cage liners?

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WhinnyPig

WhinnyPig

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I am a new piggy owner and I have been reading a lot and trying to learn about how to make my piggy healthy and happy :)
I have seen people on here mention cage liners...what are they for and do I need one for my piggy's cage? Right now I am just using bedding that I buy from the store called super shavins. I have learned that wood shavings may not be the best though so I was thinking of switching to something else...
thanks for your help!
 
Hi Whinnypig,

Wood shavings are probably the most hard work in terms of cleaning and washing. They're also not great for allergies and, for piggies, it's not amazing. They do like to root around in wood shaving and hay and a lot of people use newspaper, then shavings, then hay from bottom up.

Others, including myself, prefer to use material liners. I use vetbed (I'm not sure waht the US version of this is but it looks like this):

http://www.petnhome.co.uk/veterinary-bedding-c-11.html?gclid=CJq3v4_T3LACFSghtAod3lPFvA

Then I use a fleece blanket on top of this. This way, I can do a sppot clean everyday but the cage stays clean for about a week. At the end of the week you can shake the blanket out outside and wash both the blanket and vetbed (inside a duvet cover - preferrably old) in the washing machine :)
 
thanks for your advice! maybe i will start lining her cage with newspaper at least...it is a huge pain to clean right now lol
and people use hay over shavings and newspaper as bedding?
 
Uhaul furniture pads and fleece are very popular among US guinea pigs owners.
http://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Protective-stuff/Furniture-Pad

The uhaul pads are made from recycled denim and are very absorbent. I line my cage with 2 layers of uhaul and one layer of fleece on top.

I have a small feeding area (about 14x28 inches) that I lined with wood pellets. The rest of the cage is fleece and uhaul pads.

You can buy fleece from Joann's Fabric. They are on sale now. They blizzard fleece works really well at allowing urine to drain through to the uhaul pads underneath.
http://www.joann.com/fabric/fleece-fabric/blizzard-fleece/?psize=100
 
great, thank you for your tips! and nice to see someone else from the states :)
 
i use puppy training pads to line my cage, then use carefresh where they tend to pee mostly and under the bottle and hay for the rest of it.

I tryed everything like fleece, vetbed, shredded paper and the carefresh and hay works best for mine :)
 
this may sounds stupid but what is carefresh?
and thanks for your input!
 
its a dry paper based bedding. Its quite soft and quite good at absorbing. They say its not dusty but i think it can be. We use it for the softness and because its quite good for absorbing.

I'd imagine you can get it in the US, you get it in pet shops. Its quite expensive but the pack you get is compressed you get more than what you think. Our boys before to have hay as their bedding, so we use carefresh in places where they soil.

this is the website. tells you where to buy and a bit more about it

http://www.carefresh.com/
 
I will try to invest in some fleece or maybe just use an old towel as a liner. I tried using a couple layers of newspaper under the shavings last night but she was eating the edges and even digging under the shavings to chew on it so i took it out. she seems fine after eating it but i was worried she eat too much and get sick!
thanks everyone for you input!
 
I've used both carefresh by itself and fleece (but not a cage liner, more layering fleece and towels) and find pros and cons with both. They're MY pros and cons, however because the pigs seem happy with either.

Carefresh - 10L bag can be expensive - I pay £5.99 and I clean out their cage twice a week. Comes in a couple of different colours - natural, coloured and white. I like the white because it looks like they're living in a winter wonderland for a few days before they inevitably make it messy lol. It's disposable so I just chuck it out with the rubbish. My rubbish bin has been a lot fuller come bin day since I started using it.

Fleece, without a proper cage liner they can burrow underneath it. For me I don't have anywhere to shake the poops and hay from it (I can't do it at the side of the road and I don't have a garden). Fleece can come in such wonderful colours and it really brightens up the cage.

So I guess I'm still undecided is what I'm trying to say :)
 
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