Does anyone not have bedding in their cage?

Status
Not open for further replies.
CiaraPatricia

CiaraPatricia

Adult Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
3,227
Reaction score
6
Points
0
What I mean is, if you had guinea pigs that would pee just in one corner, or one part, then having bedding just in one part or in a litter tray, and the rest of the cage with lino or something instead? (And of course bedding in their bed!)

I was just wondering if anyone has a cage like that, the way some people do for rabbits? And you could just sweep up the poops. Or does it sound like it wouldn't work for guinea pigs? because of their need to pee everywhere rolleyes :))

My girl pigs are quite good to go to the toilet in one corner, and I really want to stop using wood shavings. And I find fleece hard to sweep the poops off, and then all the washing and all. And I can't use a hoover cos they'll be outside in the shed, and handheld vacuums aren't meant to be that great?

So I thought if I had non-slip lino or something, and somehow got them to pee in a litter tray, then that'd be really handy . . . but probably not realistic! :) I thought if I got one of those small cat litter tray, put in shavings and their hay on top, and the hay rack above it, they just might pee in there . . . and if they poo everywhere else that doesn't matter really cos it'd be easy to sweep out once or twice a day.
 
I can see your thinking and it works fine with rabbits! I think it wouldn't be great for piggie feet, though... I mean, bunnies have fur- covered paws, piggies don't.

You could try it, and see if their feet are fine and if they still use the no-bedding part of the cage.
 
That's true, I guess guinea pigs wouldn't really like a bare floor much either.

I might just use lino and put a layer of hay or something on top. I really want to stop using shavings when my new cages are ready :)
 
No, I've not had any problems with shavings, I find them really good actually.

Just trying to think of something that'll be easier to clean more often, because scooping out all the shavings is a big job. Maybe if I had lino with a very very thin layer of shavings, then the pigs would be able to walk around easily and the wee would be soaked up, but I could sweep it out much more often. Or a very thin layer of hay that I could change often.

And my dad has complained about the amount of shavings, because I also have a shed full of rabbits, and I dump the used shavings in the corner of the garden, but they don't rot away very well, compared to hay or straw. (Though the rabbits are getting lino soon and are litter trained, so I won't have shavings over the whole shed floor anymore, so will be using much less.)

Or I might just try fleece again! For the girls anyway, as I think I might be able to semi-litter train them. The boys are a nightmare though :D
 
Hm... yeah... It's the problem with disposable bedding, that you need somewhere to dispose of it :))

I built my cage so that I can't use loose bedding in the downstairs area, but I would like to those weekends when I have pig sitters, then they wouldn't have to sweep poop...
 
Our set up sounds similar to the kind of thing you're thinking about. The bed has vet bed in with newspaper underneath and the hay box has newspaper underneath as well. The rest of the area is lino. It's easy because I can just sweep the lino each evening and mop up any accidents with an old tea towel. Then each weekend I spray it with hutch cleaner and mop it. Spike always wees in the hay or bed area and only has the occasional poo accident but generally is very well trained. I guess because it's been like that since he's a baby.
Stripes used to treat the entire place as a toilet so I'd often put newspaper over the lino and then just scoop up the wet pieces each evening.
It's worked well for us because it's a large area, 7ft by 5ft and would cost a fortune to cover in megazorb or something similar and is in the lounge so I clean it every day so it doesn't smell. Only takes 5 minutes then a big clean at the weekend. I'll post some photos, we're just finishing remodelling at the moment (we've built an extension! lol) as we've got 4 new boys arriving tomorrow (plus Spike coming back from making friends at the rescue)
 
I often wonder if you can toilet train them to pee in certain areas only. When we have them in the hall I put newspaper down by the front door (mostly to cover the doormat so they dont chew it) and they seem to go and wee on that and nowhere else. Might be a coincidence but would be good if they only peed in a certain area in their cage. obviousy they pee mostly under the cardboard house and stool house where they spend most of their time.
 
