Wood shaving alternatives

emily21

emily21

New Born Pup
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Hi everyone.

So I got my 3 piggies (all boys a year old) full time in October. They belonged to my ex who bought them in March 2020. He bought them from a well known UK pet shop and was instructed wood shavings was the best bedding for them so that was what we have been using. However, I recently have seen online that wood shavings have many cons and possible health issues.

My pigs have had to go to the vet fairly regularly due to an incident where two become very aggressive and injures were sustained so now they all live in individual cages in the same room. As a result of this I know they do not have any current issues from the bedding such as breathing complications or paw injuries. Yet if this is true i do not want it to get to a point where complications arise. So I was wondering does anybody have any alternative bedding to suggest?

Thank you for your help!
 
:wel:

The type of bedding you use is a personal thing and about finding what works for you and your piggies.
I personally use aubiose topped with hay, but when I cant get aubiose I use wood shavings topped with hay.

Our beddings guides are below
Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview
A Detailed Guide For Fleece Bedding

I'm sorry you discovered that you cannot keep a trio of boars successfully. Unfortunately we still see pet shops selling boar trios and the poor owners are then left to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong - because it almost always does. Boars need to be kept in pairs only. Its a shame you've not been able to make a functioning pair out of them though (mostly that is what happens - you're left with a pair and a single).
 
I highly recommend aubiose. I unfortunately can’t use it so use woodshavings instead.
 
We use fleece liners, started off with shavings but myself and Pepper don’t seem to get on with them, we love fleece I find it far less messy although it does involve a lot of laundry! We also have noodle bath mats at the hay end of the cage that work a treat, I know lots of people that use either or or a combo of the two!
 
Piggies&buns said:
:wel:

The type of bedding you use is a personal thing and about finding what works for you and your piggies.
I personally use aubiose topped with hay, but when I cant get aubiose I use wood shavings topped with hay.

Our beddings guides are below
Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview
A Detailed Guide For Fleece Bedding

I'm sorry you discovered that you cannot keep a trio of boars successfully. Unfortunately we still see pet shops selling boar trios and the poor owners are then left to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong - because it almost always does. Boars need to be kept in pairs only. Its a shame you've not been able to make a functioning pair out of them though (mostly that is what happens - you're left with a pair and a single).
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Thank you for the suggestion, definitely will give that a go!

And originally there were four and he was originally informed it was best to keep them all together. Which then led to one being separated later on due to emerging aggression issue. Yet during this time one of the other three sustained a very deep cut from the other more aggressive one and rather heartbreakingly never recovered. In which time we learnt that every advice and guidance from the pet shop was rather incorrect which obviously caused a lot of stress.
 
rp1993 said:
We use fleece liners, started off with shavings but myself and Pepper don’t seem to get on with them, we love fleece I find it far less messy although it does involve a lot of laundry! We also have noodle bath mats at the hay end of the cage that work a treat, I know lots of people that use either or or a combo of the two!
Click to expand...

Hi thank you very much for the advice. Are there any particular ones you use as I've seen a few that look quite cheap.
 
I use aubiose with hay usually but it's been increasingly difficult to buy it where I am so I've switched to EcoShiv which is another hemp bedding and very good so far :)
 
emily21 said:
Hi thank you very much for the advice. Are there any particular ones you use as I've seen a few that look quite cheap.
Click to expand...
We get out liners from the pigsty co HOME | THE PIG STY CO. they are nice and thick and comfy for the pigs! And for bath mats we just get them from IKEA!
Here is our newest liner we had a pocket added to it :) D5667D81-B54A-4F59-A970-B3B21CDDE6F4.webp
 
gerbilord said:
I use aubiose with hay usually but it's been increasingly difficult to buy it where I am so I've switched to EcoShiv which is another hemp bedding and very good so far :)
Click to expand...
Is aubiose made from hemp as well?
 
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