I'm bringing my GPs in for the winter - bedding advice needed!

[ijustwant8hours]

I've decided to bring the GPs indoors for the winter, mainly to make looking after them easier .

I've put them in a wire and plastic hutch with carefresh and hay but its a big hutch and the carefresh is going to cost me a fortune. DH will moan like anything if they start to smell. What do you use for your indoor GPs?

i use meadow hay for their bed that they also eat, and have sawdust on the bottom of the cage, they dont smell at all but i clean them out twice a week

what is carefresh?

didnt see topic and thought you were bringing your doctor in.i need more coffee.

I thought it was the GrandParents

Sorry for the confusion... putting the grandparents outside for the summer mmmm, tempting.

Carefresh is a kind of sawdust substitute, i think its made from recycled paper.

newspaper with woodshavings on top

I have recently got two guinea pigs. They are house pets. I have switched them from hay bedding to Ecopetbed. It is shredded cardboard and I get it from Earthly Enterprises. I line their cage with newspaper then put this on top. It seems to be a lot drier and cleaner now. I just remove the soiled bits of bedding each day. I really don't think mine smell. I make sure there is plenty of timothy hay in their hay rack to eat.

We used shreddings from the paper shredder on top of a layer of newspaper. We then topped it with meadow hay. Our GP was a house GP and lived happily like this for his long (over 6 years) life.

Buy a decent paper shredder and shred newspapers...you can generate a massive bin bag of bedding this way just by shredding a few papers! The shredded newspaper is nice and soft, and warm, and very absorbant. I line the cages with sheets of paper, put shredded paper on top and then a layer of hay. Mine also live indoors and I clean them out every 3 days. I ask my neighbours for their papers so it doesn't cost me anything. I tend to steer clear of woodshavings/woodflakes because it can be quite dusty and can cause eye trouble with guineas. Carefresh is good but very expensive.

towels (can buy dead cheap or second hand) with a fleece blanket on top. stick in the wash every few days. great and dead cheap

Our GP count is now 17 so there's no chance of DH agreeing to allow all of them in this winter. Really REALLY hope for a mild winter...