rat substrate as Vegie Garden Mulch. O.K?

[Earthling]

i was converted to lucerne hay not long ago as rat substrate and it is the best stuff yet, very little odour, except nice hay smell which i can handle. just wondering if the 1-2 week old substrate hay would be OK for garden mulch? Vegetable garden mulch that is. i would probably compost it for 1-2 months in a plastic drum. Thoughts as to possible food contmination? Ive used lots of other poos(chook, pig, sheep)in the past, but not sure wether rats would have any bad things that i could aquire through eating.

 

[Magpie]

Go for it
I used to use my rat substrate (pine shavings) on the garden, including the veggies all the time.
There's really very little chance of getting anything from any manure used on veggies.

 

[dickyknee]

should be ok ....i use the lucerne from the rabbits cage at my place on the veggie garden , i know rabbits seem to be cleaner than rats though .

 

[steve6610]

what magpie said, my brother has a large vegie garden and he comes and gets a trailer load of my rat substrate and you should see his garden, lol,

cheers,
steve...............

 

[rodentrancher]

When we were still rodentranching, we used to empty tractor bin fulls of rodent waste/bedding down on the bottom paddock, then disk it in to the soil. Last year we grew a crop of pumpkins, and it is the best crop we ever had. It makes the best plant manure, no probs. Cheers Cheryl

 

[Earthling]

Cool bananas. Vegie garden food and snake food......allllll good. Thanks for the replies peoples.

 

[peterescue]

personally I would compost it first but its all good.