Lab Experemnent Of Different Beddings

[littlebear]

Okay so after two years of constantly being reccomended to use a different type of beeding I have been able to compile and rate many of the most common and un-common bedding used in the cavy world. Bellow is a key of symbols that represent cost, absorbancy, odor, how easy it is to clean, cavy enjoyment, and overall rating I would give the product.

KEY

Cost (based on Hawaii prices in mainland US product might be a bit cheaper)
$ - $5-10 a month
$$ - $11 - 20 a month
$$$ - $21 - 30 a month
$$$$ - $31+ a month

Absorbancy
A - not absorbent
AA - a bit absorbent
AAA - absorbent
AAAA - very absorbent

Odor
O - lots of odor
OO - odor still very strong
OOO - faint odor
OOOO - no odor at all (if used properly)

Cleaning
C - hard to clean, leaves lots of stains
CC - kind of hard to clean
CCC - not to hard, still leaves stains
CCCC - very easy to clean

Cavy Rating
E - cavies hate it
EE - not hated but still not a favorite
EEE - okay
EEEE - cavies love the stuff

Overall
* - poor
** - okay
*** - great
**** - amazing!

Pine - $ | AAA | OOO | CCC | EEEE | ***
Pine is very cheap, but it depends on how you buy it. My pigs have used it for most of there lives and they seem to love the stuff. The only thing I did not like about using pine was changes color from white to brown in less then a day in certain areas of the cage.

Timothy Hay - $$$ | AA | OOO | CC | EEE | **
Timothy Hay is a alternative bedding solution in my opinion it can be very expensive or it can be very cheap depends on how you get it. And the piggies like it because they will never have to worry about running out of hay. But there are cons to timothy hay, you have to change it out every day and depending on you cage twice a day, and it is hardly absorbent which isnt good for the piggies if it is not cleaned out everyday.

More Soon..........

[SandyF]

You're missing a very important category, which would be safety. Frankly, I wouldn't rank pine very high on safety at all, based on potentially toxic phenols.

[aqh88]

You also need to take into account more than just pig odor. Some bedding has an odor. My boyfriend and I absolutely cannot stand the smell of pine. It makes us sick. I quite liked the earthy smell of wheat based bedding while my boyfriend said it stank horribly. I've written reviews on bedding before and found it very hard to fit all of them neatly into categories. Plus everyone's opinion is different. Compared to wood shavings and wood pellets I'd give hay an A C rating. It has zero absorbency and actually keeps moisture from drying. Maybe it needs a negative rating. The cage would probably be drier after having no bedding than having a layer of hay. It's also 10 times the cleaning work and most droppings or urine make it to the coroplast to leave stains.

[rshevin]

In my litter box/hay buffet I finally figured out putting a layer of newspaper and then a layer of bedding or litter would help with the wet hay problem. This allows me to only clean the box once a day. Otherwise it was foul after just one pee. The litter wicks at least some of the moisture off the hay.

I had some really cool funky cat litter that was made from wheat like Sweet Scoop but made into pellets like Feline Pine. It wasn't clumping and it smelled very nice. It was GREAT for the litter/hay pan because when Piggy is in there he tends to get a little over zealous and eats everything. While you never feed wheat and cereal products to a pig, if they happen to get a hold of a little bit, it won't hurt.

Of course, petstupid stopped carrying it and my no animals pet supply store never had it to begin with. I'm back to just using aspen in the litter box and aspen+carefresh in the cage.

[aqh88]

I loved the wheat pellets but I can only get them by ordering online and it costs a fortune. Entirely not worth it but it was the best for our allergies, the pigs loved it, it wasn't dusty, it was surpassed only by pine pellets for absorbency, and it didn't scatter all over the house like shavings. If I could get it easier and at a slightly cheaper price I'd still be using it.

[littlebear]

MORE
Someone mentioned saftey for new ratings I will add safety!

US - unsafe
OS - debatable
S - safe for ussage


Recycled Papers - $$$$ | AAAA | OO | CC | EE | S | **
This type of bedding is very expensive and has a percular odor that is not unsafe but still the piggies arn't big fans of it and nor am I. It is very absorbant and only needs to be cleaned out every 1-1.5 weeks depending on the size of your cage. But its is not a good bedding cost wise, and smell wise.

Fleece - $ | AAAA | OOOO | CCCC | EEEE | S | ****
I would have to say that fleece is so far the best thing I have ever used for a bedding it is very soft on the pigs feet, cost effective, easy to clean, absorbant, safe, and the piggies love it!