Guinea pig bedding. What do you use?

[AtSea1979]

I posted here years ago and thanks to MN advice I switched from shavings to newspaper. Now they are just bedded on newspaper and hay. Only my supply of newspaper is coming to an end. Use approx. 3 thick newspapers per day and now just down to one supplier!
What else can I use? before I go rummaging through neighbours recycle boxes on bin day

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I'm a newspaper/hay user too and I don't buy newspapers

Can you ask the neighbours for their papers? (You'd need to do a regular collection but I'm guessing if they keep them for bin day, they wont mind?)

I go to London every month or so , and take a big plastic bag to scoop up all the Metro/Evening Standards at the end of the day (they'd just get dumped otherwise)

We get one free paper a week too.
But sometimes I'm looking at the thickest newspaper to buy if I run out.

I put wood pellet (Small animal safe) cat litter under the newspaper. Absorbant, gives an insulating layer and a bit softer underpaw.
It lasts a week but I change the hay/paper daily
(2 sows+neutered boar + a load of pee )

[AtSea1979]

Ah maybe I need pellets then. I have 4 girls. Then might need less paper.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

The wood pellets have made a huge difference AtSea . I bought Megazorb in the summer for them but it's ££.

I get the huge bags from The Range (large yellow sack abot £7ish) then a good layer in the haybox .(One sack does me 3 changes, they have one of those storage trunk things - for cushions and the like in the garden- as their haybox. Two doors cut, they're like little Weather Vane People)

I roll up the newspaper/hay and any bits they've peed onto the pellets just goes like bran , so I can scoop it out .


4 girls - so you know how much they pee .

[spritefairy]

Is finacard still an appropriate bedding?? Looking into that after Christmas

[MeadowHay]

I use puppy pads, with fleece on top. Fleece is cheap because you just wash it, it's nice and cosy for the pigs, and tidier than hay everywhere. Puppy pads aren't super cheap but not too expensive either if you buy the massive boxes.

[AtSea1979]

I tried fleece but it was way too messy having to wash every day. Bit like terries nappies! Impossible to get all hay and hair off.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Since my trio have come indoors at night, I use newspaper, shreddings (I have a confetti cut shredder and do things like looroll tubes and thin card. Lovely soft bedding) then a square of fleece on the shredding and their rubber trug over the top (it's upside down with a 'door' cut out)

I use really cheapie fleece (IKEA or reduced fleece from Primark) cut off the stitching at the edge and each one gives me 6 pieces.
They have hay cookies that keep them busy and don;t get everywhere.

I throw it out each day. I know it costs about 50p a night but it saves my machine.

And no random hay bonus.

[MeadowHay]

I wash only wash them every 4 days! In between is just spot cleaning poops/old hay, and shoving a couple of extra puppy pads underneath when needed. I don't usually put hay directly onto it so it's not too bad, shake it a lot before washing and then wash inside a duvet cover, works well. When they start to get hairy just bin and replace. My fleece is the big sofa covers from Ikea, and little pet ones from B&M or poundstores. Big fleece fan. :P

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Most of my guinea pigs could be trusted on puppy pads, but with our resident hogs, one is a chewer............glares at GP5.

They are really absorbant and the ones I've bought in the past had sticky pads to adhere them, but no matter how I fold them or arrange the newspaper, the waterproofy bit gets chewed.

[MeadowHay]

Have you tried fleece over them NotaTarget ? That's what I do and you can fold it over the edges so they can't get to the puppy pads (mine chew as well sometimes if given the chance).

[PurpleGreenAvocado]

I'm sick of using hay, it gets everywhere now that PurplePig is indoors for the winter. That's just with him eating it though, the bedding is like cat little but softer.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Last night my furbabies reached a whole new level of grubbiness Meadow

DD and I sorted the Pighouse, put them out, I went to roll up theit night bedding and..........................one of them (or maybe all of them) had peed in the empty veg dish. Urgh.
Deffo guinea pee.(I blame GP4 she's a bladder on legs that one)

Little toads

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Purple I give mine hay cookies , they still get their hay (which they must always have) but it's contained, and they have to pull the strands so it keeps them busy.
They have their loose hay in the Pighouse to run through, burrow in, pee on

I tried a hayrack.........the two less chubby ones sat in it.

