Bedding

[Laurenbarkham]

Hi all, I hope you and your piggies are all doing ok in the current situation.

Just a question about bedding. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I am not a full time guinea pig mum so not really sure.

I am currently using wood shavings and newspaper (all over) and a little bit of hay (just where the piggies sleep) in the piggies I’m looking after’s home. The wood shavings are fine, although a little bit messy but I was just wondering if there was an alternative I could use to the newspaper that’s underneath the wood shavings. I feel there needs to be something underneath the wood shavings but newspaper is not really working long term.

The guinea pigs seem to enjoy ripping it up and eating it literally as soon as I have cleaned them out, and it’s quite annoying now, as the hutch is soo messy 1-2 days after cleaning. It’s also sticking to the bottom of the hutch when they wee and makes it quite difficult to get off when cleaning their hutch out, even with spot cleaning everyday.

I also worry about them eating too much of the newspaper anyway, as since they’ve been ripping and eating it they’re hardly eating any hay. Their hay is a different one than they have usually but their usual one wasn’t available and some is better than none.

It would need to be as inexpensive as possible as they are not my Guinea pigs and I’ll need to get the money back when they go back to their home.

Thanks for all your help in advance
(A part time Guinea pig mum trying her best)

 

[Siikibam]

Is it the newspapers that they’re ripping up? How deep do you fill it with shavings? Because it seems they can get to them quite easily. And if the wee is soaking through then maybe you need to add more?

The only alternative I can think of is puppy pads but they could chew on them as well. Otherwise I’m not sure there is a cheaper alternative.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Maybe the shavings/hay needs to be a thicker layer. My piggies hutch has a layer of newspaper everywhere, woodshavings only areas they wee most and then a thick layer of hay on top of everything. They never get to the newspaper as it’s so deep underneath everything else

 

[AMMAH]

I was using newspapers under hay - not at the moment as i can't get any! (I was using the free Metros from taking the train to work every day, plus my Mum's neighbour saved hers). The newspapers would only stick to the bottom of the cage if the wee was able to soak right through, so if you have enough, I would definitely add more so that the layer is thicker. I've kept guinea pigs on newspapers (as an under bedding) for many years, and although none have eaten them as much as you are describing, it has never done them any harm. As others have said, it sounds as though the top layer needs to be thicker too.

 

[Laurenbarkham]

Ok. I have 2 layers of newspaper under the wood shavings so will try and get some more as I’m running out. Thank you for your help everyone! I will try more wood shavings in top as well

 

[Piggies&buns]

Perhaps you could put some shavings underneath the newspaper to stop the paper from sticking to the hutch. I have a good newspaper supply so that does help me, but I use about six layers of newspaper with thick shavings on top and I generally only have to remove the wet shavings daily and the newspaper mostly stays dry for many days

 

[Laurenbarkham]

I might try that, would doing that not make the hutch uneven for the guinea pigs? It’s been much better this week, and they haven’t ripped the newspaper up. So I think I just wasn’t putting in enough wood shavings . That and they are eating the hay again cos I could get different hay and they prefer that one.

I need to clean them out tomorrow, well later today technically so I’ll see what the bottom of the hutch is like then decide.

 

[Junipertheguineapig]

The thing your doing seems to be working if you just make a couple of small changes. I recently switched to fleece and it might not be an ideal option for you but I could really recommend it because the mess is much lower. Also shavings can go pretty fast, (knowing guinea piggies leaving poopsies everywhere) I seemed to be going through money pretty fast. The fleece could be a bigger investment but its actually smaller because you don't have to keep pursching you can just wash it. I got mine from Guinea pig Dad. I just sweep clean once a day and was once a week!