guinea pigs and straw!

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Jem121

Jem121

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so the weather is getting colder and until the shed is sorted out I can't put my boys in there. I clean them out every 4-5 days depending on my work shifts. anyway, they keep eating all there hay and I'm spending so much money on hay. I'm goin through a bale in about 3week's and they will get cold at night if they have no hay and I know they need unlimited hay. so I've bought some straw for them so they have Something to sleep on and also keep them warm. they have hay on top of the straw for them to eat. will this be ok?
 
I think its recommended not to use straw with piggies? but not sure. You could try snuggle pads from vet uk, I have these and they stay warm for around 6 hours.
 
I use straw in my indoor cage and have never had any issues. I use Barley straw or Russel Bedding, both very soft and finely chopped.
 
Sounds good, not sure if this could be an idea due to storage space etc but no is a good time to visit local farmer or farm shop as they have got all their bales of hay in and will sell one for a very cheap price if you ask! Much bigger than the ones you can find in shops etc so could last longer for lower price?
 
I would not use straw. It is very hard and they can get them stuck in their eye also it is no substitute for hay. They cannot eat straw,only hay.
 
Russell bedding is a soft chop straw so is very fine & soft, I used to use it when my first piggies were outside, it's better than woodshavings in my opinion. Put a nice deep layer at the bottom on top of some thick newspaper, then top with lots of hay. Using a Snugglesafe heatpad is good as well, just make sure it's well wrapped & pop in underneath the soft chop straw so the pigs aren't in direct contact with it.
Long straw that is used for horses etc isn't really suitable for piggies. It's not very absorbent.
 
There are lots of different types of straw - a straw bale from a farm/animal feed supplier is normally wheat stalks and very harsh so not suitable for piggies.

Soft chopped barley straw is the only one I have found that can be used and in my experience causes less eye injuries than timothy hay. However this is normally obtained in bags from pet shops/garden centres etc and not so cost effective as a hay bale.

HTH
x
 
I am currently using a mixture of a hay and barley straw bedding for the colder weather, they have their hay to munch in hay racks.

I wouldn't use any other straw and only use in colder months.
 
i used to use straw from a local farm. it wasn't sharp at all - in fact itwas quite soft for them. i used to put it in the sleeping compartment and top it up with hay. i never had any problems at all. i store my bales of hay (and straw when i used to buy it) in wheelie bins. a bale fits just right into one. i use vetbed now in the hutches and i have lined the walls and roof of the sleeping compartments with the vetbed. i stuck it on using double sided tape and it is really cosy in there now.
 
I am currently trialling "bedsoft" here for the rescue/foster piggies. It is another finely chopped straw product. I use a thick layer of newspaper, then the bedsoft and finally hay. So far the piggies seem to like it, it's lovely and soft and seems reasonably absorbant. The only negative comment I have so far is that as it's so light the piggies tend to throw it out of their hutches far too easily for my liking:)) The other up side is that at £6.50 ish for a 20kg sack it's much cheaper than other bedding products.

I personally wouldn't use regular baled straw from the livery as it tends to be too thick and sharp, but the finely chopped stuff seems fine.
 
piggyfan said:
I would not use straw. It is very hard and they can get them stuck in their eye also it is no substitute for hay. They cannot eat straw,only hay.
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They have hay still. it's not farm straw it's Russell bedding straw and when I uncover them in the morning there all snuggled and buried underneath it. I'll only be using straw in the winter. would much rather them be warm and use straw aswell as hay. than just give them hay and then they eat it all and have nothing to lay on.
 
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