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Joy Guinea pig poop and fertilizer

Sekhmet

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I am thinking about re doing my garden this year, since I want to provide the best quality food for humans and for my pigs. I was wondering if any of you gardeners out there use your guinea pigs poop as fertilizer? and how successful is it for the garden?
 

MaggieMae

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I've never tried it but my dad and I were talking about what we might and might not be able to use for litter that is compost friendly since we have those dome things. In theory we feel like, since they eat veggies and no meat, it would work. I am also curious to see if anyone has tried this just for the theoretical part of it. I don't know that I would actually put my guinea pig poop in our compost bins though.
 

Aertyn

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I use it on my veggie patch and it's fantastic. You do need to dig it through though as it takes awhile to break down but the worms LOVE it. We'll be resting our veggie patch this winter and simply adding pig poop + digging it through for 3-4 months. Did that with our last veggie patch and the soil was just amazing.

We want to use it on the rest of our garden but our dog has an...affinity with it. She loves rooting around looking for it so that's out unfortunately.
 

pinky

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I use it on my veggie patch and it's fantastic. You do need to dig it through though as it takes awhile to break down but the worms LOVE it. We'll be resting our veggie patch this winter and simply adding pig poop + digging it through for 3-4 months. Did that with our last veggie patch and the soil was just amazing.

We want to use it on the rest of our garden but our dog has an...affinity with it. She loves rooting around looking for it so that's out unfortunately.


Just curious, do you need to compost it first or do you just add to the garden? Is there any risk to humans if the droppings are used in a vegetable garden without being composted? For example, what if the guinea pig had a bacterial infection or something and you weren't aware of it? It sounds like such a great idea but I want to be sure it's completely safe. Thanks.
 

Katie_Kutthroat

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That sounds awesome! I was thinking of doing the same thing because the soil in my yard is pretty crappy and the pigs make so much poop. Why not put it to good use?
 

Duffinvt

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Oh it is great stuff. DO add it to your compost ! I have five different composters outside and three worm composting units in my basement and I put all of my spent hay, limp veggies and as much poop as my two gals produce !! My worm composting friends are jealous. Some people use rabbit poop and it is just as good. Basically, it is similar to horse poop as they eat pretty much the same thing and their "gut" is similar.
 

Peggysu

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I have been wanting to do this for a long while. I need to just do it. I'd like to do a worm bin. Any excess I would possibly go and sell at the local farmers market. It would be great for my house plants and all the potted plants I have outside. Best of all my piggies would be contributing.

Anyone have any links to some information regarding worm bins?
 

Cogni

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I throw used hay with the poops in it into my compost bin. (I made the bin by cutting out the bottom from a tall plastic garbage drum. The worms come up through the bottom.)
Makes nice, good black compost. The only thing is we have way too much for our one compost bin, so I have been putting piles of it next to the bin out on the ground.
I hate to throw good organic stuff like that in the landfill.
I'll have to get another bin or two, since these piles of hay lined up
against the garage look a little weird.
I'd love to have a worm bin!! But in Houston, the worms would die in our usual heat. I saw a worm bin on instructables.com that had a built in fan to help keep the worms alive in hot climates. I actually know a person who keeps her worm bin INSIDE, because it's air conditioned, but I am not 'evolved' enough to have worms in my kitchen, LOL!
 

Duffinvt

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I have been wanting to do this for a long while. I need to just do it. I'd like to do a worm bin. Any excess I would possibly go and sell at the local farmers market. It would be great for my house plants and all the potted plants I have outside. Best of all my piggies would be contributing.

Anyone have any links to some information regarding worm bins?

I have three different types of worm bins and would be happy to give tips on each and how to get started. I give talks at schools and help the students set up bins.

Also, see the links below for lots of info. The simplest and cheapest bin to set up is a Rubbermaid tub. You need, worms, shredded newsprint and some food such as worm poop, hay, kitchen scraps like carrot peels, banana skins, etc.

Many people keep them in the house and you'd never know they had them. Maintained properly, they do not smell at all.

www.redwormcomposting.com

(broken link removed)
 

Katie_Kutthroat

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Oh please do! I don't think an inside one would fly, I just mentioned it to my mom and she was like, "Oh my god! In the house, are you insane?!" lol. Also, if you have tips for keeping bugs and such off the plants. I don't want to spray chemicals, are their any alternatives?
 

Silverbeat

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I dump my guinea pigs' litter and poops out on my lawn all throughout the winter and in the summer I rake it evenly all over the backyard. It makes the grass so happy. And since they often have seeds in their poops, it acts as a natural weed control [over-seeding].
Katie, red wiggles are from a much warmer climate than ours and they don't do well when the outside temp is below 40. You would need to bring them inside [at least into your basement] in the winter.
 

