hay 4 bedding

I use regular hay for bedding, it works fine, and you pigs can eat it! Plus they love to burrow in it, and when it's time to clean just lift it out...All the poop is matted up in the hay. To make this easier, put down a couple of sheets of newspaper, then baking soda, then the hay!

Awesome idea to put hay for bedding! It also keeps the GPs warm!

Thanks! It also doesn't smell as bad! DELI

I would never use hay as a bedding!!!! Unless..... you are willing to CLEAN THOUROUGHLY your gp cage every single day. When you gp pees on hay, it gets moldy very very fast, even if it looks fresh. This is very dangerous and toxic for your gp should he eat it!

[CavySpirit]

Interesting. I am very generous with hay in my cages. And while I do keep the cages clean, I don't clean out the hay that they might be laying on every single day. I think there are a lot of people out there who do in fact use hay as bedding.

I would like to read some additional references about this being toxic and dangerous. Do you have them? I could then add those references as cautions to the hay and/or bedding page.

I've never really thought of that...I clean out my boys cage every three days, and it's not at all moldy... I also forgot to mention that the baking soda helps out to keep it from molding ;0) DELI

How did you put the baking soda ? Sprinkle under the hay, over the hay, mix in with hay ? And is baking soda safe for the GP - what if he eats a lot of hay having baking soda in them ?

I read that it is ok for them, and you sprinkle it on top of the news paper, under the hay....Normally, if the hay is deep enough, the piggy will never reach the baking soda...just try to keep it limited for saftey. DELI

I tried hay with newspaper under it, but found clean up to be a hassle. So I installed a litter box with pine shavings (which the piggies don't eat), and for some time transferred some of their droppings from the cage to the litter box. They did not get the message. The guy at the pet store said that they box trained easily. Was he pulling my leg to sell an over priced litter box, or what? Help!!!!!!!! The smell is killing us.

[CavySpirit]

What size cage do you have? Litter training a guinea pig in their cage is pretty much hopeless. Some will naturally go in one area. But to expect success is to have false expectations. If you are successful, great.

My number one rule for anything to do with pet stores: Never, but never, believe anything anyone in a pet store tells you about anything. Period. End of story. Get corroboration on anything and everything. Doesn't mean it may not be true, just don't believe it until you've confirmed it with other, more reliable sources.

If your cage smells so bad that YOU can't stand it, you've got a serious problem. Clean it more frequently, every darn day if you have to, or use a different bedding. Your guinea pig has a sense of smell about 1000 times more sensitive than yours! Your cage should not smell.

Okay, so I'll cover the bottom of the cage with Timothy hay on top of newspaper and just change the whole thing once a week. This means they will eat and poop in the same bedding. Do I need to worry about them getting sick on their own waste? The hay helps the smell a lot!

We used the cubes to build a cool two story cage for Buttercup and Chloe, about 42" x 28". Thanks for the great idea! I saw one about the same size, one story at the pet store for $89. We spent half that. Thanks again.

pk

Well, your piglet is probably a male and their male smell is sometimes for marking territory. There is a possibility that the smell is not connected with bad hygiene.

You should not only change the bedding but also give good ventilation to the place, i.e. air change. (careful - no drafts!)