That's exactly what I mean katiepops. :)

I was thinking that if there was bedding/hay in only one area then they might be more likely to use that to pee. The poo would be easy to sweep up so that's ok.

I might try it at least and see if the pigs are smart enough to not just wee everywhere! It'd be handy to have lino down anyway, so even if I had to change back to putting bedding down, it wouldn't be a waste of lino.

My girls cage is going to be quite big, 6'X3' so I don't really want to cover the whole thing with shavings, if I can help it. :) And the girls are so good to go in one corner anyway.

The boys have actually started to mostly go to the toilet inside their log cabin, which is silly cos they sleep in it, but it's better than going everywhere! cos I have vet bed in the cabin anyway, so i just shake off the poos everyday, and the wee seeps through so it's fine. Though when they first started going to the toilet in the log cabin I didn't notice, and I lifted it up one day and there was so much poo in there!
 
Last edited:
With my female guinea pigs they pee in one corner of the cage generally so for their bedding I put a layer of newspaper over the bottom of the cage with a light sprinkling of shavings in the cage and pile it up more in the corners they use?
 
Yeah I was thinking of using newspapers, and I could just change any ones that get wet everyday, and sweep off the poo. But I'll have to see.

I just realised that since my guinea pigs walk around on concrete in their runs every day, it probably won't hurt their feet to walk on lino! :) They really don't mind walking on concrete, they have access to the run 24 hours a day, and seem to love running around, so I think I might actually try this lino idea.

Hopefully it doesn't just turn into a swimming pool of guinea pig wee after five minutes! :)) If they just wee a little on it, that mightn't be a huge problem, but if they wee a lot all over the place then it'd be bad.
 
My guinea pigs are in an outdoor hutch.

In the hiddwn area, I have a newspaper (haha yep a whole one!) shavings and stuff with loads of hay. The other end of the hutch I have a litter tray (the half rabbit style ones) with the samw (but not as much!) there food is kinda next to this. I have a layer of shavings, then hay on top throughout! It's 5ft-c

They do TBH tend to go for poops and pees where the hay is, but it falls through, and I tend to only completly change once a week (depending on how often they have been able to get in there run, crappy weather{:|) But the litter tray gets emptied everynight.

I was thinking about putting lino or something down when I first got the outdoor hutch, but have had no leeks onto the wood under the newspapaer:)

I do have 2 girls, who when indoors are litter trained (to a fashion) are compost bin with the council gets collected so all there dirty bedding goes in their so not an issue for me.

Sorry I ramble
 
I found that when I had hay down I only had to clean them out once a week too. The poo just falls through the hay, and I could put in more hay whenever neccessary.

But with just shavings it looks so messy and the poo just stays on top.

So I think if the lino idea doesn't really work, then I might go back to using hay for bedding. :) Which the guinea pigs would much prefer anyway :))
 
CiaraPatricia said:
I found that when I had hay down I only had to clean them out once a week too. The poo just falls through the hay, and I could put in more hay whenever neccessary.

But with just shavings it looks so messy and the poo just stays on top.

So I think if the lino idea doesn't really work, then I might go back to using hay for bedding. :) Which the guinea pigs would much prefer anyway :))
Click to expand...

I think they prefer the hay too, as they can munch they snooze all in one spot:))
 
I have a pair of boys in a 5x2 double, downstairs I just have newspaper, a couple of cosy beds and megazorb in the corners they use to poo, though because they have so much space they run round like loonies and spread poop all over anyway. Upstairs they have a layer of megazorb but very rarely poop or pee up there, so all I clean up is bits of pellets and the odd chewed up paper bag.

My piggies seem to like somewhere they can back into to poop, so their favourite place is the bit where the ramp hits the floor and of course it's the worst place to brush poops out of.:(|)

Their hay is in a hay rack which they take particular care to distribute evenly all over the place before eating off the floor. In winter I think they'll use the upper deck more because their bedroom will be stuffed with hay and old towels.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top