Shavings for bedding?

Tr1cky

Tr1cky

New Born Pup
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I was just wondering what people thought of using shavings as bedding. Specifically Snowflake shavings. Not the soft chip stuff.

We've tried our pigs on pretty much everything imaginable and always end up coming back to Snowflake. Our experiences have been,

Fleece - They just kinda stopped moving around as much and spent a lot of time just sitting. They didn't seem very happy. Also the house smelled of guinea pig wee.
Fitch - Not bad but it seemed to clag together so we ended up chucking a lot away considering we were spot cleaning all the poos and wees twice a day.
Easichick - Horrible! It smelled mouldy and one of our pigs ended up with breathing that sounded laboured.
Megazorb - Not bad. Very dusty though. Didn't seem to bother the boys but it had a bit of an unpleasant smell.
Small Pet Select paper bedding - Not bad. Nice and soft but again seemed to clump together when peed on. Very expensive considering we were using 4 bales per month! :eek:

Whenever we've gone back to Snowflake, the boys literally jump for joy. They start rushing around and popcorning and just seem generally much more alert and happy. Whenever we put a bit of fresh shavings in to replace what's been spot-picked they start popcorning again.

We know that some people frown on shavings but they just seem so much happier on it.
 
I use shavings and have never had any problems with them. I get a large bale of dust extracted shavings from my local pet shop for £8. I have tried other substrate but like you, I always come back to shavings
 
Yesterday I bought Snowflake shavings for the first time. And I was very impressed. I usually buy Pets at Home shavings but Snowflake is half the price! So I gave it a go and my two boys loved it. 😃
 
weepweeps said:
Yesterday I bought Snowflake shavings for the first time. And I was very impressed. I usually buy Pets at Home shavings but Snowflake is half the price! So I gave it a go and my two boys loved it. 😃
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It's nice and soft isn't it. Ours love it! We figure they know best what they like.

Our only concern was that our vet suggested we stop using it because one of our pigs has a habit of picking his veggies out of his bowl and dropping it on the floor of the cage and he ended up with some stomach problems. We think because he was eating the shavings along with his veg.

We solved this by making sure his veg bowl was on top of hay when we serve it to him :D
 
Good idea to serve veggies onto their hay. My two don’t seem to mind shavings stuck to their cucumber. Lol. 😃
 
I’ve used snowflake shavings in the past as well and liked them.
 
I got this one yesterday. It was about £8 for 20kg. They do a supreme version but it was out of stock so I got standard and it’s great.
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I didn't get on with fleece at first. I bought some fleece liners instead. Once washed so they could wick they are amazing
 
We like a combination of fleece and the small pet select paper bedding, especially since I discovered it comes in giant 178 litre sacks for £40!
But no harm using high quality shavings if that works best for you, different people and different piggies with different cage set ups prefer different things :)
 
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