Hay

[Delitedcavy]

I was wondering how do you guys give your guinea pigs hay? Should I care if there is hay all over the floor of there second floor

 

[anyar.dris]

This is my setup.



Orchard and timothy hay are on their respective racks (also the ones inside the hutch). Meadow hay is where my piggies lie on. I just put newspapers on top of a large lid of a large plastic container (like a lock & lock type) then put the meadow hay on it.

 

[Delitedcavy]

I was wondering should I put hay on the ground also if I do this how should I do this still put down fleece then hay on top or something else on the bottom

 

[anyar.dris]

I used to put hay just on top of the fleece but it's so difficult (in my view anyway) to clean or remove. So I just put it on a lid of a big plastic storage box over newspapers.

 

[Delitedcavy]

Wait the paper is on top right

 

[anyar.dris]

On top of the lid but under the hay.

 

[Merab]

As I use wood shavings I put the hay in 2 piles either end of the cage.
It then gets liberally distributed all over the place.

 

[Eriathwen]

I put the hay in big piles all over the floor. It's like a barnyard has exploded being such a vital and large part of the diet I don't like to restrict it in any way! It's always under their nose if they want it, plus, they can't male a mess if it's already all over the place haha.

 

[flowerfairy]

I use a 32 litre under bed storage for soft hay that they can burrow into. I have two small dog beds with soft hay in and three hay racks full of stalky timothy hay whixh are on trays to keep the hay off the fleece as much as possible.

 

[HeatherW]

My two piggies don't seem to eat a lot of hay. I usually put a handful or two in every couple of days. I do see them eat it, but they mostly seem to enjoy spreading it round the cage. Considering it should form 80% of their diet, that doesn't seem to be the case with mine!

However, they do eat a lot of pellets and I also put some meadow hay balls which they go through quite quickly too. Should I be concerned, and/or try them with a different type of hay? I've always fed them timothy.

 

[Kylie80]

My two piggies don't seem to eat a lot of hay. I usually put a handful or two in every couple of days. I do see them eat it, but they mostly seem to enjoy spreading it round the cage. Considering it should form 80% of their diet, that doesn't seem to be the case with mine!

However, they do eat a lot of pellets and I also put some meadow hay balls which they go through quite quickly too. Should I be concerned, and/or try them with a different type of hay? I've always fed them timothy.

My two used to be like this too and would only eat 10% of the 80% hay they were meant to eat. I cut back on the pellets to 1/8th of a cup twice a day as my two like to share and when the pellets were gone they are not topped back up and they don't get pellets overnight. They are now big hay eaters of any sort of hay. When they are hungry they will eat the hay, they even ignore their pellets in favour of hay now days.

 

[pinzerino]

Mine are a nightmare with hay too, I give them huge piles of it and they jump in it a bit then eat a bit then pee/poop in bits of it. They then deem it soiled and it gets ignored. However If I move some of the clean stuff elsewhere in the cage they go through this same process as if it’s fresh hay ‍