Let's talk bedding........

Status
Not open for further replies.
Pink Jumper

Pink Jumper

_
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
684
Reaction score
19
Points
325
Location
Cardiff, South Wales
I know there are millions of threads on bedding, but I just wanted to start a new one so I have it in my list of threads to look back on.

I was wondering if everyone could share info on bedding and what bedding you use :)

I am using fleece at the moment but I am getting bored of it lol. I was wondering what you lot do and maybe I could get some new ideas?

xx
 
I use fleece, used to use Megazorb. Fleece for me is the best as it's easy to clean, comfortable for the Guinea Pigs and it gets cleaned every two days so smells fine (no bad odours). Also when I switched them over they started popcorning straight away so the girls must love it! :p I also love how it stays dry and the towels underneath absorb the moisture.
 
Magazob, my piggies love it. They even go under their snuggle beds rather than sleep on them as they prefer it. Nicola x
 
Piggie Life said:
I use fleece, used to use Megazorb. Fleece for me is the best as it's easy to clean, comfortable for the Guinea Pigs and it gets cleaned every two days so smells fine (no bad odours). Also when I switched them over they started popcorning straight away so the girls must love it! :p I also love how it stays dry and the towels underneath absorb the moisture.
Click to expand...

Do you find that their fur gets stuck to it and when it goes in the washing machine fur ends up stuck on your clothes and stuck in the washing basket etc?
 
No, I've never noticed any fur on the fleece, I have Rex's maybe they don't malt as much. Also I use a really brittle brush so it gets everything off. :)
 
Does anyone use hay as their bedding/floor? I am really interested in this. I would love to see my furries popcorning everywhere because their whole floor is food :))
 
megazorb here and hay in their bed area, mine are always popcorning :))
 
i use a mixture of wood shaving and recycle litter in my cage it last for 5days atleast and the woodshavings makes it nice and soft
 
I use a cheaper but more-or-less the same version of Auboise called Snowflake Softflake and have done for a couple of years now. My pigs are free range on the shed and as I have a rubber stable mat down for insulation they only need an inch or so for absorption so a bale goes a long way. They're out in the run most of the day aswell.
 
I started off using a fleece blanket in my store bought cage with cheap towels underneath. I found that it smelled and also, they would pull up the corners and pee on the towels.

I decided that I would try carefresh as it was a bit of a task to clean up poops every day and it was getting a little smelly. Carefresh turned out to be quite dusty and made my pigs sneeze so I stopped buying it. It was good that I could just dump the carefresh in a bin bag when it came to the cage clean out but I thought it might be good for me but not so good for my boys.

When I moved them into a C&C I bought cage liners which is so far so good. They don't smell like when I used just a fleece and towels - must be the magic ingredients concealed within ;) They can't pull up the corners as it's thicker and they do spent quite a lot of time sleeping out in the open on the cuddly cage liner - which is a delight to see!

I did buy finacard and still have it in the boot of my car but I really do like using the cage liners. I wash them in a large pet bag in my machine so my own clothes don't get covered in hay.

I considered using megazorb or aubiose but have still heard reports that it can be a little dusty. Also, they tend to be in huge bags and I don't have anywhere in my tiny flat to put anything that size.

Hope this info helps.




 
I had some wood shavings left in the cupboard from before, so I decided to put them down after cleaning the cage last night and topped it off with hay. I put my furs back in and they were zoomying around everywhere, I think they liked it. They were like, ooh a piece of hay...ooh a piece of hay...ooh a piece of hay!

I think they like the fact that they can nom wherever they lay.

So I have done this as a trial now to see how it goes. But the next time I will just use hay and no wood shavings. As I have a 2x4 C&C using wood shavings for that 3 times a week is too expensive!

xx
 
Pink Jumper said:
Does anyone use hay as their bedding/floor? I am really interested in this. I would love to see my furries popcorning everywhere because their whole floor is food :))
Click to expand...

at the moment, yes i do, i want to cover over the woodshavings i'm using entirely so that the pigs don't come into direct contact with it as the shavings i have at the moment are really dry and horrible ever for me to handle, never mind them dragging their poor bellies around on it!

they're too upset with me being soaked through every three days at the moment to be very excited over the extra hay around them >_>
they have been seen happily laid around munching where they lay though, which is quite sweet :D

up until about a week ago i had them on plain shavings in the "living area" of the hutch, then their beds packed with hay over woodshavings

if and when i get the fungal problem i'm having cleared though, i might make the move to megazorb/aubiose/hemcore/rapport. i have a slightly inkling that the shavings may have dried their skin out too much so i'm worried about continuing to use them.

