Review: Woodshavings

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i have used woodshaving all the time i have had pigs wich is a bout seven years and i have been fine with it t has a gd abosorbancy and it lasts a long times without having 2 clean it so often.
i give it a 5 last me abot a month 2.
 
i have used woodshaving all the time i have had pigs wich is a bout seven years and i have been fine with it t has a gd abosorbancy and it lasts a long times without having 2 clean it so often.
i give it a 5 stars ***** it lasts me about a month 2.
 
I have always used woodshavings, for my hamsters and now my piggies. The piggies are fine, have never had any health problems, and seem perfectly happy. I don't find them messy, as when the pigs are inside they are in a room with lino which can be easily swept. But they do cause allergies for me so for a couple of months I switched to vetbed. I'm now back to woodshavings because:

1. vetbed stank ALL THE TIME, even within a day of washing
2. my washing machine got clogged up with hay
3. my allergies were no better, as I still had to use hay which turns out to be the main culprit with my allergies (guess that's why it's called hayfever ::))

My piggies are happy and healthy with the bedding they have and I see no reason to change.
 
I've had piggies for the last 15 years and have always used woodshavings with no problem. Having joined the forum I read up on bedding and gave vetbed a try for a month. It was a lot more work (which I didn't really mind if the pigs were better with it) but the pigs voted with their feet and got off it whenever they could! Possibly because I have them out freerange in the lounge several times a day and they know they're not meant to do anything on the carpet (except on their special carpet mat under the hi-fi!) and they thought vetbed was carpet...

Trying carefresh at the moment but it smells funny. So I think I'll go back to the shavings.
 
I have tried everything for bedding (except hemp). I like shedded newspapers and newspapers used as a base.

A big plus is it doesn't have mites like hay. Its free, warm and the floor papers soak up pee very well. Also, its easy to clean out and doesn't smell like hay in a barn.

Slight disadvantage is it makes white piggies fur go slightly grey by staining. However, the advantages far outweigh this.

:)
 
Andersons said:
I have tried everything for bedding (except hemp). I like shedded newspapers and newspapers used as a base.

A big plus is it doesn't have mites like hay. Its free, warm and the floor papers soak up pee very well. Also, its easy to clean out and doesn't smell like hay in a barn.

Slight disadvantage is it makes white piggies fur go slightly grey by staining. However, the advantages far outweigh this.

:)
Click to expand...

good to know - but why have you posted this in the woodshavings review thread? ?
 
Sleepling area I use newspaper and hay
Living area I use newspaper, a thin layer of wood shavings then hay on top of that.
I find that it soaks up their wee well and doesn't smell too much. I use the hay on top so that they do not have to lay straight on the shavings. They seem fine with this, but if it stopped agreeing with them, I would find an alternative. I use furry friends wood shavings and it is dust free.
 
I found woodchips really hard to work with esp. when I had a lot of pigs it was just too messy. Only good thing is it's absorbant other than that I found it impractical.

1 star *
 
My Review On Wood Shavings

Just wood shavings and long haired guinea pig: * (one)
Just wood shavings and short haired guinea pig ** (two)
Wood shavings and hay with long hair guinea pig ** (two)
Wood shavings and hay with short haired guinea pig **** (four)

Hope this helps.
 
I have always used woodshavings for my rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters over the last 30 years or so and never had a problem yet with any of them having allergies so I would give woodshavings 5 stars. :)
 
Not Sure

I am not sure if you buy the ones that have had the dust removed it makes it less likely to harm them. Everyone has their own opinion. :)
 
I think that woodshavings arn't a great bedding. They always gave my piggies bad chests because they were so dusty. We haven't used them for around a year now and the piggies haven't had bad chests since.

I rate this 1 star *

:)
 
I don't like this at all. It made george sneeze loads and got stuck to feet when I got him out & all over my living room carpet. The bits are so small they get tracked all through the house & george had a sore foot which cleared up during the time I had him off sawdust.

I give it minus 1 star as rubbish -*
 
Have always used it, but find it a bit dusty. Went to P@H and they showed me some scented stuff, which I thought was worse, but turned out to be so much better. Hoping to get some fleece, vetbed or Megazorb soon, but not likely.

***stars from me..
 
Woodshavings?

Used to use woodshavings but just use newspaper and hay now as these decompose much more quickly in my compost bin. This way you can reycle your piggies bedding!
 
I think it's okay as bedding I just hate that is sticks to everything and you get it all over the house, I use the huge bales from P@H, it's not very dusty and the smell is quite neutral and the absorbancy is pretty good. 4 stars**** from me.

At the moment I do half of the cage with shavings, the other half is shredded newspaper with hay on top for the bedding area and the piggies seem to like it. When I go to the farm next I will see if they have Megazorb to give that a try.
 
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with having fosters as well, sometimes you cant be overly picky about bedding and for me shavings is the cheaper option, although I'm yet to have a pig with allergys. When I had pregnant sows in in the later stages of pregnancy they were on fleecy blankets :)

5* from me
 
I use woodshavings, i put the shavings on the base of the cage then cover them with loads of hay, that way the piggies feet are a bit more protected.
They always have their big bundle of hay in the corner for muching on.

