Input on our cage please

astromattical · Jul 4, 2007

Hello everyone! My fiancee and I are proud parents of 2 adorable crazy guinea pigs, Dr. House and Dr. Wilson. They were true rescues - they were going to be used as snake food! The textile, Dr. House, was covered in droppings, missing patches of hair, etc. Dr. Wilson was sickly and skinny. The people that rescued the piggies took good care of them for a few months and now they're plump and happy (and hairy!).

I've included two pictures of the cage as of about 10 minutes ago.

Dr. House and Dr. Wilson are our first guinea pigs. We have them set up in a +10sqft cage with hay and 2 pigloos, along with 2 water bottles with a brick underneath, a food dish with a block of wood in front of it. The bedding is our largest concern - we've already used the entire bag and we've only had them for one day. We're thinking of going to towels and fleece.

The bedding is especially where we'd like your input, but ANY other advice will be most appreciated. We've done a LOT of research for many months before getting these guys, but we're also noticing that it takes a lot of practice and fine-tuning to get these guys comfortable. So any help you offer will, again, be appreciated. Thank you!

-Matt, Jillian, Dr. House, Dr. Wilson

astromattical · Jul 4, 2007

The bedding isn't really causing problems with the exception that it seems to get extremely dirty very quickly with droppings and urine. Cost-wise, we are thinking fleece+towels is a better option than what we have now.

Ellis1342 · Jul 4, 2007

I am going to be trying the fleece. I used to used bedding on a storebought cage for one pig and the cost was nuts, not to mention the stuff went everywhere and it was heavy. Fo r a larger cage and two pigs I couldnt afford it, so Im opting for fleece.

I did some water tests on the fleece and matresspads and it takes the moisture well. I got two twins and two changes of fleece for only 30 bucks at wal-mart. The fleece isnt fancy and was on sale for 3.50...If you get a dustpan to pick up the droppings once a night you should be okay. Here is a ferret owners tip though

Ferrets come with their own unique scent so keeping a box of baking soda near the cage helps absorb some of the oder. The glade air freshners work well and I have used them near rats, ferrets, cats, hamsters, chillas and everything in between and noone has ever had issues. Set it furthest from their food and only get clean laundrey based scents. Food or floral scent might bother pigs.

Just a thought and use with caution, if anyone knows this is a bad idea please contradict me

dagwellismypigy · Jul 5, 2007

I don't really have anything to add except I LOVE your pigs' names! House is one of my favorite shows! Oh, and welcome to the forums!

Tulia&Susie · Jul 5, 2007

I understand your pain with the shavings. I go through them so quickly and after awhile its a pain cleaning. So I'm trying out fleece and I think it should work out well. All you have to do is vacuum the poos twice a day and clean everything once a week. And I heard the piggies really do enjoy the fleece. I'm planning on using matress pads underneath. I found at wal-mart for a full they were ten bucks. I'm going to grab a few of those and see where it leads me. Welcome the the forums.

envisionary333 · Jul 5, 2007

Good for you for doing your research and adopting two piggies in need. I think you are on your way to becoming a wonderful piggy parent. As for bedding, I switched to fleece and have found that mattress pads work the best by far, as I see you have discovered. It's a good idea to add a few bricks to the cage to hold the fleece down, and keep a small shop vac nearby for vacuuming up the poops at least once daily. I have a dedicated vacuum just for the piggy room, and I keep it plugged in and ready to go underneath the cage.

StanleyPig · Jul 5, 2007

Welcome! I have been doing fleece for a very short time (only about a week and a half) and I love it. There's no more shavings kicked around, no more scrambling to get shavings before the feed store closes, no more huge mess cleaning the cage. I find it to be less smelly and it seems to have fewer allergens. Also, this sounds a little strange, but it lets me monitor the piggie output to make sure the digestive systems are healthy. Stanley also loves it. You might seriously want to give it a try. Read the sticky thread under bedding entitled "The Fleece Project: The Study". It's very informative. Good luck!

piggly wiggly · Jul 5, 2007

The fleece is very cost efficient, but you could also try finding a store that sells aspen, or kiln dried pine shavings in bulk. I get bags of 200 litres for $8.99. The bag is huge and lasts, like a month and a half, for a 2x3, grid cage.

StacyM · Jul 6, 2007

I use fleece and a twin mattress pad protector..the pad I cut the edge off that grips it to the mattress and it works perfect! i recently sewed my 2 layers together to make it easier to clean/change and now I plan to buy a new sheet of fleece and new pad to make an extra.

I also use a small shop vac to clean up litter and poops once a day, which works great!

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Input on our cage please

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