Allergies A question about kaytee bedding vs. Carefresh

[SpootyBooty]

Hello again, I've come to ask a quick question about kaytee clean and cozy bedding, and carefresh.

I own two piggies currently and one of them has allergies. His doctor said he might be prone to upper respiratory stuff because of it, and working at a pet store where we use carefresh bedding for our guinea pigs there, I've noticed that carefresh is heavy and very dusty. And sometimes the piggies there get red or irritated eyes because of it, or get the sniffles.

So I was wondering, for anyone who uses kaytee clean and cozy, should I use it for my little guy?
I use it for my recently adopted mouse (who was supposed to be a feeder, but then I got attached...go me), and she seems to LOVE it. She uses both carefresh and the kaytee bedding as nesting material in her funnels, and I've noticed it's lighter and not as dusty.

So would it be better to use that instead of carefresh for this spring season? He hasn't had any problems with the carefresh (yet), but I worry or get anxious that his allergies might start acting up from the dust in carefresh.

 

[kinderoreo2016]

Maybe try the one your mouse is bedded in if it has less dust but you can also use fleece just make sure to put something Under it to soak up the wee

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[SpootyBooty]

We tried fleece in the past with my rats, but it didn't help with my asthma and I was having random asthma attacks And I'm nervous to try it again.

Dewdrop, my mouse, seems to really enjoy the kaytee bedding. She has several nests all over the place in her cage. I just don't know if it'd help with my piggies allergies or not.

 

[kairi26]

I wouldn't use Clean and cozy with guinea pigs because it's so light weight. I tried it once when it was on sale and it got EVERYWHERE in my apartment. When pigs do laps, they kick it up everywhere.

There's a lot of variation between individual bags of Carefresh. They probably source their wood pulp from a lot of local wood processors, so the color and texture changes from batch to batch. I use the brown, undyed version and I try to buy from the same batch if I find a good one. It's actually manufactured about 10 miles from where I live.

The so phresh is also pretty good, though I prefer their Carefresh knock off to the paper crumbles. I think it's less dusty. The crumbles make me sneeze.

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[LifeAsItMayBe]

@spy9doc and @kairi26 I've heard So Phresh isn't good because of the baking soda. https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/106399-Bedding-So-Phresh?highlight=baking+soda

 

[kairi26]

@spy9doc and @kairi26 I've heard So Phresh isn't good because of the baking soda. https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/106399-Bedding-So-Phresh?highlight=baking+soda

Carefresh also has baking soda, likely in the same amount. If you trust Carefresh, I don't see why not So Phresh.

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[LifeAsItMayBe]

Carefresh has stopped using baking soda at the request of their customers (I don't use it anyway, but just saying).

A few different places I've looked suggest that baking soda is harmful to pigs. It's mostly anecdotal, but still food for thought:
https://cavysavvy.blogspot.com/2015/03/ask-guinea-pig-is-baking-soda-harmful.html
(broken link removed)
https://www.mercurynews.com/animal-life/ci_27672411/baking-soda-makes-guinea-pig-ill

 

[kairi26]

You've hit the proverbial "nail on the head" for me.........it's mostly anecdotal. I'm a researcher and physician and I tend to have more respect for good data. That doesn't mean that anecdotal experience has no value, but let's just say that it doesn't rank at the top of my list.

Now, having said that, I'm going to offer some anecdotal evidence of my own. I have used SoPhresh (and it's predecessor) for at least five years with not a URI in sight among my piggies. It can be a little "dusty" when you first lay it down, but after it settles I see no sign of particles in the air. That could be attributed in part to the fact that I have an air cleaner running 24/7 at the foot of the cage in my small home office. Neither the piggies nor I are bothered by it and none of us have more than an occasional sneeze.

I checked out their website because of this conversation, and I'm still not convinced that Carefresh is any better than store brand,since they didn't just remove the baking soda: they replaced it with their proprietary Odor Stop formula, which they consider a trade secret and will not disclose. They say that they chose it because it's been tested as safe for humans, but so is baking soda... So I'm not sure how much of a difference in safety it actually makes.

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[sallyvh]

I don't use paper disposable bedding with my guinea pigs but I have a hamster that I rescued in January who has terrible allergies. Obviously not the same animal but I thought I would offer my experience.

He was extremely reactive to aspen shavings (which I use in my pigs kitchens) and he had really poor breathing with a couple different varieties of carefresh. The bedding that has been best for him is boxo. I have no clue if it's available around you but it's similarly priced to carefresh and clean & cozy.

 

[ashleypigs]

hi there My name is Ashley I have two guinea pigs I use Both fleece on the bottom layer and carefresh and on my loft I have used carefresh for about two years with no problems but if I were in your position I would use just fleece on your guinea pig is way more comfortable for them to sleep in that's just my personal opinion
hope it was helpful

 

[barbaramudge]

Just throwing in my 2 cents on carefresh and the baking soda issue. I ran tests on that bedding with vinegar. As anyone who has ever done a volcano knows, it should bubble up when the two meet. No matter how hard I tried, including with just the dusty bits at the bottom of the bag, I couldn't get any reaction. This leaves me to believe there is so little baking soda in the mix that it doesn't likely matter.


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[barbaramudge]

How clever you are! Now I'm curious......I'm going to run your "test" today on SoPhresh.

Thank you, I have a few flashes of clever here and there. I'm excited to see how your tests go! My husband thought I was nuts. I had at least a dozen little cups lined up on the counter. I even had two that I let "soak" for a bit to see if the baking soda needed the bedding to break down to release it. I put a very loose plastic ziplock over the top to catch any released gases but got nothing.

I'm not a chemist or anything so maybe there's some form of baking soda in it that doesn't react but I couldn't find anything online to indicate that such a thing exists.

 

[bpatters]

I'm an old chemist. If you put baking soda and vinegar together, they're going to react.

 

[barbaramudge]

I'm an old chemist. If you put baking soda and vinegar together, they're going to react.

Well that's what I figured but I wanted to be sure to kinda have a disclaimer in there..lol

And now my mental picture of you includes glasses and a white lab coat.

 

[LifeAsItMayBe]

I have used SoPhresh (and it's predecessor) for at least five years with not a URI in sight among my piggies.

I'm not really as concerned about it causing URI's as the issues of animals eating it. I have a pig who loves the heck out of vinegar and another who preferred to eat strips of newspaper over whatever actual food she was offered in the animal shelter. If any pig was going to ingest enough baking soda bedding to bloat up and die, it'd probably be one of mine.

 

[LifeAsItMayBe]

I dunno....my boys may have one-upped your girl. They are absolutely MAD for cardboard! hmy:

It sure is funny what things different pigs are into. My pair have had the same cardboard box in their cage for over a year without soiling it. It's their favorite hideout (sometimes they even share it) and they leave it before peeing. They've made the doors on each end bigger, but it still looks reasonably nice for a guinea pig house. Plastic, on the other hand... I had to remove their coroplast litter box because they were not only chewing on it, they were eating it. I would find little chunks of plastic in their misshapen poop. That's actually how I discovered Rose likes vinegar. Lilly was chewing on an exposed end of coroplast so I shooed her away and sprayed it with vinegar to discourage her from coming back to the spot. I came back in a few minutes with a panel from a waffle block house to cover the bite marks and found Rose rapidly expanding the hole. It's so badly damaged I couldn't cover it with poster edging and the waffle panel has basically become a permanent fixture. Luckily that is too think for them to think of chewing on... yet.

 

[piggielover200]

I prefer carefresh for my piggies and bunnies and then Kaytee for my hamster