Fleece Vs. Bedding

[Whit23ney]

OK. So I used to use bedding but my piggies (we have six) liked to kick it out of their cage and create a huge mess on the floor every day. Also, with 6 of them, it's really expensive to replace bedding once a week for three floors. So, I switched to fleece and we have a litter box on each floor. At first, they started pooping/peeing in their litter boxes (as well as everywhere else but I thought it was a good start.) The litter box is for ferrets and it fits into the corner of the cage and kind of loosely latches on the side. Anywho, now they just dump the entire thing over and use the bedding for underneath their pigloos. They have hammocks and little cozies and stuff to cuddle up in but they seem to like their bedding the best. They drag their hidy house over top of the emptied bedding to lay on it. Does this mean my piggies would rather have bedding than fleece? I've tried putting some material under their pigloo so it would be cozier in there but they continue to dump their litter box for bedding. The good news is that they tend to poop/pee the most in the corner where the litter box is, but they moved the litter box and used the tipped over unit for another hidey. They like redecorating. Maybe I should just switch back to bedding but geez is that costly. I use the carefresh in their litter boxes cause it doesn't take much to cover their litter boxes. Any thoughts?

 

[CavyCrazee]

Hmmmm...sounds to me like they sure are smart and know what they want. I'd probably just put more padding underneath that spot and then that should work. I also tried making the cage half bedding and half fleece and that wasn't too bad.

 

[C&K]

I often do half bedding and half fleece, you can use yesterdays news if the Carefresh is too expensive, I use it, or you can use it under Carefresh.

They really are clever pigs! I think in time they will get used to the fleece. Maybe you could try Yesterdays news in the litter boxes and see if they do the same thing?

By the way, Yesterdays news is a recycled paper pellet, they make a variety for small animals and for cat litter boxes. I use the one for cats...

 

[jdomans]

Put the hay racks over the litter boxes. That will help. I use cat litter boxes.

 

[kznchik]

My pigs also had an annoying habit of tipping over the litter box until I secured the flimsy plastic hooks onto the wire grids with cable ties. I noticed that they'd inadvertently tip over the litter box whenever they'd jump out after using them. Maybe they'd be open to using it as long as they wouldn't be subject to injury from a somersaulting litter box.

 

[jdomans]

Gee I have never had that problem at all with cat boxes. I just get the plain simple ones from Wal-Mart.
That would make them wary of the things.

 

[Sabriel]

I switched over to cat litter boxes from the corner pans and I'll never go back. Those corner pans get knocked over every time they try to hop in. They just don't hold enough litter to be heavy enough to stay put.

So my 3 girls have a medium sized cat litter box and my boys have stacking bins (the type with 3 high sides and 1 lower side with a lip). They are cheaper, come in more colours (all we have out here for the corner pans is pink. Wonderful for the girls, not so hot for the boys) and just plain work better.

Now even my poor blind boy has no troubles. He was the worst for knocking it over since he doesn't jump in anymore, he climbs in instead.