No Bedding At All?

[Black piggies]

Hi, I've had 2 piggies for a few weeks and have tried nearly every bedding option, fleece, paper 'wool', shavings, hay, puppy pad and newspaper. They all seem messy. When I let my piggies out into the kitchen and they could go back in their cage, their favourite place to sleep is on the bare lino which made me wonder if I need to put anything down in their cage at all. They have thick fleece beds. Could I just use those and clean up any wee and poo as they do it in the bare cage? Or maybe just have a litter tray / kitchen? Any tips would be great!

 

[Mother Hubbard]

Hi, my experience is that its difficult to constantly monitor their wee's which is where the problem is. Really you need something absorbent for the wee, otherwise they can get scolds from sitting or standing in it for periods of time, they aren't fussy. This in turn can lead to sores etc.

Piggies naturally like to check everything out and mess stuff up, they search in the wild and do as they will so I don't believe it's possible to have a super tidy home for their without being on 'guard' all the time. There is no right or wrong answer with bedding unless its plainly obvious like saw dust...it's down to personal preference, time, money etc. Also you can get build up of calcium on the bottom of the cage which can be a pain to remove, and that's even with bedding in, so my advice is to use an absorbent bedding, perhaps just section areas off.

 

[chesca_27]

I use Fitch for my hamster and guinea pig and I LOVE it. Fitch is a white, recycled paper bedding which is virtually dust free. I buy it in 20kg bags from Amazon or their direct website (whatever is more convenient, but Amazon is more expensive). The pieces are big enough to be easily picked up if they make a mess but are small enough for hoovering up. It is very soft as well and very good value for money. A bag lasts me a few months and that's weekly cage cleans, regular spot cleaning and the ridiculous amount of bedding my hamster has for burrowing.

 

[DM030819]

The most important thing is that pigs need access to hay 24/7, as that makes up 85% of their diet and keeps their teeth worn down. So, you'll at least need hay in the cage, which the pigs will lie on.

Bedding is used to soak up their urine, otherwise they'll end up with urine scald.

 

[Black piggies]

Thank you for the replies! Yes they have tons of hay. So they need bedding for absorbing wee and now I understand why they seem to chuck their bedding all over the place. Should I keep trying to keep bedding in their pigloos etc to keep them warm? They're chucking it out. I'll look into Fitch, soft and economical sounds great!