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Bedding What do you use for your pig's kitchen?

trexgorawrrrrr

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Most have a kitchen area for their pigs to catch hay debris and pees/poo. What do you use, do you like it, how often do you change it, any additional comments...

I originally used a bedding that is recycled newspaper, and it was okay... Now I've been using wood stove pellets because of how cheap they are, but I liked the bedding better. I don't really think I like the way the wood stove pellets fall apart and clump together. I change out the kitchen weekly, and spot clean/add more everytime I see an area that needs spot cleaning (almost daily.)

I have been considering switching to fleece, but not sure.
 

ILoveMillie

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I have two little cat litter boxes that i put side by side under my guinea pigs bent grid hay rack. I put a folded puppy pad on the very bottom, then I usually used kiln dried pine wood pellets (I ran out), with a decent layer of carefresh over it. Now I only use carefresh with the puppy pad and it still works great! I do a full clean about every couple days since it can get a little stinky. It's really easy to clean. I take a trash bag, stick the whole litter box in it, turn the littler box upside down and all the bedding and poos fall right into the trash bag along with the puppy potty pad. Then I usually wipe them with vinegar/water mix and refill and I'm all done! Takes me maybe 5 minutes maximum. The rest of my cage is fleece, and there is barely any hay or bedding on it. I get puppy potty pads from the dollar store so they are really cheap and my mom got the litter boxes for like 3 dollars. Just make sure if your pigs are chewers to cover all of the plastic with carefresh. Hope I could help!
 

bpatters

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trex, I think wood pellets in a kitchen area probably need to be changed more often than once a week -- like every day or so. Absorbing that much urine means they don't have time to dry out, and the pigs are on a wet surface, which can cause foot problems.

My cage with pellets only needs cleaning every couple of weeks, but it's 16+ square feet, and I put pads down near their hay racks and under their hideys which get changed much more frequently. Pellets in a large cage last much longer than those in a small one.
 

trexgorawrrrrr

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I'm not sure if you read my post wrong bpatters, but I said I do spot cleanings pretty much daily. So, anytime I see a clump, any pee, any bunch of poos, etc I take my cup scoup it out & replace what I took out... By the time the week is up, it's basically like the entire thing has already been changed at least once. Changing daily would be a huge waste... Trust me, they're not living on any wet surfaces, and I wouldn't let any feet problems or any other problems like that due to husbandry arise. I would think that pellets would need to be changed more than once every two weeks, but then again I've never used them in my entire cage...

i love millie - I love the idea of using cat litter boxes in the cage, and how you use the puppy liner underneat the shavings/bedding. I might actually look into getting litter boxes as right now I use coroplast boxes that I made.
 
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