Guinea pigs

hazzie123

Sarahsaver wrote:

D'oh!
Thought this would be a thread of guinea pig recipes LOL;)

Me too!:rotfl:

li'l_p

Sawdust shouldn't really be used for small animals bedding anyway because the phenols can be harmful to their respiratory systems. Carboard chippings/shreddings are much better and cheaper - I pay £2 for a huge bale and it lasts me months. It's basically what they use for horse bedding and you can get a huge bale of cardboard chippings from any 'horse supplies' shop (...sorry, not sure what they're called?).

singlehouseholder

We use shavings, not dust for lil G the P. We go through quite a bit,as she lives in the frontroom in her plasticky type house, and smells.She has the selly removed every day and fresh topped up. I cant bear to put her in her new outside hutch, its too dickydark and cold for her. She sleeps on hay, and eats it too, so put a handful next to her grub dish to try and encourage her to eat that and not her bed!! Also, you GP experts probably know already but i've found the best ms tip for feeding the pig is picking dandelions aka weethebeds, my pig goes crazy for them, get them from my garden so there's no nasty chemicals-its like pig cocaine!!!

beachbeth

I have 3 guinea pigs and have also kept rabbits for many years. The only thing I would add is that although the stuff you get from petshops may cost more, if you get cheap/free hay and straw from farms it can have mites in it which can end up making your pets ill and even kill them. What you buy from petshops is treated and will not contain anything harmful. So be very careful what source you get your bedding from.

tru

I buy hay from Pound Farm in Glos for £2.50 per bale. We shred a lot of paper at work so I bring that home.

Sarahsaver wrote:

D'oh!
Thought this would be a thread of guinea pig recipes LOL;)

:eek:

aimeelister wrote:

I have tried the wood cat litter (use it for the rats instead of sawdust as it makes em sneeze) and the pigs ate it

:rotfl:

bizzylizzy

redballoon wrote:

do you have a field cose to wear you live? you could use dried grasses...

or if you have a shredder, use shredded newspaper/paper/junk mail etc...

Sadly no suitable fields, we tried shredded paper but it very quickly turned into soggy mess. It's not as absorbent as sawdust.

bizzylizzy

Thank you so much for all your replies, I will see if there are any saddlers/tack shops nearby that might sell shavings or cardboard shreddings.

I've never heard of the dried cabbage - where do you get that?

Another pair of guinea pigs (now no longer with us) did get mites from some hay and their tummies became totally bald - not a good look - and needed several visits to the vet, not really money saving!

Sarahsaver

I will ask OH re. the dried cabbage. He works in Staffordshire so its somewhere between there and here - Leicestershire. Think it is from a farm.

beachbeth

bizzylizzy wrote:

Another pair of guinea pigs (now no longer with us) did get mites from some hay and their tummies became totally bald - not a good look - and needed several visits to the vet, not really money saving!

I have had a couple of guinea pigs suffer with mites (not from using dodgy hay, I must add) and it makes them very poorly (and bald!!!) and if left untreated will kill them. Its horrible seeing them suffer.

Its no good spraying them with mite spray either because the mites need to be killed from the inside with drops put on the guinea pig's tongue!

linzibean

Shavings can be quite bad for Guinea Pigs, and other small animals - we line the cage of our two boys with a couple of layers of newspaper, then some fleece - we replace this every day and just soak it overnight in stardrops, it dries very quickly! Best of all it was so cheap, only £3 for a meter, and we made a few cloths from this, so have enough to cycle them around and wash/dry them

As for hay, our piggies yum it up! It helps with digestion and keeps their teeth in trim