Bedding

[Christa Wachter]

Hi, I scoop my guinea pigs cage every morning and it causes me to remove a lot of bedding. I buy a new 50L bag every two weeks and it is killing my bank account. Is there anything besides getting an alternative kind of bedding that I can do to solve this problem?

 

[Tiamolly123]

Hi & welcome to our friendly forum.
You havent said what bedding you use. I get a litter tray & fill it with meadow hay. Then scatter Timothy Hay in a pile for them to eat. They are cleaned & replenished twice a day. My piggies sleep in carrot houses or cardboard boxes. I put padded pee pads in them & mine are all happy.

 

[Guineapigfeet]

I use a hemp based bedding in my 8x2 and spot clean it twice a day but try to remove as little as possible, just scooping out the wet with my hand and replacing that and brush up the poops. When I do a full clean I treat the cage more like a stable so I don't throw it all away, just turn it all over and take out the wet bits and poo and top it up. A 20kg bale lasts me about 5 or 6 weeks. I bed it at least an inch deep so it takes longer for the wet bits to reach the top and need removing

 

[rome_italy]

If you want to save money keeping a proper bedding for your piggies I suggest you the fleece; underneath the fleece you will put old newspapers and all those leaflets you can get for free at the supermarket (I don't know if your stores have loads of those leaflets always thrown away to the bin...). The cost will be only for buying a piece of fleece (usually 100cmx150cm costs 5-6£). Every day you need to remove only the wet sheets and piggies usually wee always on the same points of the cage. The fleece is very good for the delicate feet and the fact that the wee passes though and is absorbed by the sheet underneath, it helps you to check the wee itself; colour and calcium deposit are visible.
I don't spend anything doing this...

 

[flowerfairy]

I use a hemp based bedding from zooplus in their hay area. They have a large grow tray and a 32 litre under bed storage box with hemparade in and lots of soft ings hay on top. They have a wooden hay rack with coarser hay in it on the grow tray.

I clean the trays every day or two by taking out the wet areas and some of the poos.

The rest of theirnhome has fleece cage liners made with fleece zorb fleece in a sandwich or fleece mattress protector fleece.

I put newspaper under their hay trays and a poundland tarp under them. The whole set up is on two tables which i have cable tied together!

Try to take out the smallest amount of wet that you can.

 

[Jerrybelly]

I use vetbed in both my cages. I have done for years and would never use anything else.

 

[acapae]

Bedding (in their bed areas), or substrate (on the floor)? I don't give mine any bedding really as unlike smaller rodents they don't make nests to sleep. They get handfuls of hay in their bed areas, but this is for eating too.

 

[Betsy]

I have a double decker hutch and the piggies only learnt to use the ramp in the spring. When it rains the old newspapers I use on the bottom get pretty wet from underneath as it directly onto the ground I have tried using Back to Nature bedding but it wasn't practical and the pigs didn't really take to it. I am thinking of getting a some fleece liners from Ziggys Piggys that I can put over the paper and under some hay to try and keep it a bit drier this winter. They are outside piggies as I have no room for them inside and they are very well wrapped up for the winter! Has anybody else tried this? Does it work?

 

[Jann]

If you want to save money keeping a proper bedding for your piggies I suggest you the fleece; underneath the fleece you will put old newspapers and all those leaflets you can get for free at the supermarket (I don't know if your stores have loads of those leaflets always thrown away to the bin...). The cost will be only for buying a piece of fleece (usually 100cmx150cm costs 5-6£). Every day you need to remove only the wet sheets and piggies usually wee always on the same points of the cage. The fleece is very good for the delicate feet and the fact that the wee passes though and is absorbed by the sheet underneath, it helps you to check the wee itself; colour and calcium deposit are visible.
I don't spend anything doing this...

Hi again! Can I ask you too? I am using shavings, but with long haired pigs they are covered, so even moving them to their run or for a cuddle, they trail a lot on the floor. Always sweeping up everywhere! So, with the fleece, you don't put some in, take it out daily, wash it, put it back? It's designed to soak most through and remain quite dry? If so, I got it wrong, wondering why ppl had time to do all that laundry by using fleece! Can I use puppy pads underneath and just remove when they get soiled? Then rinse fleece through every few days ? Many thanks x

 

[rome_italy]

in fact with long haired the fleece is a blessing! their fur is absolutely clean (my Calliope is a bit dirty because she uses to wee after walking backwards and her long hair sometimes is wet in her butt).
I also sweep up, not because of their bedding, but because they spend long time on the floor where I put a box with the hay. Then it happens that we put a foot into the cage for lifting the piggies... and poo remains stuck under the sole or on the floor tile. I want to say: the mess is caused by our carelessness, not the bedding itself, which works perfectly and remains dry. The only wet part is some sport under the fleece, usually always in the same corners and you need to remove the wet paper.
I have 4 pieces of fleece (one is not good, though). I remove once a day the fleece and I hang it out the balcony (if it is raining I don't do that). My piggies in the meanwhile are strolling in the kitchen. Then I arrange again the cage with the same fleece. I change it after 3-5 days... sometimes only for changing the colour of the cage. Then I wash all the fleeces together (after a spinning 1200rounds they come out almost dry). I can put fleece in washing machine even with normal laundry. For sure I don't switch on washing machine only for washing the fleece! the machine starts when it is filled with clothes to be washed. Fleece can be washed once a week, too. It works as a filter, it is clean and needs to be shaked only for removing hair.
Puppy pads of course work fine, too, but I prefer saving my money considering that I don't spend anything for getting free supermarket leaflets (they are left here in my building, but I can take tons of them even at the check out of the supermarkets). Maybe puppy pads last more days, I don't know... and you should remove the poo on the fleece...
Look, I hate cleaning up the house, but for shaking the fleece with poo and leftovers on the floor, sweeping up everything, removing the wet leaflets and cover again with the fleece I need only 3-4 minutes...
I add some useful picture of this daily job:









as you see, nothing special...