Features:

  • All natural Aspen shavings specially processed to eliminate excess dust and wood debris found in other bedding
  • No aromatic oils or inks
  • Can be used in all habitats. Aquariums and CritterTrail
  • All Natural
  • Hardwood bedding
My HouseRabbits *LOVE* this stuff!

When we became the proud providers for 3 Sanctuary Rabbits(1) in 2008, we had a LOT to learn! We discovered that you can't use Pine litter, because it interacts with gaseous anesthetics (if they ever need surgery over and beyond being spayed). Paper litter is a mess: it ends up all over the house, whether wet or not. The other aromatic woodchip products all have their ups and downs in terms of safety: Rabbits are *HARD* to maintain! Eventually, we found this stuff for our litter. And it was a very happy day! The Rabbits did their weird happy dance (running around in circles - they're such weird but happy little creatures), and I did mine as well: Aspen bedding is [relatively] inexpensive, doesn't end up being tracked all over creation, absorbs urine *really* well (holds a LOT, and doesn't smell. What more can I ask for?), and 1 bag last almost a month - with *three* HouseRabbits! Try it, you'll LOVE it!

A Good Investment

When one hamster + one cage turned into three hamsters + three cages, the paper bedding I was buying from the store was getting too expensive. I received the 8 cubic ft bedding today with prime shipping. It's large but wasn't too hard to store by keeping it in the shipping box, and should last long enough to be a much cheaper investment than the paper bedding. I give my cages a full clean every two weeks or so (spot cleaning every few days), and with less than half of this bedding, was able to put a good 3-4 inches in a 40 gallon tank as well as two 400 square inch bin cages - enough for my two Robos to burrow and my less active Syrian to bury himself and nest. For $26 plus tax this should last me two, possibly three more full cleanings, versus one $27 plus tax bag of paper bedding being almost used up with one full cleaning. It's soft enough, I didn't get cuts or splinters when digging in the bag with glove-less hands. And my hamsters, one Robo in particular, instantly took a liking to it. Will definitely stick with aspen bedding from now on. **added photos**

decent quality, good price,

Good deal for my daughter's baby chicks. It's clean and dry, and the bits of wood are a good size for chicks--nothing they'll eat, but small enough to be kind of soft. The smell out of the bag is ok but slightly sour somehow. Not quite the fresh clean sawdusty scent I imagined. In use it's a bit odiferous. I think it's the combination of heat lamp, spilled water, and chicken crap, but the shavings themselves also contribute. I haven't tried other wood shavings so I can't compare, but we didn't have smell issues with the paper towels and sand we also tried. Since the chicks will be moving outdoors soon, it will be fine for that.

Keeps rodent odors under control, and very cheap.

For my snake I use recycled paper, the soft fluffy kind. For my feeder mice I started doing the same, but noticed it only took 3 days before the smell would become an issue. Week after week this would happen no matter how well I cleaned the mouse cages. I added computer fans to increase air flow, still the smell would be rancid by time a week would pass. Since switching back to wood shavings, and waiting three weeks, there has been no smell issues. I am going to clean the cages today, but not because a horrible smell... just because I like my mice to remain healthy and clean for my snakes meal. I house approximately 20 mice, and that is a lot to deal with. These wood shavings have saved me money and time. I am very pleased with this product. But I do not recommend this for snakes. Certain woods are not good for snakes. For rodents, it's a cheap and effective medium.

Keeps my baby chicks clean!

