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

Most of the pig house floor here is Lino so it's just gets swept up. The pig house is so big I only need to do it a couple of times a week.

In their houses I use wood cat litter, shavings and straw too in the winter. The hay goes in a rack on the wall which takes a whole section. Putting pay on the floor wastes so much!

Ahh there's no Holy Grail of Bedding what suits one pig riles the next.

I know I tried my GP1 and GP2 boars with a squidgey old pillow wrapped in a fleece (tucked inside a cardboard banana box ) inside their sleeping area.
They had a trug of hay with a cardboard lid.
They ignored my beautifuly constructed squidgey bedding and parked themselves in the trug.

One of our current trio likes the shreddings in a plastic cat bed. The others like fleece.

palomb I thought straw was a big no-no as its too brittle and could hurt them?
I'm using wood pellets now as recommended above but to be honest they smell strongly of a saw mill so I'm concerned it isn't much better for them than shavings, apart from less dust I guess. Much easier though. The bag has been down a week and is still quite dry with newspaper on top. It doesn't seem to smell as bad as you'd expect for a week either. Though mine are in the shed now.

Also I tend to look out for old clothes/rags etc and throw them in. DC worn pjs etc. The other week I had a carrier bag full of DD old knickers, in the outside cage, must have looked odd!

AtSea - the straw I buy is much much softer than they hay more like rafia in texture.
I wouldn't use equine straw (it;s coarser , I used to muck out so I remember it well )
And I would be wary with young or skitty pigs. I have used straw in a 'bolster' wrapped in newspaper round the edge of the haybox when they had a large square box. But now they have a rectangle shape. I use on the base with hay on top. It doesn't compress like hay as it's bouncier.
It doesn't have any nutritional value though.

I use my pellets under newspaper which I roll up. If they were tidy , I could give them a layer to nest in (but they're manky) so they need everything easyclean.

So for the last couple of days we've tried the other way round - megazorb then newspaper and hay. Much easier to clean and far less messy. My only concern is that the guinea pigs are not as warm as there less 'snuggliness'?

The straw I buy is really soft. Barley straw I would think. I'm ex horsey too and wouldn't use the wheat straw you'd normally get for horse bedding the the stuff I use is fine. I've had 3 Guineas with eye injuries due to grass seeds in the last year - one had to be Pts. You cannot eliminate the risk :(

I used washable incontinence pads from Amazon! Think got that tip here once- I like the idea of fleece on top. It's rather like washable nappies , and I'd rinse well before washing

Something to peruse glen (there's no Holy Grail of Bedding sadly)