all depends on cost though.

dust has never been an issue for my lot, i used to use waste wood shavings from sawmills as they were free(!) and as dusty as anything
they weren't bothered at all, but i just about keeled over in a big cloud of dust one day so enough was enough and it was on to dust extracted bales for me. (and they came delivered to my door so much easier too!)

i've also housed on fleece when i've had pigs in the house due to not being well (lexi and her sore bum) she did quite like it, but it started to smell after a couple of days, i started to give her a small tray of woodshavings covered with hay and she'd mostly toilet in that helped a lot with the odour
 
Pink Jumper said:
Do you reckon it is expensive to keep having hay as the whole floor?

xx
Click to expand...

just seen this, sorry or i would have mentioned this in my last post :)

it really depends where you buy hay - i get full bales from a local farm (4 miles away is local enough anyway, haha!) for £3 a time

it's beautiful stuff too, always soft, green and sweet smelling
the farmer doesn't use any fertilisers on it either and we rarely fund undesirables in it (thistles, twigs etc... though we did once find a squashed rat in one... needless to say it was binned straight away!)

i've been lining 11 cages with it this week after cleaning out every three days and i've used about 3/4 of a bale, so it's gone quite along way.

in the local pet shop though, a compacted packet of hay which is about equivalent to 1 or 2 slices of a bale (at a push) is £5 a time which is just crazy for me to even think about buying...
 
Hay is by far the cheapest but highest maintanence bedding. But the one piggies love most. Changed daily it smelly lovely x
 
So far my pigs are using fleece/towels. Its great honestly. I sweep poos 2 times a day & will **** entirely clean the cage 1-2 times a week...depending on smell :)
 
Hi all :)

I have found that using fleece has been the best option for me, as they tend to use their litter box with the hay in it. When I use hay everywhere they tend to just wee and poo everywhere which means more cost in changing their bedding etc.

The idea of washing their bedding in a fabric bag though is a brilliant idea, as I worry about the sawdust and hair etc blocking up the pipes in the washing machine.

In the beds where they sometimes wee when sleeping I use small flannals and small fleece that I cut from a larger fleece to make it easier to change the parts of their cage that wet ofton without changing the whole thing. This means I just chnage their toilet area everyday the small fleece and then wash the main one once a week. xx>>>
 
heyy

I use woodshavings on my floor but i use a lot of them. but i have like a indoor play area where i just let my piggies run about and to protect my floor i put 2 or 3 layers of newspaper down and they seem to like it. but in the winter i have hay down and they seem to love it so much they usually popcorn around and around and its soo cute! i also have to beds for my piggies with a small blanket so they dont catch cold !

i hope this helps and i hope you use one of my ideas

Jess x
 
I've just started using Ecobed (basically chopped up cardboard) with a layer of hay on top for extra comfort and nomms for the greedy pigs :D
Its been four days and so far there are no smells and no tangles in my Peruvians fur. -c
 
I use ecobed, which is cardboard squares so non dusty.
I am thinking of changing to vetbed and having a low storage type box for their hay....hmmm decisions decisions :)
 
The only smell I can smell from using hay as bedding at the moment is the hay itself, but I don't mind as I like the smell of hay. So far so good :) The piggies have had a good old nom.
 
I'm currently using shavings, covered over with hay in their bedding area. I don't like to use hay on the whole thing; I worry about it getting wet and musty if it isn't changed daily and it's a pain in the tail to change daily! Also, my Machu has quite buggy eyes and has been known to get the odd eye poke even with soft hay.

I'm moving to C&C and have started making liners, which are fleece lined with a mattress protector, with newspaper underneath. Machu is almost completely litter "trained" so hopefully that won't get smelly... Claws crossed his new cage mate follows his lead when he comes home! He never wees anywhere but in his litter tray, and rarely poos outside of it. I'll just do a quick vac with my little handheld one every night. Fleece liner in the bottom and will probably just use newspaper, towels, and hay in the mezzanine area, because that's just for forage and hay sticks to the fleece too much.

I normally use wood pellet cat litter in his litter tray normally, but will be using wood shavings for awhile because I have a massive bag of it left to use up!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top