Guinea Pigs Eating Puppy Pads

[Maddykins]

We have a C+C cage, so the floor is corrugated plastic. Then we have a layer of puppy pads, then fleece which differs from being one layer, to 3 or 4 in places where they like to sleep and/or pee a lot. The problem is my pigs, one in particular, seem to love burrowing around in the fleece and picking bits up with their mouth and generally messing it all up, particularly under the loft which is where they usually sleep as it's cosy because it's darker and has more fleece. However they have started chewing and eating the puppy pads! They seem to be doing it more and more each day and I keep resetting it and trying to cover it as best as possible but they're so clever and they've like picked their spot and go back, pick all the fleece up, and sit and eat the puppy pad! I'm getting increasingly concerned because I just went over to stop one of them and there's quite a lot of bits gone off it, that can't be good for their tummy :/

Does anyone have any tips for stopping them doing this? I just put yet another fleece folded up over the area where they keep doing it to try and deter them. Also do I need to take them to the vets? They both seem fine and all the poos look normal I'm just worried about them getting bad stomachs or even poisoning or something :S

Also they always have hay and pellets and I give them the suggested amount of veggies twice a day so it's not because they are hungry!

 

[madguinealady]

Could you add fleece to the edges of the liner and clip it to the top of the correx

 

[Stewybus]

I have a similar problem with Minky, my head tilt girl but only at meal times. Because she's not as fast getting her veggies when she's in her group I bring her out at break & teatime to have her veggies while I'm eating my meals. She's on the settee or sometimes the floor on a puppy pad in case of accidents and after a while she always attempts to chew holes in her puppy pad. I got round this by putting kitchen roll on top of her puppy pad & she chews that instead. Don't know it it'll work in your situation though. I also found that if I put some hay out with her veggies she was less likely to go for the puppy pad when there was something tastier there.

 

[simba♡]

Have you changed puppy pads brand? Some are scented, and it used to drive one of my piggies wild. I changed back and he settled back down, so may be that?

 

[Briony_S]

I use bulldog clips to secure the fleece to the sides of the correx, I ran out before I did my baby girls cage and they all run underneath and eat the correx so need to buy more

 

[Maddykins]

Yes they are scented so I guess that explains why they go for it! We've experimented with putting our fleece in different ways so the area they most used to chew the puppy pad under is covered really well now which seems to be putting them off because there's so many layers of fleece secured over it in different directions, haha. We bought a big box of these puppy pads but will definitely get non-scented ones once this box is finished so hopefully won't have this problem then!

 

[madguinealady]

i use incontinence pads from ebay as these have nothing on them. Used puppy pads before i realised they had an attractant on them and didnt want to risk it.