Bedding For New Pigs...

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Ginpig

New Born Pup
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Hi all,


Our new piggies are now with us and enjoying their bigger cage (still wish we had space for something even bigger though!) One of them is happy to be stroked and picked up whilst her sister will come up to our hands for a sniff and to take food, but won’t let us stroke her or touch her yet. We’re just being patient and letting her learn to trust us… hopefully one day she will!


We are currently using wood shavings (this is what previous owner used) and so far there’s no smell but I have been spot cleaning every day. They seem to wee in the same few places so just wondering if I could put some paper cat litter or similar absorbent material in these areas to help with the spot cleaning (I feel like I’m taking out a lot of damp wood shavings every day, thinking it may help to use something more absorbent which catches the wee better?). Does anyone else use a combination of substrate like this? They have hay for bedding and don’t seem to wee in this as far as I can tell. I am thinking of getting them some fleecy beds instead of hay as it seems a bit more comfy for them, just don’t want to take up too much room in their cage or create too much washing for myself.


I thought about using carefresh as a substrate but it’s so much more expensive, and not sure how far a bag would go?


Any advice would be great as it’s all new to us.
 
I use a layer of megazorb under shavings when i use shavings which is not often.Hemp bedding is much more absorbent it maybe worth a try.zooplus do hemparade which is delivered ,you only need one inch layer of hemp bedding,change once a week.aubiose can be sourced at horse feed places.Fitch is similar to carefresh,white,comes in 20kg bags,delivery is included in the price.
 
Hello and thanks for the replies. I have looked into fleece and whilst I love the idea, I am already fed up with the amount of laundry I have to do so I really don’t want to add to that!
I may try the hemp stuff next time I’m buying. AmI right I’m thinking you just use layer of card/newspaper and then an inch of the hemp stuff? Would I need anything on top of that?
I don’t mind spot cleaning throughout week but would prefer to only do one ‘big clean’ per week if possible. Just want to avoid nasty smells!
 
I use hemp, miscanthus or flax from Equi-box (best prices I could find online) I used to use the Hemporade from zooplus but it's double the price as Auboise or Aubichick (both also hemp) for a smaller bale - not cost effective at all. Currently I swap between Flaxboise & Burly bed (Miscanthus - elephant grass) as they're only around £8 for 20kg :)

As Eileen says, Fitch is way cheaper than Carefresh & I found it's absorbance just as good.Think you can order a trial size from Amazon.

Hemp/Flax/Miscanthus are all much greener options though - all more absorbent than shavings & all compost brilliantly. Also they are greener products to produce, less environmentally damaging all round than fleece,wood shavings or even recycled paper bedding (like Fitch).

As for how long the bedding lasts, depends what size set up you have & how deep your substrate is.
 
I would recommend Aubiose Hemp bedding - it is excellent and doesn't smell - it can be spot cleaned very easily. You need to buy a big bale at a time (approx. £11) but it lasts a long time and is definitely worth it. I think quite a few people on the forum use it. TIP: Do not put a layer of newspaper underneath (as I did for 18months before realising I shouldn't!) - it is designed to draw any liquid away from the surface to the bottom...If you put paper underneath this just gets very wet and then the whole lot needs replacing to get the paper out! Since I've just used a thick layer of Aubiose I have decreased the amount of waste created dramatically and it is so much easier to keep clean :)
 
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