Toilet tray - worth it or not

[Nick G]

Hi

I have 2 male guineapigs that we have had for the last 2 years or so, they have a large outdoor cage and I was wondering if it was worth setting up a couple of toilet trays or not in their hutch.

As guineapig dad it is my job to keep on top of the hutch cleaning and after reading on here that quite a few of you have toilet trays set up with hay in them I thought I Would give it a go. On reviewing the hutch tonight I believe the guineapigs are not interested in the toilet trays as there were hardly any droppings there compared to every where else in the hutch. I know that it is nigh on impossible to totally toilet train guineapigs but have read that quite a lot of members use them in their set ups.

I suppose my question is should I bother with my two not being youngsters any more or if I should persist with the toilet trays? I did place them in their favourite corners, judging by them being the usual wettest spots when hutch cleaning.

P

 

[Siikibam]

our boys have a cat litter tray with softchip in there. I previously used to put the hay in there and there would be poo and pee in there. I’ve now put it in a bag as it makes a mess (fleece bedding elsewhere). They stand in the tray to reach the hay.

I would put them in there with hay on top. They won’t necessarily do all their poops in there - they go where they sleep, eat and under cover. So you will just have to expect poo everywhere.

 

[Reenie]

I use a toilet tray lined with newspaper and filled with hay and another under their hay rack with just newspaper. It makes no difference whatsoever to where they poop, but they do a lot of wees in them, which means I can just change out the paper every day and do a quick sweep. In my other cage, however, they have a big under bed box full of hay and lined in newspaper, and it's seldom even wet, so I think it pretty much depends on your piggies whether or not it works.

 

[Claire W]

I have two toilet trays in my cage (litter trays filled with hay). One of my old piggies who has now sadly died used to wee in there. My others don’t but they love to sleep in them

 

[Guineapigfeet]

I have a tray under all of the hides in my cage as well as a big tray full of hay. They don’t always toilet in a tray area but it does save me a lot of time cleaning out as I dump the whole tray. The rest of the cage I go through taking out the poos and wet patches by hand. If threw away all of the bedding every week, I’d be v poor, but chucking the trays is a good compromise of money:time

 

[PigglePuggle]

Our girls use the Rosewood medium size rabbit corner litter tray filled with woodshavings. We need to leave some wee smell and poops in there so they remember what its for, so every day we empty the litter tray and clean it, add a handful of clean woodshavings, then scoop any other poo and pee patches from the cage floor into the litter tray. It has reduced full cage cleans from twice a week to once a week!