I bought this because of the price, and our lack of local availability (it sucks to lie in BFE sometimes). I read some good reviews, and figured I'd give it a try. I have 6 new baby chicks (chicken-chicks... I know some people call other birds chicks too). They are amazing at how they can eat so little, and poop SO much. LOL. Every morning was washing their feet and cleaning them up, and a number of times, trying to help them with cases of "pasty butt". I was using newspaper and bed wetting pads. So, I put this in on top of the bed wetting pads, and oh my.. what a world of difference! No smell, other than the smell of wood, and the babies are clean and happy. I haven't had a "pasty butt" incident sense. I can also go a couple days before I need to clean out the box, versus every morning or even twice a day sometimes. I just sprinkle a light layer of shavings on top every day to be sure everything's absorbed, and I can go upwards of a week (and even then, it doesn't stink or anything.. I just feel obligated to change it). The wood itself is pretty good. Most of it really is "shavings". A few chunks of wood were in there, but they seem pretty rare. However, it seems a little bark is in this mix, as you'll get some dark or black edges shavings in the mix. Doesn't bother me in the least. The dust so far has been 0. But, it will take me a long time to get to the bottom of the bag to really see. But I cant see any visibly. And this IS in a bag. As in, plastic. It doesn't have any logos or anything on it, besides some product sticker that must be used in a factory. It tells you nothing about the product. But, it is pretty good wood, my baby chicks like it and have had no issues. No sneezing, no discomfort. And 99% of the pieces are too large for them to eat (which they did try a couple times). So.. if you're raising baby chicks in your bathroom like I am, I'd highly recommend this. Happy chicks that nestle in the wood, very absorbent wood that removes the smell, and everything stays cleaner. One con, however, is that sometimes the absorbency of the wood is a little too much when it gets into their waterer. I have raised it up on blocks, but when they kick the stuff, it just happens. better than poop contamination, but you'll be taking care of their waterer just as much, if not more. Silly birds.

Inexpensive nesting material for Purple Martins...

Martins prefer gourds/housing that look as though they have been previously used by other Martins and these Kaytee Aspen Chips are an inexpensive nesting material that can be used along with Timothy Hay to line the bottom of Purple Martin gourds/housing to achieve that look in preparation for Purple Martins return in the spring. I usually put a level teaspoon of Sevins Dust and another of diatomaceous earth in the bottom of the gourds and cover it with a few Kaytee Aspen Chips followed by a layer of Timothy Hay and then sprinkle another teaspoon of diatomaceous earth inside the entrance along the outside edge on top of the nesting material and then jostle it a bit to settle it in. This will kill any mites that the birds might bring in with them. Mites leave the birds after feeding and travel throughout the nest where the diatomaceous earth and Sevins Dust kills them. Once this dust, chip and hay preparation is complete the returning birds might or might not remove some of what I have added and then happily begin building their own nest to their liking and I never have a problem with mites on my adult or baby birds and they all seem quite happy. I do change the nests once the babies are old enough, following the same procedure above. Kaytee Aspen Chips (a hardwood chip) and Timothy Hay are very similar to what Purple Martins make their nests out of naturally (when not offered other nesting materials) and because of this they tend to attract new Purple Martins to gourds/housing. Purple Martins naturally start their nests with straw, dried grasses (hay), twigs and sometimes mulch if they can find it, and to this they build a mud dam right beneath the front entrance hole. They then will pick fresh leaves to line their nest and lay their eggs on. It is thought that they use the fresh leaves to keep their eggs moist. When using Kaytee Aspen Chips/Shavings or Timothy Hay, rosin and aromatic hydrocarbons (two allergenic/toxic substances found in pine straw/needles, and pine and cedar chips/shavings) are not a concern as neither contain them. Kaytee Aspen Chips/Shavings are made from the non-toxic hardwood Aspen tree. Aspen chips and shavings are the only wood chips/shavings approved by the FDA and EPA for use by humans and animals and are suggested for use as nesting material by a US Fish & Wildlife health center. There are those that avoid using wood chips and hay as Purple Martin nesting materials believing them to be more susceptible to moisture retention and instead use pine straw/needles because they contain pine resin that makes them moisture resistant. But ironically, the very thing that makes the pine straw/needles moisture resistant, the pine resin - a.k.a. rosin, is also a substance that both people and animals might have or develop serious allergies to. One of my dogs is highly allergic to the rosin from coniferous trees and breaks out in a terrible rash (dermatitis) when she comes into contact with it on the bare skin of her under-belly. Rosin is also found in cedar chips (and other coniferous tree wood chips and shavings) and newspaper ink, two other items regularly used for nesting material for Martins, and so I wouldn't use or recommend using cedar chips, other coniferous tree chips, or shredded newspaper as nesting materials. Rosin might not affect adult birds with feathers, but new hatchlings' skin is bare. In addition to rosin, pine straw/needles also contain allergenic/toxic mold spores that gather in both the needles and bark of pine trees during wet conditions. And both pine and cedar wood chips and shavings also contain aromatic hydrocarbons, which studies have shown to have a negative impact on the health of both humans and animals. These hydrocarbons are absorbed through the skin on contact with these woods and then enter the bloodstream, or they are inhaled as wood dust particles, causing asthma and respiratory infections, impairing the liver's ability to detoxify, weakening the immune system, and possibly causing cancer (a study found that woodworkers exposed to aromatic softwood dust have a higher incidence of squamous cell cancers of the respiratory tract). FYI - I purchased the 8.0 cubic foot bag of Kaytee Aspen Bedding wood chips/shavings. The bag dimensions are: 32" in length, 16" in width, and 10" in depth. The bag weighs 26.4 lbs. This is a substantial size and should last through many Purple Martin seasons.

