Guinea pig bedding/ floor of cage

[Leahbrews]

Hello, I need all you guinea pig lovers help and advice. I have a hutch style cage indoors which obviously didn’t come with a flooring so I bought a foam mat to protect my carpets / go underneath the cage. On top of that I put a bath mat but had to stop using this as it ended up clogging up my washing machine and almost breaking it. So now they are just on the foam mat and today when I was cleaning the cage out I noticed chunks out of the foam which of course has caused me massive panic as I believe they may have been eating it. For now I have put a bed sheet down covering the whole of the mat so they don’t have access to swallow anymore bits of plastic however, this is only a temporary fix as I can no longer use the likes of bath mats/ towels or anything that requires a washing machine to clean.
What do you use on the bottom of your cages / any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Piggies&buns]

After your trouble with the bath mat, are you looking to use a washable bedding again such as fleece or are you looking to use something entirely different?

Puppy pads are excellent as the essential absorbent layer which you would put down on top of the foam mats, you can then lay a fleece blanket on top. The urine wicks through to the puppy pads and the fleece remains dry. You would need To shake it/brush with a rubber brush to get everything off before putting in the machine. You can use horse rug wash bags to put fleece bedding in before putting in the machine. This means any stray hay or hair stays in the bag and doesn’t clog the machine.

Alternatively a disposable bedding but without something up the sides of the bars such as correx, it would obviously all come out all over your carpet.

Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview
A Detailed Guide For Fleece Bedding

 

[artcasper]

providing they have only had a nibble they should be ok.... one of mine nibbled my plastic sweeping brush! I know what you mean about the washing of the bath mats - my poor old washer is on it's last legs but I now go to the launderette! They say no pet bedding but I always use a horse wash bag and will pay for an extra rinse if the bag ever opens up during the wash.

I am not sure what else you could use - could you use newspapers on top of the matting? But then they could get through that if they were naughty enough!

I am sure someone else will come along with more suggestions..

 

[Leahbrews]

After your trouble with the bath mat, are you looking to use a washable bedding again such as fleece or are you looking to use something entirely different?

Puppy pads are excellent as the essential absorbent layer which you would put down on top of the foam mats, you can then lay a fleece blanket on top. The urine wicks through to the puppy pads and the fleece remains dry. You would need To shake it/brush with a rubber brush to get everything off before putting in the machine. You can use horse rug wash bags to put fleece bedding in before putting in the machine. This means any stray hay or hair stays in the bag and doesn’t clog the machine.

Alternatively a disposable bedding but without something up the sides of the bars such as correx, it would obviously all come out all over your carpet.

Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview
A Detailed Guide For Fleece Bedding

Not looking to use washable bedding again just for the worry of breaking the machine. I did my best every time to sweep all the hay / sawdust off but regardless each wash must have been clogging more and more until there was a blockage.
Thank you for the suggestions! Xx

 

[rp1993]

Did you use a pet wash bag when washing your bath mats?
they are an essential for washing bedding and stops your machine getting clogged!

 

[Piggies&buns]

A wash bag would help greatly.

Otherwise your option is a disposable bedding but you may need to make adjustments to your cage - get some correx, square the cage off and use a correx base. Get it bigger than you need so you can score it and have a good few inches up the side of the cage. You can then use a disposable bedding and it won’t fall out the cage. I like to use either aubiose or megazorb (although I finding sourcing megazorb much easier so I’m tending to use it more often)

 

[Free Ranger]

I agree - correx is your best bet so you can make a giant tray with sides. You could keep your foam matting for the larger enclosure or you could replace it with an off-cut of lino from carpet-rite... other carpet superstores are also available! It's tougher and less chewable.

I use fleece for my outer enclosure now (tiled floor underneath it) as my newer pigs spend all their time there peeing and hardly any inside the cage! But my previous pigs were just the opposite and only used the outer enclosure to move between the 2 caged areas. At that time I used either a bath towel or a flat-weave cotton mat... just something to catch the poops and hay trail, and absorb the odd piddle. The advantage of that was the hair and hay shook off really well so the machine didn't get such a hard time. When I realised these piggies were puddling all over it I had to make some fleece/Zorb/fleece liners... and fast!