[MeadowHay]

NotATarget Haha, been there too I'm afraid. I only have two, and it's only one of them that will wee in it. They don't have a food bowl now though. I just put the pellets wherever, and then I scatter their veg so they have to walk around and forage for it, keeps them busy and they have to use their instincts/intelligence/energy. Negates wee in bowls :P

Also I put hay in stuff too, all different things to keep them amused...carboard boxes, toilet tubes, litter trays, cereal boxes, tissue boxes, all kinds. :)

[AtSea1979]

Thanks. Will have to seek out hay cookies. My cage is open play so can't avoid hay everywhere to burrow in. Got some wood pellets cat litter so will give them a try and use less paper. I did contemplate buying a factory roll of fleece!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

When my boar (GP3) was in his post neuter days we gave him hay in loo roll tubes , partly because he wasn't allowed to sit on hay , it was hot summer so didn't want to cook him, and because he was in quaarentine , it kept him busy.
Less messy for sure , I did try the current pigs with it...........but they were so noisy at 3am .
Don't worry that I need to get up for work you crepuscular critters

[FernieB]

70 - they were just making sure that you were up in good time for work (and had time to give them three breakfasts before you go). It's all part of the service provided by a working piggie.

Mine may get a hay cookie for Christmas but they're not something I use a lot as they nibble the edges then wee on them. I just put up with hay on the utility floor and in lots of other rooms they never go in

[fortifiedwithtea]

I wondered how you used 3 newspapers a day. Then I read you have 4 girl piggies. That explains it

I use newspaper and hay. DH commutes to London most days and brings home the metro etc. However, I have been known to get DD2 to call on all the neighbours for their newspapers too.

70 one of mine was manky last week but I'm blaming Millie. During the day their hutch door is kept open. Somebody shuffled their bum to the edge and had a pee on the laminate floor.

[millimat]

We use Megazorb, pay about£8 for a huge bag from a horse feeds supplier. Put newspaper underneath it which is replaced every day, though may try the other way round.
I don't know how some of you keep your GPs in the living room. Ours are now in all the time but even with daily cleaning, they stink!

[millimat]

Don't they try and eat the fleece? Ebert time I read these threads I feel the need to try fleece.

[Allgunsblazing]

Sorry, coming late to the party, but what is wrong with using shavings?

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Allguns shavings aren't recommended because they're sharp so can damage pig feet and drying on their skin and fur.
And they often have a 'smell' from the wood oils which can affect their respiratory systems.
Sawdust is dusty
Add to that their faces are practically at floor level........

millimat mine don't eat fleece but we cut the blanket stitching off the edge so there's no loose threads.

Ours are in the small bedroom for winter nights. I've had nightmares the past few Pig Owning Winters with random hay on the carpet and hay smells.
This year with newspaper, square of fleece and confetti cut shreddings (which gets rolled up and thrown out each day) and hay cookies which are tidier, we're winning the war.

I must take a photo of their cage before/after.
One night with the pigs and it looks like Armageddon.

Who the dickens has these guinea-pigs that need cleaned every week? (I read about them, I've never owned one )

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Ooh and Lavender Scented Shavings/ Lemon scented Shavings.
I'm looking at you P@H.

Why would anyone scent their animals' bedding?
Just clean the blardy cage more often!

(It's like scented sanitary wear We don't use scented nappies on our babies do we?)

[Allgunsblazing]

Thank you for the explanation, it makes sense.

[DancingDuck]

We used recycled newspaper pellets safe for small pets, with a sprinkling of pet safe sawdust and then hay on top, to make it smell nice and be soft to walk on.
Our boars lived six and seven years, so it seemed to work OK.