Vetbed

[Weedelly]

Hi
I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to my guinea pigs . Although it could just be the wood shavings or the hay.
I have had my piggies for about 3 months now, and I absolutely love them , so giving them up is certainly not an option.
I know there is no alternative to hay as they need it but I have been looking into alternative bedding for replacing the wood shavings.
When first getting my piggies I noticed a lot of you are using fleecy bedding and fleecy beds and tunnels etc and I didn't really understand as piggys pee all the time lol.
I have been reading loads of posts about fleece and vetbed and I now understand that they absorb right down to the base so the top is not wet.
After researching I quite like the idea of vetbed as it would save a lot of money and the piggies would have somewhere cosy and comfy to live.
But my question is how often does it need to be washed? I'm not sure I would have the time to wash something on a daily basis or anything like that. Any help would be great thanks

 

[Jerrybelly]

I use vetbed. You don't need to wash it every day - I wash mine twice a week. They need to be washed at 60 degrees to ensure that all the bacteria is killed. It's a good idea to buy a washbag or use an old pillowcase to stop the hay clogging your washing machine.

I have been using vetbed for 2 years and would never switch back. It wicks the wee to the under layers, so the top stays completely dry. You need to put some absorbent layers underneath. I use newspaper under mine, which is changed ever day. Obviously the poos stay on the surface, so I use a dustpan and brush to sweep these up in the morning and again at night - it takes just 2 minutes.

 

[Weedelly]

Twice a week, that seems quite good! And I don't mind cleaning the poo up daily as that wouldn't be very time consuming. I'm definitely going to look into buying some soon. Thanks

 

[Weedelly]

Ordered the vetbed . Can't wait for it to come . I got it all for £48, and it should be enough for 2 sets for the cage with some left over .
I must be mad, I've spent at least a few hundred pound on them and I've only had them a few months Lol.

 

[Jerrybelly]

Wash it twice before you cut it to size - it'll shrink a little. I didn't do this the first time I switched to vetbed and it ended up being an inch too small after the wash!

 

[Weedelly]

Oh I never even thought of that! Thanks
Do u think it would be ok to use puppy pads for underneath?
Just cause I don't buy newspapers and we sell puppy pads quite cheap in my work

 

[Bekki]

Puppy pads do work, I personally dont use fleece or vet bed as its too labour intensive and actually doesnt work out any cheaper than bedding with my sized cage but I have used it before when I had two cages as it all fitted in one wash it did work out cheaper than bedding at that point. You can also ask people at work if they read papers to save you them, I do that and get a bag of 7 papers a week of one bloke which does my cages :-)

 

[piggyfan]

I use towels under my vetbed. I remove poops three times a day and was the towels and vetbed every three days.

 

[Jerrybelly]

Oh I never even thought of that! Thanks
Do u think it would be ok to use puppy pads for underneath?
Just cause I don't buy newspapers and we sell puppy pads quite cheap in my work

Yep. I used puppy pads for a little while, but I couldn't find anywhere that sold them cheaply so newspaper works out best for me. Anything absorbent under the vetbed will do.