Just some general questions about all things Piggy

[adonnelly517]

So just sitting here thinking about piggy stuff while I was looking at my new c&c cage i replaced my 2 Midwest cages with and was wondering what others do when it comes to the questions I have, Questions include:

1. kitchen area: loft, separate coro insert on top of fleece or expand cage to do a 1x3? I have a 3x4 for 3 boars and in one corner i have the kitchen area but hate using fleece as the hay likes to stick to it, i have an insert but it sits on top of my fleece not sure if i want to use it or expand the cage one more to a 3x5 to have a 1x3 kitchen area with separate coro insert next to the fleece to make cleaning easier or make a loft for the kitchen, what do you all prefer?

2. what paper bedding does people like the best that is fairly cheap or a great price for kitchen area?

3. My 2 baby pigs are only going on 5 months come next week, ive been feeding all of them alfalfa based even my adult since i've had him as that whats he came with when i adopted him but i really want to switch him to oxboro timothy based is it too soon to start the babies on that as i know they are suppose to be 6 months or older for it. I've notice there has been white residue on my fleece from peeing and not sure if its the adult male or maybe all of them and i'm pretty sure its from too much calcium right?

4. Where is a good place to buy my food and supplies from that wont hurt my wallet? I usually just go to feeders supply to get what i need but for a 60 oz bag of Oxboro timothy hay its $18.99, the pellets i usually get is 89 cents per pound and bedding that i normally got would be $18.99 sometimes on sale for $15.99. Is there another good brand beside oxboro that is alittle less pricey or is it best to stick with Oxboro? Katee or Carefresh? They hay i noticed is very hard most of the time and all of my piggies prefer the soft pieces and the flowery parts so about a fourth of the bag gets thrown away.

Sorry for the long post just curious what others top choices would be. Anyways here a pic of my new cage for my boys, sorry that its a bit blurry used my tablet and pic quality isnt as good as my phone:


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[bpatters]

Switch them all to timothy pellets and hay, and take any pigs younger than six months out daily for a sprig of parsley -- that'll give them the calcium they need.

By far the cheapest way to buy hay is if you can find a local farmer that has timothy hay. You're close enough to horse country that you should be able to do that. A bale should cost you less than $15, and even if you wind up throwing a lot of it away because you don't have anywhere to store it, you'll still save a LOT of money.

The middle-priced option is to order online. I pay $1.60-$1.75 per pound ordering 40 pound boxes from Small Pet Select or KMS Hayloft. You can also get bulk shipments from American Pet Diner and others.

By far the most expensive way to buy hay is the way you're doing it, in small quantities. Not only is the hay dried out and stale, but what you're buying is more than $5.00 a pound.

The ONLY pellets we recommend are Oxbow and KMS Hayloft. There are some others out there that pretty good, but Kaytee and Carefresh aren't among them. They both use calcium carbonate as a calcium source, and that's been implicated in bladder stone formation.

 

[adonnelly517]

Okie Dookie, i'll switch them all over to the Oxboro Timothy based pellets then and ill look into Small Pet Select on the food. Is Chewy a good place to look too for food? I think my mom got a big 25 lb bag of Oxboro pellets for like $30! I don't have to subscribe to Small pet if i dont want to do I?

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[bpatters]

I don't "subscribe" to SPS -- I just order hay from them.