I'm fed up with vet bed HELP

[kayjay]

As the title says, I'm sooo fed up with the vet bed. I've just had to stand in gale force winds and rain brushing loads of squashed poops and hay out of it, been splattered with urine, I completely stink and I've got a tummy bug so I was retching the whole time. As Fudge wee's a lot his needs doing a lot so I end up with a constant cycle of brushing and cleaning it. On top of that I have loads of our washing to do and no time to do it as the vet beds always in the wash.

I have an indoor c & c cage - what alternatives are there? I don't want hay as OH has a hay allergy and copes with the smaller amounts I top up constantly for them to eat but don't want to push it with loads of it. Shavings spread throughout the house and shouldn't be used anyway. The girls have longcoats so I don't want anything that's going to tangle them up like hay does.

Help, any suggestions welcome. If this goes on they'll all have to go to live outside when the weather warms up

 

[gus and jack]

Have you tried a hand vacuum? I use one on my vet bed and it makes it lots easier for the poops and hay but you'd still have the problem of washing etc. I got my vac on ebay for about £10. Other than that, maybe try carefresh mixed with shavings to keep the cost down and make your coroplast sides a bit higher?

 

[sars1359]

As the title says, I'm sooo fed up with the vet bed. I've just had to stand in gale force winds and rain brushing loads of squashed poops and hay out of it, been splattered with urine, I completely stink and I've got a tummy bug so I was retching the whole time. As Fudge wee's a lot his needs doing a lot so I end up with a constant cycle of brushing and cleaning it.

eww :o

lol

 

[michellemuffin]

I whack my vet bed against a shed or wall to get the hay and poops out stick it in a pillow case and wash, no problems

 

[cavykind]

Sorry I don't use and wouldn't even consider it for anything but poorly guineas.
Can't suggest anything else really as I believe soft meadow hay is the best all round bedding for guineas and your partner has problems with that

Mmmm.....how about old towels?
Is ist just the bedding area or do you need to cover the whole area of their pen?

Barbara

 

[sars1359]

I whack my vet bed against a shed or wall to get the hay and poops out stick it in a pillow case and wash, no problems

now that id love to see,you whacking it against a wall,i bet it looks hilarious and the neighbours sit there thinking " wtf"

 

[Lucinda]

I only used it for a couple of weeks to make life more comfy for Dr in his final weeks. I have no garden to hang it to dry and it bunged up the washing machine and I had to get the bloke to fix it - who also had guineas

 

[KatsCavies]

I've never used it. I see the state the cuddle cups and other beds get in :

Kat

 

[daftscotslass]

What about polyester fleece? It's what I use and I wouldn't change again. I spot clean it each day with a dustpan and brush and use a littertray with megazorb in one corner. Their hay rack is above the litter tray so they tend to pee mostly in there. Hay and hair don't get all caught up in the fibres like they do with vet bed.

 

[sars1359]

I found some old dog fleece blankets yest that he used to sleep on and cut them up so the piggies can now snuggle on them on my lap etc,i never thought of that

 

[michellemuffin]

I whack my vet bed against a shed or wall to get the hay and poops out stick it in a pillow case and wash, no problems

now that id love to see,you whacking it against a wall,i bet it looks hilarious and the neighbours sit there thinking " wtf"

my neighbours dont bat an eyelid when they see me doing something crazy they are well use to me BUT they are moving in the next few weeks and we have elderly couple and her mum of 80 moving in going to be fun !
I only use my vet bed for poorly piggers, the only exception is Jinx who has a paralised back leg he is on towels changed daily as the vet bed would get hooked up in his bad leg,

 

[maxthepig]

What about just using newspaper and carefresh?

If the newspaper is laid quite thick, along with the carefresh it should soak everything up ok if cleaned out very regularily....then you can just roll the whole lot up and put it in the bin. If that is not snuggly enough, maybe you could in addition, use vet bed in the bedding area, or over a small part of the cage?

 

[Abnoba]

in my experience people with allergies dont react as bad to straw as they do to hay.

I am currently using newspaper with woodshavings, and a layer of straw on top. The straw prevents the shavings flying everywhere, they love to burrow through it, and afaik not many people have asthma probs etc to straw.

I would try it out, and see how your husband feels about it :-)

 

[kayjay]

Thanks for the suggestion of straw, I might give that a go - what kind of straw's best for piggies? I thought it could poke them in the eyes?

It does look like they're going outside - I'm currently researching sheds but would still like to solve the problem inside. I don't know why my pigs seem to smell when other people say theirs don't - if I don't clean them out every other day the room really pongs

 

[Abnoba]

From my experience, straw can poke them in their eyes just as much as hay can. And as they have to have hay in all of the time and I dont worry about that - why should I worry about straw.