Bath mats as bedding?

SavyCavyGirl

SavyCavyGirl

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi! So I have two guinea pigs, who I love to spoil. They live in a cage that is currently about 13 sq feet (not counting the loft that is about 4.5 square feet). I think I’m going to move soon where I will hopefully have more room for a bigger cage, so I can maybe get another piggy. Currently I use Guinea dad liners for my cage, but they’re hard to wash and kind of expensive. The size cage I would want would require a lot of them, and I was wondering if using bath mats instead could work? I was thinking something like the picture. I might sew towels underneath them so they are more absorbent if this is possible.F4738AAA-033A-4A19-A1B4-0F96E8026BFF.webp
 
The only thing I can say about this is...….I've seen knowledgeable guinea pig owners using it as a liner so it must be fine. But, I'm not very experienced with that kind of thing.
 
Yes they are fine, but I would not sew towels to them. You would be better off laying them on top of puppy pads. Towels don’t always dry properly and can smell quickly.
 
I would say you’ll need three lots. Could you have fleece with some puppy pads underneath and then use the bath mats on top? I’m just thinking they may not last a full week before you want to change them.

When mine were indoors, I used a fleece liner with bath mats on top. Some of them needed changing every 2-3 days.
 
If you have flat yard space, you could even keep them on the grass, like I do. Guinea pigs LOVE being on the grass, and grass is great for their gut health.
In fact, that's why you always need to provide guinea pigs hay, because in the wild they are meant to live on the grass. Of coarse you still clean the poos up from the grass, but the wee fertilizes the grass and goes into the ground. 🌱
 
Guessing you're not UK @Natalie Clancy :)) There are very few days here where the grass is dry. Even on fine days, there is often a heavy dew on the grass all morning.

Then it might dry out, and a shower of rain soaks it all again! It really is very demoralising.


Eta i see neither you, nor OP is in the UK. Lucky piggies! The uk climate is awful for pigs.
 
Sorry, I didn't realize.
I once went to Victoria, and it was just as you described the UK!
I'm from Queensland, Australia.
 
It's a shame you can't put your piggies on the grass. As a suggestion, you could pick some grass, dry it, and feed it to your piggies! Grass is really quite healthy for guinea pigs. (They were originally made to eat it in the wild) Hope my suggestion helps. 😊
 
No need to apologise - Colarado (where OP is from) might be suited to your suggestion - it's interesting to hear about different climates from folks that actually live there 🙂


I grew up in England in the days that the month of June was described as 'flaming june' and may through to september were generally ok.

Now i live in Scotland. Through my own observations of how often the grass is dry enough for the pigs, i can confidently say that there are very few dry days in june! August is often a washout and our driest month is actually October. But by then it is too cold and dark to put pigs out.

Occasionally we get 2 or 3 days in may and a week or two in july!

But the UK is very variable with weather. In fact, that assessment only applies to my little part of Scotland as i am located in amongst big hills.

15 miles down the road can be sunny, whilst we stay wet here . . .
 
I used bath mats at the hay end of my cage and fleece liners throughout the rest, I notice that bath mats don’t last as long as fleece liners and do get a bit smelly quicker but they do still work well!
 
tabelmabel said:
No need to apologise - Colarado (where OP is from) might be suited to your suggestion - it's interesting to hear about different climates from folks that actually live there 🙂


I grew up in England in the days that the month of June was described as 'flaming june' and may through to september were generally ok.

Now i live in Scotland. Through my own observations of how often the grass is dry enough for the pigs, i can confidently say that there are very few dry days in june! August is often a washout and our driest month is actually October. But by then it is too cold and dark to put pigs out.

Occasionally we get 2 or 3 days in may and a week or two in july!

But the UK is very variable with weather. In fact, that assessment only applies to my little part of Scotland as i am located in amongst big hills.

15 miles down the road can be sunny, whilst we stay wet here . . .
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It's amazing to hear what wheather is like in a different region of the world.
Here in Winter, most days will be dry and very cold (appart from rainy days) but in Summer rain is more rare and the months are dry, sunny and warm. :)
 
It is interesting for sure! I'm not a fan of hot weather so i dont think id fare well in Australia. I dont like the rain either though. I function nicely at about 72 degrees F and dry 😄

We get about 2 days a year like that . . .
 
I use bath mats with puppy pads underneath. I agree that sewing towels underneath would make them more difficult to wash and dry and actually I think they would need changing sooner than if they were just on top of puppy pads as the urine would wick through the mats but then soak into the towels. As with any fabric based bedding, I would recommend changing every 3-4 days and washing at 60 degrees to kil off bacteria.
 
:agr: As said above, towels sewn to them would make washing and drying a nightmare. I was my bath mats in a horse laundry bag to protect the washing machine and I would say my washing machine tolerates a maximum of two mats and some fleece in the bag. Any more weight than that and it doesn't spin properly (as those mats soak up a lot of water in the wash)!

You've already had some excellent advice above, so I wont repeat - but I have been using mats for years and love the setup. I find my pigs quite clean though, their wet patches tend to be in one area (usually where I've just put nice fresh hay in 🤦‍♀️)
 
Wow! Thank you all for this! When I build a bigger cage I’ll make sure not to use towels and I’ll lay puppy pee pass underneath. This is all really appreciated. This summer I hope to let them outside sometimes, however when the grass is dry enough, it’s usually dead and we have quite a few days where it’s over 100 degrees so too hot for the piggies. I currently am in an apartment and I don’t feel comfortable letting them outside right now because I would have to bring them to a park or something and I think that would just traumatize them more than we need to. However right now is the only suitable piggy wether so they might not get to go outside this year. 😢
 
You also have to be careful about the grass being accessed by dogs. You could cut grass and bring up to them to eat in a play pen. So you’re kind of bringing the outside inside. You do have to get their bellies used to grass though.
 
Siikibam said:
You also have to be careful about the grass being accessed by dogs. You could cut grass and bring up to them to eat in a play pen. So you’re kind of bringing the outside inside. You do have to get their bellies used to grass though.
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Ooh interesting. I definitely plan on having a dog someday, but I don’t want them eating grass contaminated with dog poop and urine! Maybe I will section off a part of the yard and not let the dog there so that they ways have fresh grass. Definitely will start with brining grass into the cage at first tho!
 
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