Best Bedding?

Your favourite bedding?

  • fleece

    Votes: 14 45.2%

  • woodshavings

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • megazorb

    Votes: 4 12.9%

  • fitch

    Votes: 3 9.7%

  • hemp

    Votes: 3 9.7%

  • finacard

    Votes: 2 6.5%

  • other (please state in the comments)

    Votes: 5 16.1%
  • Total voters
    31
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Perfectpets11

Perfectpets11

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone. We have decided to bring our piggy indoors for the winter until we can sort out getting him a friend. We lost his friend just this week. So, i'm planning on ordering a 6x2 cage with a 2x2 loft. I have some questions on bedding. we are looking for something cheap, hassle free as i'm doing exams at school and absorbent. If we kept him on fleece could it cause a uri? He was on wood shavings outside and they seemed to suit his environment. Is fitch good? Absorbent?
what are your favourite bedding choices?
 
:D I am a fleece fan, but as I have said before, If couldn't have fleece I would have my piggies on Cosi 'N' Dri. I found it to be the softest most absorbent of all the paper-based bedding types I have used.
 
i use a combination of fitch and finacard mixed together (works just aswell as fitch alone but cheaper overall) - i then use small fleece blankets/vetbed profleece and fleece cosy items :)
 
So is Fitch pretty absorbent? Not much chance of a uri?
 
My pigs seem much happier all round on vet bed , but l supoose it come uner the heading of fleese :tu:
 
I like hemp with a layer of megazorb and hay on top. I use a deep litter system which seems very efficient!
 
I put megazorb but I do get fed up with the bits getting everywhere! Have bought auboise to try next clean
 
I use aubiose in the cage and fleece in the joining run (which is too large at 1 meter square to put down Aubiose all the time). Works well as they hardly ever go to the loo on the fleece, 95% is in litter trays on in the Aubiose filled cage. I tried replacing the Aubiose with snowflake for a bit and found it too absorbent and it retained the smell of piggie wees too much (my cage setup is inside so that was a problem). Gone back to Aubiose and happier with it.
 
I really like Back 2 Nature bedding, it seems to absorb well, stop smells well and it doesnt stick to archie. I found that woodshavings and the carefresh style bedding sticks to him and then it drops all over my room, which was very annoying.
 
I've tried Fitch, Finacard, Sawdust, and basic hay and switched to fleece last year and haven't looked back. Fitch I loved, it was easy to spot poop and wee, which made spot cleaning a dream. It was also really absorbent, however I found the price a con, if you have a large cage you'll be getting through a fair amount and spending a fair amount because of that.

Finacard was ok, did the job well but as it's brown, poops blended and wee tended to spread further amongst the bedding then Fitch - it also tended to smell quite quickly. It was also quite pricey and I found the delivery and service to be quite up and down, which really put me off.

Sawdust isn't great, smells quickly, not great absorbency and the dust isn't great for the pigs lungs.

Fleece can be a tad expensive initially, but it does last you. In the year since using fleece I have easily saved £200 on bedding. It's also really quick to change, just roll it up, shake it out and wash! Plus you can get all sorts of nice patterns :D And it's cosy for the colder months :)
In regards to UTI's and fleece, I've never had a problem with them since switching to fleece, but to be safe fleece should always be washed on a high temp to kill bacteria :)

I'm a fleece gal all the way, I'd recommend it to anyone with pigs, but at the the end of the day it is down to personal preference (both yours and your pigs!)
 
I'm a fleece fan, but also a Vetbed fan :) both are good.
But in addition I like to have trays for their hay with Fitch in it, and this is where they do most of their wee's (skirting round the hay in the middle of the tray :))
The fleece I use is made into a quilt, with a waterproof washable material at the bottom, polyester wadding in the middle, and one layer of fleece on top. Quick to dry, convenient, stays in place well. I made this before I came across Vetbed.
Vetbed comes in two types, one with a rubber waterproof backing and one without. I like the one with the backing, but both have their merits. A good combination for Vetbed may well be one without the waterproof backing, wicking the moisture to a towel underneath. I'm yet to try that, but if I was starting again I would.
So my cages have Vetbed, Fleece and Fitch, all in different areas, and all with their useful functions.

I've also read of other fleece fans who like to have a tray of litter and hay, for the same reasons as I do. It is a good combination and makes the fleece easier to clean when the hay is separate and stays fresher longer due to them doing their wee's in the litter. The litter really can be very useful to have, and being as it's just in a tray it doesn't cost too much to replace as you are not using much per change.

So in regards to fleece and vetbed: Vetbed can be cut into the desired shape without the need to sew. It can be either on it's own or with an absorbent layer beneath, like a towel.
Fleece is best is sewn into a quilt-type thing in my opinion to negate the need for clipping it into place over towels etc. It's just easier if it's all in one, but this requires sewing. But then some people prefer the separate fleece and towels. Personal choice, but you do need to keep in mind that fleece needs SOMETHING underneath it, and something to hold it in place if it's not sewn into a quilt.
 
I love megazorb it looks very natural and is very obzorbant. However i do like fleece but it needs to be cleaned a lot unless your pigs are litter trained.
 
I just made one of these for my two gals. I used a layer of flannel, two layers of thin cotton quilt batting and two layers of polar fleece. Then I quilted it. Too much? It doesn't seem too thick to me but now I'm reading that most people are only using a layer or two of fleece... Which end should I let them g pigs lay on? Flannel or fleece?
 
sweetharsh said:
I just made one of these for my two gals. I used a layer of flannel, two layers of thin cotton quilt batting and two layers of polar fleece. Then I quilted it. Too much? It doesn't seem too thick to me but now I'm reading that most people are only using a layer or two of fleece... Which end should I let them g pigs lay on? Flannel or fleece?
Click to expand...

sounds fine to me if each layer is thin anyway. you can make them as thick as you want though really :)

the fleece is the top layer that they sit on, and then hopefully any urine will drain through to the bottom layer of absorbent fabric :)
 
I clicked other, as although we use fleece for Lettie, we love wood pellet bedding!
I was a huge fan of Verdo, but have just had a sample of Sorbeo, which is absolutely awesome! Very absorbent, easy to spot clean and very good value for money.
We use a 20kg bag in about 3 weeks, at £6 ish a bag. A quarter of the bag, soaked, will do a full clean out for both cages.
Lettie has a thin layer under her fleece, and Theo&Blue have it about an inch thick, with fleece on their balcony and a snuggle pad under it... they quite often move the pad and sleep on the bedding! Haha!

I must post a video of how it soaks up etc, I love it! x
 
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