Almost perfect! Poor packaging though!

I bought this for my Roborovski hamster. It's my first hammy and I wanted to get Aspen bedding with Kaytee Clean and Cozy on top for some extra comfort. I bought the 3200 square foot option and as you'll be able to see in attached photos, the chips are bigger but they're soft! No sharp pieces. There was one or two bark pieces though. Nothing too serious! The tank is a 40 gallon breeder with 36 by 18 by 16 demensions. A little over half the bag was used in it, if you're wondering how much aspen you'll need. This is pretty decent for burrowing, and holds a pretty okay shape. I am buying the other bedding to help with that. It has good odor control as well. I expect to be cleaning this about once every few weeks with daily spot cleanings. This bedding has a woodsy scent that's kind of heavy when you first put it in, but after about 20 to 45 minutes, the heavy smell fills down to one that is fresh, but not overbearing. There's only one problem: The packaging is awful. It was put in a big box with no bubble wrap, plastic or any sort of protection against anything. As you'll also see in photos, the package was punctured upon arrival and it was dirty as well.

EXTREMELY ECONOMICAL

Pros: *Kiln dried. *Guinea pigs tolerated it well. *Easier than paper bedding to spread and clean up. *lasts forever (5 months for us) Cons: *hard to store bc it's so giant *bag it's packed in is heavy duty but still punctured easy. *shavings will be on your floor if you have messy animals or a kid who trashes the animals out a lot. I bought this package in March of 2018 it's lasted till August 1st and I have one more cage changing left. So I change my cage every week. And my cage is the size of a 2 x 3 C&C cage x 2. Each C&C Square is 14 in by 14 in so you can do the math if you need to. I love this bedding because it is much more affordable than the recycled paper bedding. It has a nice smell that's not too strong it does not irritate the guinea pigs. It doesn't have baking soda like the paper bedding so it doesn't have an "odor shield". My guinea pigs like it better than the paper bedding because I can put the pine down and put various amounts of shredded paper on top of that and they can play in the shredded paper or stomp it down so they can lay down in an area. It's been much more economical for my family we have two guinea pigs in two separate cages so it takes a lots of bedding to keep them happy. And yes this is kiln-dried Pine so that it has less of the pine odor than the equine shavings.

Good product!

Overall I'm very happy with purchase. I was buying a small bag of aspen bedding from Tractor Supply for my 2 bunnies and they were out of stock when I went to the store last. Desperately needing more bedding, I took to Prime and I am so happy I did. It is a much better value than TC. I saw some comments mentioned this sawdust being dusty. My bag is not dusty at all. It is much whiter in color compared to the TC bag that I was getting, seems drier, and the shavings are a bit more shredded in size (which I don't mind). I personally think it has less of an odor as well. It really doesn't even smell like wood shavings, or anything at all for that matter. I will be buying again when I run out. Thanks TC for being out of stock ;)

Big bag of aspen bedding!

The packaging is really good and it was all sealed and clean. I've used it for my hamster cage and it smells really fresh and clean, everytime I go to my room it has this woody smell, which I don't mind. The chips aren't hard or sharp and I think my hamster enjoys it. I covered her whole cage in it and topped part of the cage with crittercare bedding and only used a corner of the bedding, I think it'll last me 10 months to a year if I'm just using it for my one hamster.

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