Straw, woodshavings, or hay?

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DizziPig

Joined
Jun 30, 2012
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hello i am new to this forum and i am also quite new to guinea pigs. I hae done all my research and i feel i am prepared. Although there is one thing that I'm confused about.

Some people say that for bedding you should use straw, but then ive read that it can hurt the guinea pigs eyes and skin, ive also heard that dustfree woodshavings are good, but I'm not entirely sure because ive heard it can cause problems, lastly ive heard people say that hay is the best but then i dont want them peeing on the hay and then eating it and getting sick.
Which one do i use?

any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much :)
 
Last edited:
I have my Guinea Pigs indoors on fleece but when I had them outdoors I would have them on Megazorb. It's a sort of bedding made from soft wood pulp and it's very cheap. You can buy it online for around £7 and it will last for about 5 weeks. I used to use first a few layers of newspaper on the floor of the hutch, then a good inch of Megazorb and then on top of that a layer of bedding hay for them to graze on. Megazorb is very absorbant so you'd only need to clean out the hutch once a week. Wood Shavings aren't very absorbant and smell really bad after being weed on.
 
My boys who live in a hutch are bedded on sawdust and hay. People will disagree with this but we have always used it and had no problems so far. Bare in mind we've been using it for 8 years now.


The girls who live indoors are bedded on newspaper and hay and it's lovely to see them foraging. As they were bedded on fleece which we liked at first but the cage needs to be cleaned more often and they can't forage as much.
 
Are you planning on keeping your piggies indoors or mainly outdoors?

For indoors, many members (including me) are using fleece with some kind of absorbent underlay (preferably 100% cotton).

For outdoors, there are alternatives to wood shavings, like megazorb which cause less irritation.
 
yeah they are being housed indoors, and i do want to use fleece but i thought id better have a warm bedding area as well, I'm getting a 2 story hutch. should i do this or should i just stick to fleece?

ive heard of megazorb and it sounds really good
 
I have had piggies for 4 years we started out with a thick layer of newspaper, wood shavings then loads of soft, finely chopped straw, we have tried fleece twice since and always reverted back to how we started out, i can honestly say (not to say it won't happen and touch wood it won't) that we have never had any problems from the bedding.
 
DizziPig said:
yeah they are being housed indoors, and i do want to use fleece but i thought id better have a warm bedding area as well, I'm getting a 2 story hutch. should i do this or should i just stick to fleece?

ive heard of megazorb and it sounds really good
Click to expand...

There is no ideal bedding, and you have to try around to find what works best for your situation. I use hay trays (like old seed trays or the bottom of a hamster cage) for my hay areas; that way it doesn't get dragged all over the place. If you place a hay rack over the hay tray, you will find that your piggies will happily eat from the rack while enjoying a snooze or toilet trip to the tray. Some of my piggies are very happy flopping on fleece and others prefer to hang out in the hay trays more often than not.
 
Thank you that sounds really good! Thank you everyone for your advice
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top