Australia??

[Lilz]

Australia??

Hi everyone, I live in Melbourne Australia (somewhere to the south you might say!) and where I am cavies are not so popular and there is very little available in terms of bedding for them! At the moment I am just using plain hay - not timothy or alfalfa that many ppl mention on their posts! Not sure what hay it is really...and i just place a thick layer of newspaper on the bottom and lots of hay on the top so my gippigs can burrow in it! I would like to try some of these other bedding types that ppl keep talking about, but so far have been unable to get any of the bedding here in Melbourne. If there is anyone that is able to help me in locating some *cheap* but good bedding, pls let me know...much appreciated!

 

[DELI]

Re:bedding

Do you have a local feed store??? If so, ask them what kind of bedding works well....they also may have it! Good luck! DELI

 

[MissyLilz]

Re: Re:bedding

Most of the pet stores we have around here only seem to know about cats and dogs and only basic basic facts about gippigs...Most of them just suggest hay, but other than that, they don't know much else...??

 

[Maren]

bedding

Here in New Zealand I find that the hay is expensive and so I just use it as a dietary supplement. In the end, we got to the point were the best option for us, due to cost and lack of products available, has been free shredded paper from work. It's clean and can be changed daily as it's free. There have been no paper cuts, it's soft and because it's free, we use heaps of it. It's been a plus in terms of hygiene. If you want to try it, ask around, I found people were only to happy to let me collect it and I rewarded them with pictures of the pigs.

 

[CavySpirit]

Re: bedding

As Deli suggested, there must be feed stores, for livestock, horses and whatnot. They may have some options. Do you have any within a reasonable distance?

 

[MissyLilz]

Re: bedding

Hi, thanks for all your replies, it's been great to find some help. as i've been away from the net for a while, i will update on what i have managed to do.

I have found a pet store that sells pine shavings and i asked if they were kiln dried. She had no idea whatsoever and said "I'm sure they wouldn't sell it if it wasn't safe". after reading stuff from these forums, i can disagree with her on that! Anyways, i bought the shavings anyway, it's pretty expensive here - $4 for a small bag that fills a 3 x 2 grid cage. I also lay newspaper down first, then i use this cat litter stuff which is 100% recycled newspaper that is in the form of pellets. I then lay the shavings on top. my girls seem to like that and there hasn't been anything wrong so i think it is ok. the only problem being that i have to change the bedding about once every 3 -4 days. I've looked around for other places that may sell the shavings, but everywhere else sells them at an even dearer price.

But i don't have much problem with the bedding anymore...if i could finda cheaper supplier for pine shavings that would be great, but otherwise things are good now...thanks again for your posts!

Lilz

 

[tracygps6]

Re: bedding

Hi, I too live in Australia and have had similar problems. I tried many things, I found with hay, I constantly had to clean, and I tried rice hulls, and they absorbed nothing and they stuck to everything wet, so when my males urinated and smudged their bottoms they looked like they had a porcupine stuck in their bottoms, and I have heard that lucerne (alfalfa) pellets are okay but I haven't tried them. I have also used disposable nappies. I used to make one big cage liner by joining the nappies together (tabs and non absorbent parts folded underneath) and this absorbed well and was easy to clean, it also looked neat, and was especially good when my girl had babies, because the bedding did not stick to any blood, the babies, or the placentas. I did however find that disposable toddler nappies were a bit small, so I now get adult incontinent pads, they have no tabs and the whole area is absorbent and they are very large. The company that make them also make a thinner nappy sheet to use for bed wetting. They are made by Vlesi and distributed by AMA Products in Qld, their number is (07) 33491411, and ask if you can have the number of a Vlesi rep in your area and she may send you some samples, if not, then contact me and I will send you a couple of mine to try. The adult pads do have leakage guards which is a long strip of a papery plastic, but this tears off easily which is what I do. I primarily use these only to line their sleeping houses. For the main bedding I use pine wood shavings. I do not buy the small amounts found in pet shops, instead I go to produce places, just ring around to find one that sells kiln dried pine shavings in bales for pet bedding. I buy mine in a bale which is about 13 kilos and it costs me around $9.oo, some places even deliver for free. Just check the yellow pages for produce and feed/hay places, you're sure to find some. The pine brand I get is HYSORB, made by East Coast Woodshavings (07) 54411278. You may find an even better brand in Melbourne. I clean my cages once a week, and in some spots that are primarily used for gp business I remove and add fresh bedding, the spot cleaning just makes it last longer between full cleans. But hopefully in the not so distant future we guinea pig owners in Australia will not have such a hard time trying to find the best products for our pets as I am looking into starting my own pet supply store which will sell Australia wide and I will import the best products from overseas, and help to develop new ones in Australia. I am currently doing a degree in Animal Science Veterinary Technology, and Wildlife Biology, I'll also be starting a rodentology course soon as well, as I love animals and want only the best for them and will try to make sure that we in Australia can provide our pets and animals with the best of what they need. If you want to contact me about bedding or anything else my email address is [email protected]

Thanks. Bye. Tracy.

 

[wendelyn]

Try Big W

I went on a trip today and found a 2kg bag of hay (RSPCA brand for food and bedding) for $10.50 at the first petshop, $6.50 at another and $4.50 at Big W. There feed was also not to bad for 5kgs, less than $10 and more conveniently located than the produce store.

btw I live in Brisbane, but would assume that Big W would stock it in other states.

 

[Roxy]

Mörttiröpö

I live Finland and here hay is really expensive(like everything else) so I just give it for them to eat. Here is a bedding called "mörttiröpö" that you can buy, but i have no idea do you have it there...*rolleyes*

 

[lilychin]

I'm from Melbourne too! I get 'Woody Pet' (wood pellets, $7-$7.50 a bag) or 'Yesterday's Paper' (recycled paper, looks like grey bullets) from Upmarket Pets near Queen Victoria Market. I go there for almost everything... they're like the guinea pig superstore.