Fleece Bedding with Hay?
- Thread starter Kaza24
- Start date
Piggy_novice
Junior Guinea Pig
I’m new to keeping guinea pigs but we have fleece liners in our cage and then one end is a big hay tray which they love. I bought a large car litter tray to use and have it lined with newspaper then bedding and masses of hay which they love. One piggy loves to sleep in the hay and the other prefers a fleece bed or under a tunnel. We top the hay up twice a day and clean the tray out every couple of days which seems to be working well.
The hay does get everywhere but as long as you give the fleece a good brush, shake and stuff in a horse wash bag before going in washing machine it’s ok.
The hay does get everywhere but as long as you give the fleece a good brush, shake and stuff in a horse wash bag before going in washing machine it’s ok.
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Hi!
Either a tray with soft hay in to romp around or a cordoned off area for hay (often called a hay kitchen) or a hay loft on another level is what you do to prevent hay from spreading quickly everywhere.
I use hay trays (seed trays from a DIY shop) for mine as I have to change the layout often accordingly to the number and combination of guinea pigs I have at the time.
But have a look at the various solutions in our cage gallery for inspiration!
Member Gallery: C&C cages/homemade cages (best start from the end)
Whortleberry
Junior Guinea Pig
As above, I gave my boys a big hay box. I think everyone finds what works best for them, whether it's a seed tray / cat litter tray / section of a cage. I tended to use low sided cardboard boxes lined with newspaper and filled with hay. I changed the contents out daily and retired the box after a few uses.
You will find the set up which works for you! The most important thing is that they have plenty of access to lovely hay as they basically have to eat it virtually non-stop. There is something absolutely wonderful about seeing happy piggies popcorning their way to fresh hay and either enthusiastically tucking in or burying themselves (or both!). I used to offer them hay from alternative containers too - a combination of bowls / hay-rack / stuffed box - so they could have some choice in how they wanted to access it.
Between the hay and the hair (and the poo) liners / fleeces do tend to get a bit messy. Again everyone finds what works best for them, whether that's a mini-vacuum / shake-out / dustpan and brush. I tended to spot clean with a dust pan and brush (at least daily) and change liners in heavy use areas every other day. Before washing liners I would do a combination of brushing / vacuuming (using a pet-hair extension which happened to come with the vacuum) and lint-roller-ing. I had a number of the reusable lint rollers which were just brilliant at getting enough hair and hay off the fleece / liner to keep the washing machine healthy. (Lidl sometimes do them at a very reasonable price).
Have fun finding what works for your piggies and you
You will find the set up which works for you! The most important thing is that they have plenty of access to lovely hay as they basically have to eat it virtually non-stop. There is something absolutely wonderful about seeing happy piggies popcorning their way to fresh hay and either enthusiastically tucking in or burying themselves (or both!). I used to offer them hay from alternative containers too - a combination of bowls / hay-rack / stuffed box - so they could have some choice in how they wanted to access it.
Between the hay and the hair (and the poo) liners / fleeces do tend to get a bit messy. Again everyone finds what works best for them, whether that's a mini-vacuum / shake-out / dustpan and brush. I tended to spot clean with a dust pan and brush (at least daily) and change liners in heavy use areas every other day. Before washing liners I would do a combination of brushing / vacuuming (using a pet-hair extension which happened to come with the vacuum) and lint-roller-ing. I had a number of the reusable lint rollers which were just brilliant at getting enough hair and hay off the fleece / liner to keep the washing machine healthy. (Lidl sometimes do them at a very reasonable price).
Have fun finding what works for your piggies and you