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Home > Hamsters > carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding Review 2024: Our Expert’s Opinion

carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding Review 2024: Our Expert’s Opinion

Our Final Verdict

We give carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Quality: 5/5
Absorbency: 4.5/5

What Is carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding? How Does It Work?

Healthy Pet is a natural pet product company that manufactures small pet bedding and litter for cats and dogs. The company is unique because it cares a lot about sustainability, whereas other pet supply manufacturers favor convenience over the environment. Healthy Pet upcycles wood, pulp, and paper products to create an environmentally friendly product you can feel good about using in your pet’s environment. Because they don’t use any chemicals or dyes in manufacturing, you don’t need to worry about exposing your pet to potentially toxic ingredients.

The company’s products are sustainable from start to finish. Because they’re made with natural plant-based fibers, they can be returned to the Earth when you’re done with them via composting.

carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding is an ultra-absorbent small pet-specific bedding. It’s made specifically with little critters like hamsters, gerbils, mice, guinea pigs, and chinchillas in mind.

The bedding can be used in one of two ways: to cover your pet’s entire habitat or to use in its litter box.

The bedding is made with Healthy Pet’s comfyfluff™ technology, providing a super soft material for your little critter to cozy up in. This material is made from scratch from raw paper fibers. In addition, it is 99% dust-free to ensure it won’t wreak havoc on your critter’s respiratory system.

healthy pet carefresh paper bedding

carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding – A Quick Look

Pros
  • Available in fun colors
  • Very soft and comfortable
  • 10 days of odor control
  • 99% dust free
  • Twice as absorbent as shavings
Cons
  • Inconsistency in texture from bag to bag

carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding Pricing

This paper bedding is affordably priced. It comes in three sizes: 14 L, 30 L, and 60 L. For 14-L of bedding, you’re looking at just USD 9.99. Their 30 L package is USD 16.99, and the 60 L is USD 25.99. It’s obviously much more economical to purchase the bigger bedding package if you can afford it. In addition, 60 liters of paper bedding should last you a long time, providing even more bang for your buck.

Odor Control

One of the most important aspects of any pet litter is its ability to control odors. This bedding utilizes Healthy Pet’s Odor Stop™ technology to prevent strong odors from taking over your home. It stops overpowering ammonia odors for up to ten days. I typically change my guinea pig’s litter box bedding once weekly when I do a full cage clean and fleece bedding swap. I could have waited the full ten days to change out the Healthy Pet bedding, though there was no smell at all.

healthy pet carefresh paper bedding in the cage

99% Dust-Free

One of the worst things about other types of pet bedding is that it’s not dust-free. Take cedar bedding, for example. While these shavings have a lovely scent that can mask odors from your pet’s urine, it can be very dusty. This dust will not only irritate your lungs, but it’s also extremely dangerous for your small pet to breathe these particles into their sensitive respiratory systems.

Since Healthy Pet’s bedding is 99% dust free, you don’t need to worry about breathing in potentially harmful chemicals. Instead, this high-performance paper bedding ensures a cleaner and healthier space for your small critter.

Soft and Natural

Small pets spend almost all their time inside their cages and habitats, so the material you’re using must be comfortable and soft. Healthy Pet’s comfyfluff™ material is made from scratch with raw, natural paper fibers. This soft pillowy material is comfortable under your pets’ feet and so cozy that your little critters will have no problem finding a comfy resting spot. I know my guinea pigs have absolutely no trouble catching a quick nap in their litter box after I started using this bedding.

close up of healthy pet carefresh paper bedding

Is carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding a Good Value?

I believe that carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding provides fantastic value. Initially, I was unsure about this product as it arrived in a small package. However, once I filled up my guinea pig’s litter box, it became clear to me just how far one package of this bedding would go. It fluffs up as you pull it out of the packaging, so a little goes a long way.

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FAQ

What fibers are used to make the carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding?

carefresh® bedding is made from reclaimed cellulose paper fibers. The company receives these fibers from partnerships they’ve set up with various tissue and paper manufacturers. They use only 100% non-post-consumer good materials that would have otherwise wound up in landfills.

How are the fibers colored? Is it safe to have colored bedding?

The carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding is available in several fun and bright colors like purple, confetti, and blue. As a consumer, you may wonder what type of dyes go into the bedding to produce such fun colors and if they’re safe for use with your small pets. While the exact dye type is not specifically stated on the website, the dyes that Healthy Pet uses to color its small pet bedding are all tested by third-party labs and are safe for use with animals.

The white bedding is not colored with bleach.

close up of healthy pet carefresh paper bedding in buttercup's cage

What ingredients in carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding help it control odors?

Like the dyes, the ingredients in the bedding to suppress odor have all been tested by third-party labs using the National Institutes of Health testing protocols to ensure animal safety.

What animals is this bedding appropriate for?

As the carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding name would suggest, this bedding is made specifically with small pets in mind. The intended animals include rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice, chinchillas, hedgehogs, ferrets, and hamsters. You may be able to use this bedding for other critters, but the company recommends you speak to your veterinarian before using it for other animals not named above.

Our Experience With carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding

helathy pet carefresh bedding bag in cage with buttercup

I used the carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding for my family’s guinea pig habitat. We DIY’ed our piggy cage using wood and Coroplast. The habitat is covered in a Coroplast (corrugated plastic sheeting) material and fleece bedding we sewed together in layers—one layer of fleece, a layer of waterproof furniture padding, and another layer of fleece. This works great for absorbing any messes. I think we have a pretty great system set up for our piggies, but we still needed some bedding for their litter box.

The litter is also handmade from wood and Coroplast. We knew we didn’t want to use fleece in the litter box as we needed something more absorbent, as guinea pigs tend to eliminate in the areas of their cage where they also eat. So, our piggy’s litter box also doubles as a hay box.

We laid the carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding down in a two-inch-thick layer and then covered it with hay. Our pigs are happy to spend much of their time in this box relaxing, munching down on hay, and, of course, eliminating. Therefore, it was important to me that the material we used in the box was absorbent enough to prevent excessive moisture and mold growth.

The Healthy Pet carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding was a clear winner right from the start. Because the bag is full of compressed materials, it was pretty shocking how long we could make a single bag last. It really expands! Since we only use the bedding in the litter/hay box, the 10-liter bag lasted several weeks.

Like guinea pigs, I myself have a sensitive respiratory tract, so I need to be careful about what type of materials I’m putting in their cage. I cannot touch the hay without breaking out into rashes and five-minute-long sneezing sprees, so I needed to find a litter box material that wouldn’t further irritate my allergies. The carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding fits the bill here, too.

The one thing I noticed is there are some inconsistencies from bag to bag. For example, one bag will be filled to the brim with fluffy and cozy-looking bedding, but the next bag will have a slightly dustier granular texture. Ultimately, this isn’t a deal breaker for me because the bedding works well and provides great value.

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Conclusion

The carefresh® Small Pet Paper Bedding is a budget-friendly bedding option for owners of any little critters. The bedding is extremely fluffy and cozy, providing a perfect resting spot for your pet. In addition, it’s highly absorbent to keep pet-related odors at bay, and its dust-free formulation means you don’t need to worry about harming your pet’s respiratory system. This sustainable and environmentally friendly bedding option is a clear winner in my book!


Featured Image Credit: healthy-pet

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