lots of bedding questions and some hay questions sorry all

[shard25]

Hi all, I am sorry but this is going to take a while as I have a lot of questions for you to help me with if you can. I shall put them down one by one thanks.

1) Can you use straw as bedding and just give them hay to eat?

I am wondering this as the hay I use at the moment isn't that good a quality as it is dust extracted but it still has lots of little bits in it and I need to find something which doesn't have bits in so it diesn't hurt Herbie's eyes.

2) What is the best hay to give Herbie?

I have been to a localish pet shop and I have asked him if next time he goes to his suppliers if he could look for timothy hay, but as this is expensive as I have heard on this board I was wondering if there was a decent cheaper alternative for people on a small budget.

3) Can you use newspaper for bedding instead of straw or hay?

Just wondering this any ideas?

4) Can you use that soft bedding type stuff?

Ok I know this is vague but I haven't got a clue what it's called. I know people use it for their mice and hamsters and stuff but I have seen some for guinea pigs and was wondering if you could use that instead of or as well as.

5) Where can I find Herbie a cheap igloo type bed?

I want to get him something he can use out of his hutch as I would like him to have something to sleep in if he needs to as all he does is go behind the sofa or under his towel on a clothes dryer.

Ok i think that is all for the moment my mind has gone a blank lol. If there are any more things I need to ask I shall put them up later.

Take care x

 

[flm1977]

Hiya, I'm no expert on piggies but have learnt a lot from here, but sure someone with vast more experience than me can help better but since I'm up on a sunday morning

1) Can you use straw as bedding and just give them hay to eat?
I think some people do and some don't, I'm thinking it's too hard and pokey for their bottoms, but I could be wrong. Personally since I@m buying hay for eating, I just use hay for bedding too. But I have my piggies indoors and put a mix of hay and fleece blanket in my piggies pigloos to keep them cosy.


2) What is the best hay to give Herbie?
I think lots of people think different kinds are best and also depends on what your piggie will eat. I feed my piggies timothy hay from P@H and that does them just fine, although tend to leave the bottom of the bag as it's quite bitty. Have seen this link http://www.sphsupplies.co.uk/ come up quite alot on here when people are speaking about hay. I'm waiting for my sister inlaw to bring me fresh hay from her dad's farm.

3) Can you use newspaper for bedding instead of straw or hay?
Not sure if newspaper alone would keep them warm enough...I tend to put a thick layer of newspaper down underneath the hay to catch wee etc. I have thick newspaper underneath vetbed in my piggie's cage. I think vetbed is fantastic!

4) Can you use that soft bedding type stuff?
think so.

5) Where can I find Herbie a cheap igloo type bed?
should be able to find one in any petshop..I've got from P@H simply because it is a handy petshop for us to go to..got a pigloo for something like £3.99. But I'm sure if you wanted to go really cheap then a cardoard box filled with hay, ect would work just as well.

Hope that helps a bit

Fay

 

[MemberX]

Hiya,

Straw is a no no as it can hurt pigs eyes and is harder. I use Wilko's Meadow Hay it is £1.99 for a large amount.

I use Meadow Hay for them to eat but I mix it with P@H Herbage which has dandilion and marigold in.

Newspaper itself wouldn't be enough but you can use newspaper to line a hutch/cage. I use it and then put loads of hay ontop.

Do you mean vet bed? They can use that but it can be expensive.

I got my igloos from p@h but I only now use one of them. I bought some cheap plastic steps which I'm using as igloos, they are bigger and only cost £1.00 in £1 shops. The boys can sit underneath them together and the girls love eating underneath them.

Louise

 

[Toffee4ever]

I usually use baled hay which is good but fairly cheap £3 -£4 per bale and one lasts 3-4 weeks for 9 piggies and they have as much as they want, ordinary straw is too hard for piggies but some use Russel Rabbiit however I did get a massive bag of chopped straw for the bunnies this week for £4 and its lovely and soft. This was from Essington (Wolverhampton) they also do lthe lovely hay by the bale.

If you want any further info Pm me (I seem to think I am not far from you in the West Midlands)

Denise

 

[MemberY]

A chaeper alternative to using vetbed is to get a decent quality bath mat. I found their poops got stuck in the vetbed so I switched to using a cream coloured cotton mix bath mat, not the fluffy ones. It works well for me. I got them in Woolworths and they were £6 each
I use newspaper, aubiose and hay in their sleeping area and the bath mat in the rest of their c & c.