vetbed?

[gingersusie]

hi there
i was thinking of trying vetbed for my guinea's as they are on woodshavings at the mo & i hate them!
could someone please upload a pic of their vetbed or post as link for me to look at it to see what it looks like because i haven't got a clue!
i looked at some in pets at home but it looked more like a sheepskin rug ?/
many thanks
x

 

[mikulinek]

Hi

http://www.petnhome.co.uk/veterinary-bedding-c-11.html?gclid=CJq3v4_T3LACFSghtAod3lPFvA

We use vetbed and we love it (or at least I do and I'm the one who cleans the cages). The piggies like it too and it keeps in the warmth.

If you have a 1.2m or 1.4m cage, you will get two good pieces from a roll on this site. You will get three pieces for a 1m cage.

What we do is also use very cheap (from Primark) fleece blankets cut to shap and put these on top. Then, I do a spot clean pretty much everyday to keep on top of the poops. Once a week I clean the whole cages out. I take the fleece and vetbed and shake them out outside. I then wash them inside an old duvet cover in the washing machine (it stops any hay getting into the machine). Nice and easy. I then clean out the cage bottom in the shower with anti-bacterial spray. To clean out two cages takes me about 30 - 40 minutes once a week.

Vetbed is generally very absorbant, warm and soft and your piggies will really like it. When we switched, they absolutley loved it

 

[gingersusie]

well thank you very much , sounds much easier then sawdust!x

 

[mikulinek]

Sawdust and hay is a real pain to clean out - I remember we started with it and it's just a nightmare. I can understand it to a certain extent in outdoor hutches but, even still, vetbed is so much easier.

I know a lot of people just use lots of layers of fleece. I'm sure it's fine but it would be a lot fiddlier to keep making several layers everytime you clean...

 

[gingersusie]

it is a pain especially as i have hayfever & they are indoor piggies ! rolleyes
i couldn't bear to put them outside
i just live on anti histamines lol
na , its not that bad really
i clean the cage out outdoors so the dust doesn't get to my chest
i will def be getting that vetbed as it sounds easier to use than wood shavings
i wash their fleece blanket every day anyway because they get put in the run for a few hours on the blanket in the living room so I'm used to the washing
the vetbed would be easier probably

 

[mikulinek]

If you've got hayfever (my wife does too), the you might want to think about the hay you're feeding your piggies. What are you using?

We use "Alfalfa King" Timothy hay, or sometimes "Oxbow" Timoth hay. Both are very sweet smelling and have very little dust. If it's really bad, you could try ordering:

http://www.dustfreehay.co.uk/index.html

It is expensive for a one-off buy but comes in huge amounts. I think they also do tester sizes. It's much friendlier for people with allergies.

You could also try "Friendly" Readigrass. We buy ours from our vet so I'm not sure who stocks it. We generally mix it in with their hay. It has little to no dust so it's great for my wife's allergies.

I'd also suggest getting quite a few cheap fleece blankets from somewhere like Primark. That way you can change them but not have to wash them everyday as that can get very expensive and time consuming.

 

[gingersusie]

Thank you so much for your information. Very helpful indeed. I currently use Meadow hay that has been dust extracted. I'm ok as long,as I don't clean them out in the house!

 

[mikulinek]

That's great. Good quality meadow hay is perfect. We switched over only because of the smell/taste. In terms of nutrition, there's little to no difference between meadow hay and timothy hay. What you get with timothy hay is a nicer smell for you and a nicer taste for your piggies. What we like about it is it means that you know they're going eat if even if they're not hungry and they like the taste too.

I don't know about you but we used to find that, after an hour or two, they wouldn;t really eat much hay and would wait for veg/grass etc. When we switched over, we noticed that doesn't happen too much (that and they don't get mcuh fresh veg at all anymore, we use grass instead).