Critter Bedding

One question that I see a lot for confined animals is: "what is the best type of bedding to use?" So I will address this for as many of the common livestock species as I can.  First, most of the large livestock: horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; will require no bedding if they are pasture kept.  In barns or birth jugs, it's best to bed down with either pine shavings or sawdust as that is the easiest to keep clean. 

If you have an enclosure for your poultry that involves them being confined indoors on a concrete or wooden floor, I recommend using sand, as that is the easiest to keep clean for birds.  For cage-reared rabbits indoors, first I recommend keeping them on a metal wire floor, for sanitary reasons, and second I recommend using either wood pellets or wood shavings.  If outdoors, there's honestly no reason to use any bedding at all!  If you clean the pan out weekly, it will be sufficiently ventilated that you should never notice any odor.  Newspaper is absorbent, but it will do nothing beneficial for your garden, nor will it aid in odor reduction in any way.

Some alternatives, pros/cons:

Cat litter: (clay), absorbent, little odor control, VERY heavy!, hard to dispose.  (clumping), still heavy, hard to access, expensive!

Wood or newspaper pellets: can be heavy (depending on type), excellent absorption, can be put in compost pile or directly on garden, little to no odor control

Equine fresh: very good odor control, expensive!!

Cedar shavings: NEVER use!  No good as a bedding type due to phenol content

Pine shavings: (regular) shouldn't be used other than as a barn additive for larger livestock (kiln dried) preferred bedding for smaller animals

Carefresh: this one is put here as a joke!  Homesteaders, save your money and steer away from this entirely!  There are much more cost effective beddings out there!

Cut up cardboard: I cannot recall the brand, but this is an excellent bedding material for small animals.  Somewhat hard to clean out, would be fine on the compost pile, cost effective and 'different', it works best laid over top a single layer of wood pellets.

Shredded/layered newspaper: Layers seem to work better in pans and carriers, nicely absorbent, no odor control at all, needs to be changed frequently.