Litter training ideas

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mikulinek

mikulinek

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Hey everyone.

I've read a lot of conflicting information about the success or otherwise of litter training piggies. I thought it might be an idea for us to start a thread on people's successes or failures and techniques attempted etc. I don't know if this has already been done here but couldn't find it if so.

I'll start off:

My wife and I have two boars, aged 4 months. We started trying to litter train the boys after about a month of owning them to give them time to settle into their new home.

We bought a plastic corner litter tray for the cage and use a shoe box lid in the play area. We line both with toilet paper. In the play area, whenever the boys miss their target, we pick up the mess and put it in the litter tray. In the play area, the boys have around a 75% hit rate with solid mess and a 90% hit rate with their peepee. This is after around a month of patient but passive training.

The tray in the cage is much less successful. I think the plastic is a little too slippery and both the little boys and the paper move around a lot. I'd say they use this area for toilet duties aroun 25% of the time AND they like to sleep in it quite a bit too so it's not doing too well.

We're not bothered about the mess in the cage to be honest - let's face it it's the boys' home and they can do what they like in there but it's a little confusing that they're getting so good out of the cage. As I write this, Caramel has done a No. 1 and No. 2 in the the litter tray in the play area.

Anyone else have better/worse expereinces?
 
Oh, I almost forgot.

Whenever my wife or I see the boys go in the right place - especially when they're playing - we say things like "good boy" in a gentle, low-ish, slow voice. We try to give them treats when they've been especially good, like today they'll get a load of dandelion leaves because they only missed the litter tray once.
 
when I have mine out in our hallway I put a load of newspaper down by the front door which is about 2 metres away if not more. When they are playing up by us pn the stairs it is so funny to see them trotting off to the newspaper do a wee (and now they do a poo there too) and then come back. Its brilliant, I wish I could get them to just do that in one area of their cage as well but thats probably not practical for some reason!
 
I think Coco & Amber now do about 90% in their litter tray.

mikulinek said:
The tray in the cage is much less successful. I think the plastic is a little too slippery and both the little boys and the paper move around a lot. I'd say they use this area for toilet duties aroun 25% of the time AND they like to sleep in it quite a bit too so it's not doing too well.
Click to expand...

I use CareFresh in mine it soaks up the pee and it means their not sliding around.
 
Thanks Bailey :)

There were a couple of things last time in P@H that looked interesting but I didn't buy them. There was some kind of hamster litter stuff - like kitty litter I imagine. There was also a bag of wood pellets for litter trays - has anyone tried this?

Can anyone offer a review of litter materials?
 
@ Pammyj - thanks :)

Yeah the boys are the same, they're getting better and better outside the cage but not really to fussy inside. I'm not too bothered though like I said. We're going to be giving Vetbed a try soon in place of their current bedding which will make spot cleaning in the cage easier anyway we hope. Ooops, I'm kind of digressing here.

@ Bailey

How did you get them to use the newspaper when they're out?
 
These are the wood pellets I saw

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/small-pet-wood-litter-7ltr-by-pets-at-home-15786

Thet don't seem to have the kitty-litter type thing I saw on their website. Has anyone tried either of these product?

@Bailey,

How often do you need to change the litter tray using carefresh? Are Coco and Amber getting 90% hit rate inside the cage? If so, that's pretty amazing
 
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I've not used it myself, seems expensive compared to other litters you can get.

I clean it out every 2-3 days this is when it's getting full, I haven't noticed any smells coming from the cage :)
 
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