Wood shavings

[Estele]

Ive been looking through everyones avatars and noticed that there are no woodshavings in the background!

I use woodshavings for my gang and now I'm wondering if this is a frowned upon option?

I use hay for bedding.

 

[gizmo01]

i use wood shavings and so far have had no problems with it so I'm honestly not sure

 

[AudioHeart]

I think there is a huge debate over wood shavings as it can cause respiratory problems i took my boys off wood shavings as it made Artie wheeze and he had an URI,i found woodshavings were pricey too and it'd be easier to switch to vetbed but generally i'd say if its working out for you and your piggies and not causing any ill health then you dont need to stop using it

 

[doglovinpiggylover]

i have used woodshavings until about 2 weeks ago, now i have gone back to megazorb as its less messy and absorbs more x

 

[janew]

I've used woodshavings for about 6 months now. I used to use Bedexcel (recycled cardboard squares), but find woodshavings more cost effective with 3 hutches. I check the boys daily and none of them are showing any signs of ill health because of it, but if they were I'd soon change.

 

[sport_billy]

we use woodshavings and have never had any problems

 

[hellsbells82]

I used to use shavings, and stopped because of people saying they caused respiratory problems, however I never had any problems when using them, and cage cleaning was much less frequent than hay/newspaper (every 1-2 days) or fleece (3 days)

 

[mrs ord]

I used to use them until I adopted from a local rescue. Aside from the respirtory issues they can (not always thought) casue feet problems. I've not had trouble with them personally but I wanted to adopt and part if that was agreeing to keeping Butler in a certain way. It wasn't hard to switch and after trying fleece for a few months i've switched to newsaper and hay. I honestly find that this smells a lot less than woodshavings and I'm pleased I made the switch.

 

[The3piggys]

I used to use shavings but not anymore for a few reasons...

One of my pigs in the past developed a wheeze which never really went away which I think could've been because of the shavings.

I suffer from asthma and find shavings horrible to live with as it affects my breathing (my pigs live indoors)

Sawdust would end up all over the carpet when the pigs had a mad run round their cages then end up all through the house!

I found it didn't keep the smell away and was also quite expensive as I've got 3 cages.

Now I use Ecobed cardboard squares which are very easy to remove where wet and keep the cages smelling clean. I'm thinking of trying megazorb to compare them as its softer I believe, although my pigs seem quite happy on ecobed.

 

[Estele]

Thanks all, has given me lots to think about.

 

[sandra turpin]

I was told by Laura at the guinea pig helpline through a previous post of hers that it could add to the risk of fungal.