate from the compost and garden that I dump the shavings on. The woodrat and squirrels in the brush pile love me very much....discarded food in the bedding after all. I do put some of the pelleted rat bedding on the flower beds....especially in the winter when the snow will bury it and moosh it into soil. In summer it can get a bit ripe to do that. And I don't like to put it on the vege garden.
IF you can run it to a friend's in the country (what I would do if I didn't have a rural yard) or to the landfill yourself it might cost less then all that weight on the curb. Pain in the neck I would think.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I'm not sure of the accepted way of doing things but hubby uses the rat shavings as compost. He has a degree in Plant Biology and a lot of graduate work in plant genetics. Since growing things was the focus of his college work, and included compost heaps, I consider him my resident expert. at our old home, before we bought a house, he took a piece of the desert (we live in Arizona) and using the mouse bedding he composted and by the time he'd done that four months he'd taken land NOTHING could live on and had a garden of sunflowers that was extreme. Now that we own our own home, we had to start all over again with land that was used as an RV parking area. Our first plants we planted sprouted, and died... no nutrition in the soil. Since we moved here he started a compost heap. Our organic trash (vegetable matter) goes in the compost bin, our local alley cats use it as a cat litter box, and hubby puts the bedding there. Ammonia is a natural fertilizer, and with the addition of watering, turning the compost heap, and adding worms and packaged soils to the mix, we now have some rich compost that the plants are enjoying like crazy! He took a packet of bell pepper seeds that had been sitting in the science department of our high school on a shelf for five or six years and planted them. They had long since expired. But we now have several zillion pepper plants sprouting. It makes great compost HERE. Again, I don't know anything about the "compost manual" just what hubby tells me, but his plants are extremely prolific, and he thanks my mice for their contribution to his garden.
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~Sasheena

I live in the city, but have a decent sized garden. I dump most of my rat/mouse bedding (2 40gal trash drums per week) in my garden. I have improved the soil to such an extent it would blow your mind. All my plants are double the size of any of my neighbors, and production is out of this world. I do not get pests in it because my rack system does not allow food to be wasted. I live in Michigan so in the winter when it is not decomposing it does get kinda deep, but I just use an alternate dump site for about 2 months in the spring to let eveything catch up. As an added bonus the number of nightcrawlers and worms in the garden is unbeleivable. they come to eat the bedding. When it rains in the spring the garden is litteally covered with crawlers.

np

I too am an avid gardener, and would love to add my used bedding to a compost pile.

Personally, though I am a little hestant: I have read that for the larger exothermic composting styles enough heat is built up in the pile that the pathogens have been more or less sterilized by the time the pile is done. But I do the slower, over-the-winter-and-in-the-beds style of composting which doesn't get anywhere near as hot. And I know that for a lot of the pathogens, chilling them down over winter doesn't kill them. so am afraid that I would potentially pass something from the critters back to my family.

From what I have read, unless you have an exothermic compost, don't use fecal matter on compost for edible plants.
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Russ

Well again, I'm no expert on compost, hubby is. But we do live in Arizona, so usually for about 100 days in a row the temperature is 100 degrees. I'll probably now have to do some reading on this topic, just to learn more. Mostly our garden is flowers, and if we are lucky we'll get some tomatoes and green peppers, possibly some potatoes and garlic and onions. We'll see though. Wish I was more knowledgeable!
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~Sasheena

I found a list of what to compost and what not to compost. Remember of course that one of the main fertilizers often used is steer manure, so animal waste is something that is often used to fertilize gardents:

According to Organic Gardening/Compost Ideas

the items recommended for composting are:

Comfrey leaves
Young weeds
Grass cuttings
Chicken manure
Pigeon manure
Wood ash
Cardboard
Paper towels & bags
Cardboard tubes
Egg boxes
Fruit and vegetable scraps
Tea bags
Coffee grounds
Old flowers
Bedding plants
Old straw & hay
Vegetable plant remains
Strawy manures
Young hedge clippings
Soft prunings
Perennial weeds
Gerbil, hamster & rabbit bedding
Autumn leaves
Tough hedge clippings
Woody prunings
Sawdust
Wood shavings

Items to avoid are:
Meat
Fish
Newspaper
Cooked food
Coal & coke ash
Cat litter
Dog faeces
Disposable nappies
Glossy magazines

From this source I would say that there is nothing wrong with the compost that hubby makes. He does turn it, water it, dilute it, work it with worms, etc, for several months before it is ever taken to the actual garden. The raw stuff never goes to the garden.
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~Sasheena

alleycats use it as a litterbox and the lisy doesnt recomend that? i was just wondering i wont use cat litter anyway.

According to Dr. Kazacos - You can find his name on many zoonotic (animal to man) disease control protocols. He says it is never a good idea to use pet waste on the garden or compost.
To put that into perspective though, he does use a blow torch on his back yard to clean up after his dogs feces. ( I have seen pictures of him doing it)
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Russ

Wow....That seeems a little extreme!!!!!
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"People who don't like animals are the true freaks",
Jasmine Davies

0.1 White German Shepard (Fugi)
0.1 Rott/Dobe rescue (Angel)
1.0 Chi/Cairn rescue (Puck Oberon Thisbe)
1.0 Formerly Feral DSH (Ajax)
0.1 Forever Feral DSH (Chainsaw Manny)
0.1 Evil/Psychotic Ferret (Kakiri)
0.0.2 Hatchling Common Snappers (Hannibal & Charles Manson)
0.2 African Clawed Frogs (Annabelle & Clarabelle)
0.0.3 Dwarf ACF's (Winkin, Blinkin, & Nod)
0.0.1 Crayfish (Tank)

I think I just saw that guy on a Discovery channel special on parasites. LOL...small world.
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Gray Ghost & Pink
1.1 Amel - Parker & Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
1.0 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Silvered Black - Pluto
1.0 Powder Blue - Corner
0.1 Dumbo Siamese - Lily
Plus the breeders & babies
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

I have quite a few Rats and have a HUGE garden. I wouldn't think about putting my Rats waste into my garden, I guess it's the thought of it (Rat poop and tomatoes),it just sounds gross.
I personally bag and ship my pine shavings/Rat waste off with the trash and am happy to be rid of it.
This is what works best for me, to each their own.
Take care and good luck,
John

Thank you all for your opinions ... if there are more out there I would welcome them