Katie_Kutthroat

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My mom is dead set on no bugs in the house. So I don't know how I'm going to work it. I at least want to get a compost bin going for the summer.
 

Simonmaal

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I've used it almost daily for the past year or so. It is probably one of the best organic fertilisers out there. And it costs you nothing at all! I just rake it into the soil straight after I've cleaned out the cage. Herbivore waste is generally good compost material (unlike cat and dog waste, which is highly dangerous).

By the way, hay takes longer than other stuff to break down so it's worth bearing that in mind if you choose to add that to the compost. I also heard grass hay can contain a lot of seed that can resprout in your garden, whereas alfalfa hay is great compost material. And hay can also contain a small number of weed seeds that can sometimes cause trouble (for example, creeping buttercup seeds are an almost permanent feature of most grasslands and can remain fertile for decades). Other than that, hay is a very viable compost material so long as you add water with the hay, there is plenty of green compost matter around it and you turn the compost every week or so.

As for the guinea pig droppings, they go straight into the ground!
 

Sekhmet

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Can the carefresh bedding product also be used as compost? What about guinea pigs urine? Right now I am using fleece but because my boys are a real mess, I am finding myself having to clean the fleece often and the electric bill will have me fainting.
 

Simonmaal

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So long as it is the actual carefresh you are using (and not a similar copycat product) then it should break down. But you will need some patience: Carefresh takes ages to break down, much longer than other compost-able stuff.

Urine is no problem and it might even help other stuff break down more quickly.
 

hurleyslave

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When I was growing the bell peppers, I just threw my piggie's poop that I was collecting over the week into the soil, then put a thin layer of soil on it, and the I planted the bell pepper seeds. Within weeks, the seeds have germinated and they were already about an inch or two!

I don't know how long it would take to decompose into the garden soil but I would imagine that it would take awhile. And I don't think it's gross at all to use their poop. After all, they eat their own poop. Why can't they have veggies that were grown and fertilized with it too? lol
 

Sekhmet

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I found my old thread and thought I revive it with another question regarding to guinea pig poop and veggie garden :)


I have notice that ever since I started using my pigs poop as a source of fertilizer my dogs started invading my garden (breaking 1 pepper plant) to get to the poop. I have thought that instead of digging the poop into the soil, I could use an old blender to grind up dried poop until it becomes a powder then sprinkle the gp poop around each of my plants and after that I finally water it down into the soil.


Has anyone done this before? If so what was the results?
 

pinky

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I would compost it for use later but not use it directly on anything you will eat. Guinea pigs can have parasites, such as giarda, that are invisible to the eye, but can be transmitted to humans. If the guinea pig has a bacterial infection, that can be transmitted, too.
 

KiwiCavyAdorer

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What a lovely thread! thanks for starting it Sekhmet and adding your old thread question to it.

I'm a keen composter and soil improver type of person. You will find great help at your local organic growers association; they will have climate appropriate worms varieties and knowledge on local conditions.

Like using blood and bone fertiliser directly onto the soil - the dogs recognise it as a food source, but if you add it to the composter and let it decompose you find that dogs no longer look for the food source; this way you'd also be able to kill off the guinea pig scent that your dogs would be after.

Its easy to ruin unwanted seeds in compost if you don't want them in there its about providing unsuitable seed storage conditions that encourage the seed to decompose.

What I sometimes do in my climate is "cook" the seeding grass or hay left overs in a tied off black plastic bag out in the full sun. The hay is soaked fully emerged in hot water for a few days and then goes in wet to the black plastic bag for a few days or a week, depending on temperature. I use the stand up black compost bins that you don't turn, you just add layers to the top. When full you leave it to mature, start another bin, and when its mature - lovely crumbly good smelling compost you just lift it up and spread the compost, moving the bin to another location to fertilise, the earthworms come up through the open bottom. Any herbivore manure is great and urine is very beneficial to the heap in several ways.

Sekhmet my Mom blends everything that goes into her compost in an old grinder. Everything. So yes you could find that a good solution for you too. This way my Mom's compost is extremely fine and matures super fast. She is on another continent to me and composts under different conditions.

There are as many essential beneficial bacteria's etc out there in air and soil; none of them can survive (good or bad) unless the host is an ideal environment for them, same as the potentially nasty ones... by keeping your own system alkaline and healthy you are granted a natural immunity by virtue of the fact they simply cant survive in your healthy state. Louis Pasteur stated at the end of his life: the germ is nothing the terrain is everything.
 
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