Although i think the shavings are okay for my piggies, i have moved my rabbit off of them unto newspapers. The shavings seemed to stick to his bum a lot, but now he is on newspaper and hay hes fine. Its just as easy to lift the papers and replace them when needed. :)
 
I've used shavings for years and none of my pigs have ever had an allergy to it.
I did switch to towels for a while after reading a recommendation on here but they got filthy so quickly, and covered in bits of hay that seemed impossible to remove. Shavings seem a lot more absorbent and have never caused any of my pigs any problems, they're happy with it and it's cheap which is good when money is tight.
 
Even ignoring all the health warnings for a moment (because I agree with them, shavings are bad for health) ...


I give shavings ZERO STARS.

This is because...

* Pigs kick it all over the living room
* NOT very absorbent in my opinion at all! Or at least it does absorb but it gets and stays soaking wet very very quickly
* Smells (smells really nice for the first half hour but then gets whiffy very quickly)
* Needs a full cage clean too frequently (every 2 days maximum with shavings as opposed to every 4 to 5 days with Carefresh)
* It gets stuck in boy piggies bits, all piggies eyes and hair
* Makes pigs sneeze

so that's a big firm BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO for shavings from me :))
 
They make me come out in blisters and if they do that to me what they doing to pigs feet! Bad times!
 
I use shavings and have had no problems up to yet.Its £7 a bale which lasts me a month.I line cages with thick newspaper and put fresh hay in every day.
It would be interesting to try other things so i might look around just for the interest,but for now i give shavings a:(|)
I agree about the boy bits things but i check all my boys every week..yes that lovely little job we all love.:{

Helen xx>>>xx>>>
 
I have always used shavings for my piggies(I dont really have the option of changing either) and all the people's pigs I help care for also use shavings. Although the shavings I use are kiln dried (meaning all the oils no longer affect the piggies) and Dust extracted(to stop allergies and URI's), I also have hay or shredded paper in the area's the piggies sleep in, so they're not sleeping on it. Another thing I do is let it air before using it, which stops the smell affecting the pigs when I use it and also lets it absorb some moisture from the air, so that it no longer dries up the piggies feet but is not damp. I have never had a time when the hutch stinks and I think it soaks up the urine very well, plus it is inexpensive and the piggies find it very confortable.
I give this bedding 5 Stars *****
 
I used to use wood shavings untill I read that they could affect breathing and casue skin problems. As a replacment I now use newspaper which works just as well, and is more healthy for them.
 
I think some people do not realize what a range of difference there is in shavings. It is accepted by many that cedar shavings which have quantitites of aromatic oils, may not be optimal, but that shavings like aspen have much less of the oils.

So, when some people say that they have used shavings with zero problems, and other people say their piggies sneeze and have other issues when on shavings, both people might be 100% correct because they may be using different kinds of shavings.

I think that while some research has been done, the sale of shavings is not in fact heavily regulated so that the quality may vary widely.
I am glad to see that most people on this thread are not judgmental but rather recount their own experiences leaving it to other pig keepers to read and decide what they want to do.

I'm thinking that some companies/areas might produce relatively high shaving quality and when the owners report no problems, there really are no problems and it might be a good bedding choice for them.

The bottom line is that as owners we should use our own good judgment and do what is best for our pigs, and if we put our pigs on any kind of bedding and they have health issues we should change, and on the other hand if the bedding and pigs are fine then it is a good choice for us.
 
Lucille said:
I think some people do not realize what a range of difference there is in shavings. It is accepted by many that cedar shavings which have quantitites of aromatic oils, may not be optimal, but that shavings like aspen have much less of the oils.
Click to expand...

I have used all sorts of woodshavings when I didnt know fleece was an option that included cheaper horse woodshavings to aspen to pets at home own brand etc.

Although aspen was better with regards to their skin, it still had them sneezing and coughing more than they do now on fleece - it was worst when they were fresh down.

I also feel that they are useless if your cage is big because you have to use loads and it makes a huge mess and is expensive if you are using a better shaving, and useless if your cage is small because they just get wet and horrible too quickly. And that was complete muck outs in the end because it wouldnt stop stinking!

When I was using shavings I was mucking out once to twice a day fully (not a skip out, literally complete muck out), whereas now I'm on fleece it can be every other day skip out, and once a week large muck out. At most. My pigs who have long hair but I keep their bottom trimmed and they constantly had wet bottoms even after mucking out loads on woodshavings, they rarely get them now unless their hair gets abit long.

I hated the mess shavings left everywhere aswell, no matter how careful you are, shavings get everywhere.

I give shavings 0 star...
 
As I said, people have varying experiences. At the moment I have my pigs on shavings and they are fine, no sneezing, great absorbency. My pigs are short hair so the shavings do not stick to them.
The value of these sorts of threads is that readers can see that different people have different experiences and each experience is valid.
I do have some fleece that will fit into the new larger cage I am making for them, but have not decided yet what to use as a substrate when the cage is complete, as both fleece and shavings have merits.
 
When we first got our pigs,i used shaving's for the entire cage,it was messy hard to spot clean,and although they say it's dust extracted you could still see it in the air at changing time,so obviously the pig's were breathing it in.

I do still use it,but under the hay in their sleeping quarter's just to act as a wick,and only a thin covering,it dont get disturbed with the amount of hay i put on top.

I have replaced the shaving's with fleece,i have a layer of newspaper a towel then the fleece...pig's love it,and they sleep and stretch out on it in the day,you can't get a better claw up than that lol.
 
I use shavings and not had a problem apart from the pigs seem to know when i stop hoovering and they kick some out of the cage once ive stopped hoover ha ha ha ha cheeky piggies !

5 stars from me (and Boris and Travis) -c
 
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