New guinea pig Mum!!

[Anon1983678]

Hi looking for some advice, getting 2 guinea pigs next week and its my first time having them. What do people recommend for bedding? Was thinking fleece but can anyone recommend any nice absorbant ones? Or is wood shavings an easier option? Cage size is 70 x 140. Thanks in advance

That happened to us unfortunately.

I found jonspicks.com really useful when I was new to guinea pig care—there’s a section that helped me figure out what kind of hay and bedding to get. I was clueless about the difference between types before that. It also helped me put together a basic checklist so I didn’t forget any of the essentials. Really handy if you're feeling a bit lost at the start.

I use fleeces and bath mats but with large areas of just hay - they really need a lot of hay, it's not just something in a food bowl they will borrow in it and sleep in it (and pee in it - but nothing you can do!)

Fortunately we've had three sets of boars and no major fall outs

We do disposable puppy pads on the bottom, a layer of newspaper and then Aldi bath mats and fleece on the top. We change once a week in winter when they are in all the time but less in the summer when they are out and about. One of ours likes licking people!

Ah, congratulations, OP, they are such wonderful little pets once they get to know you!

We have two lovely little sows and our setup is:

8x2 Kavee c&c cage (we found the gates a massive pain in the bum, just get the straightforward cage panels)

Newspaper lining on the bottom, double thickness where they wee (they'll have a preferred spot for this, ours go at the back)

Fleece liner on top of the newspaper (we have the Kavee ones)

LOTS of timothy hay on top of the liner. A nice thick layer so that they can tunnel and hide in it as well as munch it. This is the key to (a) only having to change once a week and (b) not having a smelly cage. The hay wicks all the wee to the bottom and means their feet aren't in touch with a wet fleece. Plus, they bloody love it. You can get a lot of posh accessories for guinea pigs but the one ours love best is the hay.

Make sure you get hay that's suitable for guinea pigs and not just rabbits, and keep an eye on their eyes as they can get hay poke (hay caught in the eye). But this is how they love to live - trust me.

Interesting about the bathing. My kid has a guide to guinea pigs and it recommends gentle bathing once a month with baby shampoo. No skin problems or flakiness with ours.

Buy hay online rather than in a pet shop if you can - you'll need a lot of it!

Absolutely agree with this - we order a box a month. You need to add fresh hay daily over the week for feeding and enrichment.

Agree re: hay. My pigs’ favourite activity is pulling all the hay out of their rack, lying on it, then weeing on it. Once it’s even a manometer away from the rack they deem it unfit for consumption!

Have you got them yet, OP?