Best Bedding For Toilet Area?

[GPcrazy]

I currently use fleece bedding in my cage, and then I have a toilet area. It started as a cat litter tray but I've expanded it slightly so both pigs can use it at the same time without fighting.
At the moment I line the toilet area with either newspaper topped with a towel, or a fleece liner. Then I sprinkle cheaper hay on that (Teff / eragrostis / mountain hay - readily available in South Africa). Sometimes I throw handfuls of meadow hay in for them to eat, other times I put the meadow hay in the hay bag (they seem to prefer eating it off the ground so I'm still working out which works best). They eat the Teff/eragrostis as well.

I generally have to clean their litter area out daily.



I would like to know if either of these would be suitable as bedding in the litter area, instead of liners / towels and hay? (Obviously I would still put lots of hay in to eat). If so, would I still have to change it out daily or could it wait say 3 days between changes? I have 2 sows and they do 90% of their toilet business in the litter area.

(I have read many threads about bedding options but most of those products are not available in SA hence my question about these two specifically.)

 

[Mackers]

I use a horse bedding in my hay boxes - Megazorb. I have no idea whether you could get that in SA. I think shavings under hay would be OK, but not sawdust. To avoid any smells, I would still advise using a litter scoop and removing any wet areas daily, and changing the hay daily.

I have no experience of whether the wood pellets (cat litter) is safe for piggies. Can you get hemp bedding (usually from a horse feed/bedding place). Hemp bedding is a good substrate under hay.

I also use disposable puppy pads under food dishes as piggies usually 'poo and chew'. So on a daily basis, I change two puppy pads, scoop wet areas of megazorb, sweep the fleece and do a complete hay change. Then once a week, I change all the fleece liners and do a full clean of the hay trays.

 

[Doris]

I use shavings in my piggies toilet area and that seems to work well. I change it daily to avoid smells though!

 

[Anarchybmc]

I've recently changed from a cat litter tray to a hay area, I use a layer of correx then a puppy pad with hay on top I change this daily.

 

[Tiamolly123]

I currently use fleece bedding in my cage, and then I have a toilet area. It started as a cat litter tray but I've expanded it slightly so both pigs can use it at the same time without fighting.
At the moment I line the toilet area with either newspaper topped with a towel, or a fleece liner. Then I sprinkle cheaper hay on that (Teff / eragrostis / mountain hay - readily available in South Africa). Sometimes I throw handfuls of meadow hay in for them to eat, other times I put the meadow hay in the hay bag (they seem to prefer eating it off the ground so I'm still working out which works best). They eat the Teff/eragrostis as well.

I generally have to clean their litter area out daily.

View attachment 51558

I would like to know if either of these would be suitable as bedding in the litter area, instead of liners / towels and hay? (Obviously I would still put lots of hay in to eat). If so, would I still have to change it out daily or could it wait say 3 days between changes? I have 2 sows and they do 90% of their toilet business in the litter area.

(I have read many threads about bedding options but most of those products are not available in SA hence my question about these two specifically.)

View attachment 51559
View attachment 51560

We always use mattress protector & fleece over the top We sweep up twice a day & the same with the hay tray, they seem to do all there poops & wee's in the boxes so it needs changing twice a day.