Wood shavings or fleece liner?

[She-bee]

Hi, I'm wondering what you all would recommend? I've always used wood shavings for my outside Hutch but I'm now looking at fleece liners instead. In the winter months I put the hutch in my greenhouse which is lovely and warm, then move it into the garden during summer. Your advice is really appreciated. Thank you all.

 

[piggieminder]

Before spending lots of money on liners why not try a cheap fleece blanket folded to fit the hutch, you can use puppy pads or newspaper underneath as the absorbant layer. This will give you an idea of how you would get on with fleece liners, the type of bedding you use is really down to personal preferance. Don't forget to wash the blanket 3 times without softner to make sure it wicks the wee away.Bedding Guide

 

[SSPGuineaPigs]

Wood shavings aren't good for piggies as wood shavings can be highly irritating to your piggy's respiratory system and can cause an allergic reaction. I have three guinea pigs (boys) and i use a combination of fleece and paper bedding, paper bedding for where hay will be placed ( because hay is quite difficult to completely get rid of off of the fleece and therefore messes up my washing machine). i highly recommend using both fleece and paper bedding or one or the other, hope this helps!

 

[HeatherW]

I recently switched from shavings to fleece and I much prefer it. I found shavings would end up all over the house and my piggies have long-ish hair, particularly around their bums, so shavings would get stuck to them (and subsequently me!) at cuddle time. Jasmine doesn't sneeze as much, they both get much better grip when zooming, and I think they prefer to lie on it as well. It's also less time-consuming to clean the cage.

The only disadvantage is the amount of washing I have to do! As I have a 2x3 stacking cage with a 1x2 loft linking the floors, my piggies do a lot of their business on the mezzanine (as I call it ), so I end up changing that liner every two days, if not every day. If you get liners, I'd recommend having three rather than two so you don't have to put the dirty fleece in the wash straight away. I can recommend Ziggy's Piggies!

 

[She-bee]

Before spending lots of money on liners why not try a cheap fleece blanket folded to fit the hutch, you can use puppy pads or newspaper underneath as the absorbant layer. This will give you an idea of how you would get on with fleece liners, the type of bedding you use is really down to personal preferance. Don't forget to wash the blanket 3 times without softner to make sure it wicks the wee away.Bedding Guide

Brilliant! Thank you for your advice. I'm picking them up tomorrow afternoon