Monthly Costs for 2 piggies

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dancegal

dancegal

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I am starting to worry about the monthly costs of having 2 guinea pigs. I have am alright with the food and hay i have managed to find 5kg for £5 but worried about how many woodshavings i would get through for a 120cm cage or 4x2 c&c cage and how much it would cost me a month. i can currently get 8kg for £3.90 but in small bags.

for people with 2 guinea pigs how much woodshavings do you get through in a month and how much do the basic supplies cost you. need to find some bargains. Plus i am finding my girls peeing sooo much
 
Have you considered changing to fleece or vetbed? You'll have the initial cost of buying the bedding, but after that you just pop them in the wash :)
 
Jerrybelly said:
Have you considered changing to fleece or vetbed? You'll have the initial cost of buying the bedding, but after that you just pop them in the wash :)
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I cant because i dont have a washing machine, so stuck with woodshavings
 
I don't know how you are off for storage space but have you thought about checking out the very large bags used for horses. I used to use this size before I changed to fleece.
 
Midge&Panda said:
I don't know how you are off for storage space but have you thought about checking out the very large bags used for horses. I used to use this size before I changed to fleece.
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I am fine for storage space as i store little bags and lots of them, but dont have a car to get to farms etc. I think the 8kg is good but not sure how long will last and just want idea of everyone else monthly costs for basics
 
In a 120cm cage, we used to use half of a bag of helmes dust extracted wood shavings twice a week, so half each clean. The bags weigh 2.5kg at £2.99 a bag it was normally costing £16 a month for bedding. Hope that helps
 
i am buying the large bags of super compressed woodshavings at the minute. less than half a bag does my 2 by 4 cage, the bags are 1.50 each. sooo monthly thqts a few pounds. once ive used those i will be buying bales of woodshavings for abgut 5 pound which will last months.

i much prefer woodshavings for bedding than fleece - way less smelly, and less maintenance.

excuse the typos, I'm on my phone which is being rubbish and making it hard to go back and correct them.
 
I have a 240cm & 100cm run. I bag of Megazorb costs me £7 & I get 3 1/2 weeks out of 1 bag (7 weeks out of 2 bags) which works out at £2 a week. I buy a big bale of hay (from local farm) which costs £4 & lasts for at least 2 months for both bedding & eating so that'a 50p a week. With this mix I only need to do thorough cleaning once a week & there's no smell at all. Working on the above figures it's costing me £10 for 4 weeks. Just a little more (about £1) for 30 or 31 days.

The Megazorb is spread out to about 12mm (1/2 inch) with a good layer of hay on top plus extra piles of hay for them to eat, play with & make beds etc.

I would never use wood shavings after reading that it's bad for piggies. In place of Megazorb you could use old newspapers but you'd then have to clean them out at least twice a week, probably more. Some rescues won't re-home if you're using wood shavings, also Peter Gurney recommended not using them either. See:-

http://www.northeastguineapigrescue.co.uk/Bedding/
 
If you did want to consider something that doesn't need to be replaced, Lino is perfect. You have the initial cost of buying an off cut (about £10 usually), after that though you just wipe it down and sweep up poops. It's very easy to clean obviously. Although I use fleece for my two now I've used woodshavings and fitch in the past. Nothing comes close to Lino for ease of cleaning!
 
I know you said you didn't have your own washing machine but if you do your washing at a launderette there is one trick to wash your blankets and your own clothes together. I have heard putting the towels in a pillow case and tying up the open end will help wash them without getting hair all over the drum!

Though I expect this only works for blankets of a low soiling! I use one big towel and then lots of little hand towels which can be whipped up every other day, and the big blanket goes every week. I do two clothes washes a week. You'd want to make sure you can beat out as much hay as possible before washing because if it goes back in the cage, piggy might pick at it and ingest traces of the washing products.

Maybe not the best choice for you right now but if things come to a crunch, it's a great way to avoid additional costs. I spent about £35 on 3 big towels and 12 hand towels. That was about a year ago and I'm still using them. I do 1 pig wash a week.
 
If you're worried about the cost of wood shavings, what about vets bills?

Just to put it into perspective - I've had a £2600 bill for one of mine in less than a year. I have another one going in to the vets on Monday for an estimated £200 procedure, and another on Tuesday for an estimated £700 procedure, on top of the £500 that I have already paid for treatment. Alternatively, insurance for two guinea pigs is about £20 a month.

Excessive drinking and urination can be a sign of illness so should be monitored.
 
I buy a bag of excel nuggets which cost me £5.50 a month and then hay costs me about £5 a month. At the moment I have found someone who will give me shredded cardboard which is like finacard as it is used as a packing for horses products, so it doesn't cost me anything. You can get free newspapers off free cycle. The veg we don't count as we but this for us anyway. I guess it's vet bills you need to account for
 
i think you can make it not too costly, i line the cages with newspaper top with hay which i have delivered by the bale from a local pet shop and get people to save veg etc for me put them out on the lawn if you can, enjoy your guinea's:)
 
Oh yeah and you can forage for dandelions and get friends to save veggies for you : )
 
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