Danielle Smith
Teenage Guinea Pig
Hi all.
Each of my herds have a 2x2-sized (70x70cm) hay tray made of correx. I'm struggling as to what substrate to use, I'd like to hear what others have tried.
When I used cat litter trays, I filled these with wooden litter pellets, placed pieces of non-slip liner on the pellets (which let pee through but held poos on top for easy disposal), and put hay on top of that. When I changed the hay each day, it was just a case of roll up the liner (see below), shake out into the bin, and replace (washing every week). The pellets lasted about 2 weeks before they really began to smell and needed changing.
In this new larger hay tray I'm using Megazorb, but it's very difficult to spot-clean and I don't like that poos get mixed in -- at the moment it looks like I need to clean the whole tray out and start fresh each week, not what I want! It smells rather strongly too.
My piggies will eat puppy pads, so I can't line using those and replace each day.
I've tried using newspaper in the past, but I find it's always completely soaking at the end of the day (4-8 sheets thick). How thickly laid does it need to be to still have the bottom dry at the end of the day?
If I changed to Fitch, sawdust, or Finacard, I think I'd have the same issue I'm having with Megazorb regarding easy clean up.
Envirotiles or Kiwitiles (see below) seem to be an option; a harder-wearing version of the liner I used above -- I'd just take the hay out and hoover the poos, and have whatever substrate below the tiles. It's very tricky to find though...
Does anyone have any other ideas? I really want to keep these bigger hay areas as my piggies love them, but I am not a fan of substrate with nothing on top to separate the poos!
Each of my herds have a 2x2-sized (70x70cm) hay tray made of correx. I'm struggling as to what substrate to use, I'd like to hear what others have tried.
When I used cat litter trays, I filled these with wooden litter pellets, placed pieces of non-slip liner on the pellets (which let pee through but held poos on top for easy disposal), and put hay on top of that. When I changed the hay each day, it was just a case of roll up the liner (see below), shake out into the bin, and replace (washing every week). The pellets lasted about 2 weeks before they really began to smell and needed changing.
In this new larger hay tray I'm using Megazorb, but it's very difficult to spot-clean and I don't like that poos get mixed in -- at the moment it looks like I need to clean the whole tray out and start fresh each week, not what I want! It smells rather strongly too.
My piggies will eat puppy pads, so I can't line using those and replace each day.
I've tried using newspaper in the past, but I find it's always completely soaking at the end of the day (4-8 sheets thick). How thickly laid does it need to be to still have the bottom dry at the end of the day?
If I changed to Fitch, sawdust, or Finacard, I think I'd have the same issue I'm having with Megazorb regarding easy clean up.
Envirotiles or Kiwitiles (see below) seem to be an option; a harder-wearing version of the liner I used above -- I'd just take the hay out and hoover the poos, and have whatever substrate below the tiles. It's very tricky to find though...
Does anyone have any other ideas? I really want to keep these bigger hay areas as my piggies love them, but I am not a fan of substrate with nothing on top to separate the poos!
