Hay/ Litter Tray Sizes

Status
Not open for further replies.
acapae

acapae

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Nov 5, 2016
Messages
433
Reaction score
277
Points
405
Location
North East England
I've seen a few posts people using small plastic trays in the general hay area, to encourage piggies to pee/ poo more in the general hay mess area.

What sort of sized trays do people use? Particularly with regard to what height a lip can the piggies manage to get over?
 
I have an assortment of sizes of mainly cat litter trays, the deeper trays I hacksaw a lower opening approx 1 inch high in the front and use sandpaper to rub down any sharp bits. Their favourite tray at the moment is a plastic biscuit box of the type you get this time of year, deeper than a litter box so lots of depth of hay to burrow in. My favourite one too as I got to eat the biscuits.
 
Mine is a standard sized cat litter tray - I've not cut down the lip, it's about 3 inches high. I did have a log roll leading to it but it soon got shoved aside. Both my pigs can leap to the top of a carrot cottage without a run up, though, so they're pretty agile (cos they're young potatoes!).
 
I use a standard cat litter box. Mine have happily hopped over the sides since I got them at just 5 weeks old. I initially had a few pieces of wood next to it to make "steps" but they steadfastly avoided those and always hopped right in.
 
I like those little plastic dog beds cos they already have a nice low place for the piggies to climb in.
 
I found with the trays that there was a lot of waste, so I'm going back to hay racks in the middle of the cage.

I know that I will change my mind in the future and go back to trays
 
Flamestriker said:
I found with the trays that there was a lot of waste, so I'm going back to hay racks in the middle of the cage.

I know that I will change my mind in the future and go back to trays
Click to expand...
There is a lot of hay thrown away but I don't consider it as just for eating. My pair are on fleece but they are also burrowers and they love digging about in there so I consider it as environmental enrichment too.
 
Yep I agree @Tigermoth re. enrichment too. For the standard hay anyway; I'll probably be more precious if I ever get them any Timothy heh. I haven't quite decided what my long term plan for hay will be yet (currently they just have a few piles on the floor, under hides places, in boxes etc.) but it sounds like they can mostly climb over higher things than I was anticipating. Which is of course good, but more options to choose between...
 
Swissgreys said:
I use stacking plastic storage boxes from the DIY store (not stacked obviously).
They are about 33cm wide and 45 cam long. The lower lip (front) is about 8 cm high.
Below is a terrible photo, but maybe it will help give you an idea.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the visual! I'm a new piggie owner (though I'm learning why "slave" is often used! XD), and I am pretty impressed at their hay messes! I like the idea of the small trays and might give that a go :)
 
I have one of the corner litter trays made for guinea pigs, but that's for my single boar. I have to use this one because it has a very low lip and he really isn't agile. He struggles with anything more than a couple inches. It is quite small, however you can get rabbit ones. It's small enough for Oreo to sit in or lean over the side and eat hay. They are expensive, but it was supposed to be my hamster's sand bath, but I got him something better so Oreo could have it. I just fill it with hay and change as necessary. It stops hay being kicked around the cage.

If you have lots of piggies, a good sized cat litter tray will be better. Poundland sometimes carry a nice sized one. I used to have one, but my mum binned it when I was on holiday because she just didn't want it. Currently, Poundland litter trays are out of stock in my current area.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top