Hay For Litter Tray?

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Rosyautumn girl

Rosyautumn girl

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Probably going to sound silly this question, but here goes anyway, I'm still very clueless and learning!

So hay, obviously piggies need it constantly topped up to munch on, I get that bit.

But then I've read that if you want to try and encourage your piggies to wee or poop in a litter tray you fill it with hay, but won't they just eat the hay you put in there? Or maybe I'm thinking I could do this (to hopefully get them to use it as a loo!), and also get one of those clip on hay feeder thingies? Not sure they will get that the 2 separate supplies of hay are meant for different things though?!

At the mo we use wood shavings and as I'm sure you all know the poop gets in like everywhere! But I'm waiting for delivery of some fleece cage liners and then was thinking of trying the litter tray.
I appreciate that we have to de-poo their cage daily but I am trying to find a cleaner and quicker solution as with working and school runs in the mornings it's neigh on impossible to properly clean up all the poo, I'm hoping cage liners/litter tray, will make it easier and cleaner?

Am I being completely naive?!
 
I use a litter box with my fleece it works wonderfully. I made a hay bag I attached to the side of the cage. Your piggies won't do all there poops in the litter box though.
 
No you are not naive - that is a good question.

Basically guinea pigs will spend a large amount of time munching hay.
While they munch they also poo and wee, so if you put their hay in a large plastic tub then that is where a lot of their wee and poo will end up.

I have 2 plastic boxes from the DIY store which I line with newspaper and then fill with hay.
I hang two hay bags above the trays with their 'special' hay (slightly more expensive, better quality hay, that I don't want them to trample in 5 minutes).
I replace the newspaper and hay once a day and refill the hay bags as required.
I then find one quick poo sweep of the cage is enough to keep everything looking pretty clean.

If you can find and fit hay trays that are big enough for your guinea pigs to sit in comfortably, then this will really make cage cleaning a lot easier.

It's not a brilliant photo, but this is my hay area set up.

IMG_5064.webp
 
Thanks guys. And yes that is an amazing set up! Puts mine to complete shame, I really need to step it up! To be honest I didn't realise how much space piggies needed, I'm starting to think I need to rearrange the whole house so I can make their habitat more spacious and fun.

That's a brilliant idea having the hay bags over the trays.

There's so much to learn, I keep feeling so stupid and like I've let my piggies down not doing my research properly. We live and learn I suppose! Thank you again :luv:
 
Being on here and asking questions is doing research. I am sure your guinea pigs are very well loved and cared for and have a lovely set up.

Good luck re-arranging the whole house to suit them!
 
Thank you flowerfairy! This forum has been a god send! They are well loved and cared for, but I'm thinking they just haven't got enough space.

Just going to throw another question in, I've been thinking... My daughter has a big bedroom with a perfect space to put the cage and playpen in, would it be ok if they're in her bedroom? Not ideal maybe? But having them in the room they are in now is so tight and restricts what we can do to make their space bigger and, well, more special...

And I guess also, are they noisy at night?
 
Swissgreys, can I just ask where you got your hay bags from please? Thank you
 
Rosyautumn girl said:
Swissgreys, can I just ask where you got your hay bags from please? Thank you
Click to expand...

My daughter made them.
She used a sewing machine, some basic cotton fabric I already had, and this tutorial on You Tube.


She said they were pretty straightforward, and each one took her about 40 minutes.
 
Rosyautumn girl said:
Thanks guys. And yes that is an amazing set up! Puts mine to complete shame, I really need to step it up! To be honest I didn't realise how much space piggies needed, I'm starting to think I need to rearrange the whole house so I can make their habitat more spacious and fun.

That's a brilliant idea having the hay bags over the trays.

There's so much to learn, I keep feeling so stupid and like I've let my piggies down not doing my research properly. We live and learn I suppose! Thank you again :luv:
Click to expand...

You are on here and you are learning - that is how a lot of us started out.
We got our guinea pigs in March this year, and this is their initial set up.
I actually thought it was pretty great.

IMG_4129.webp

They were in an outdoor wooden hutch because they were going to live outside.
Then they were going to live inside, but in a wooden hutch.
And then I joined this forum and learnt about C&C cages.
And so it goes.
No one knows everything right away, and we are all doing the best we an with what we have.
 
My pigs have two hay trays and a rack with 'better' hay in. They don't eat the 'better' hay and they do very few poos or weed in the tray,s despite the hay getting flattened and tunnelled and dragged around. They prefer to go back to their 'bedrooms' to toilet!

But they do have hay in many places in their enclosure . . . So maybe trays aren't really needed for them
 
Thanks swissgreys, wow you have come a long way! That makes me feel better though, sorry, but it just shows that we are indeed all learning as we go along, and forums like this are just soooo helpful.

My daughter does actually have a sewing machine, but it gathers dust on a shelf! Making those hay bags might be worth dusting it off for, thank you so much for that.

And thanks guineapigfeet, I guess all gp's are different then, I guess it's a case of trying and seeing what happens!
 
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