Sneezing Sneezing Guinea pig

[Willie]

By the way.....

Is there a reason why our piggies pee only on me, and not on my girlfriend? Both of them
just peed on me, House peed on the towel but Wilson moved to the edge of the towel and started peeing on me.

 

[akstrohm]

Guinea pigs will not eat the fleece. Chewing on it a bit does no harm, but even this doesn't normally happen. It is possible that your pigs are chewing on the towels because they are simply curious about it. When they see it in their cage all of the time, they aren't likely to continue chewing it. Do your pigs have unlimited grass hay to eat? Pigs who don't have good hay sometimes start chewing on other materials.

You certainly don't have to switch to fleece, although your reasons for not considering it seem to be based on a gut feeling more than anything else. You do need a large cage that is completely covered in bedding, and the bedding must be safe. As long as you meet those requirements, it doesn't matter what you use.

 

[Willie]

They get hay on a daily base, they don't even have time to eat it all. I refill it before it gets empty.

My girlfriend read a few posts and thinks we should give it a try but i'm still not convinced.
I don't mind spending money on bedding, if it makes them happy I don't mind paying for it.
It's too bad that our car broke down today, otherwise i would have bought a few different types
of bedding to try out.

I put a lot of hay in their cage this time,(broken link removed) and I haven't heard a sneeze yet. They actually don't
eat the parts they pee/poo on. They eat what they can when it's fresh and by the second day
they leave whatever is still on the floor and eat from their hay rack.

 

[HayPiggy]

I also have a chewer and I use fleece, My first pig Mickey chews on my towels and shreds them also, you may want to even try to get a small piece at the craft store wash it and try putting it in the cage in an area that they like to go a lot, try it out for a couple days and see how it goes, my boar doesn't chew on the fleece but he still chews on my towels so I can't have towels near him. It doesn't cost much to try it, you may like it you may not. Best of Luck!

 

[waicatz]

i got question here. About hay.
My piggie also sneeze when i open or place the hay on the hay rack. almost happened every time. May u recognize me the fresh hay? which brand should go for?

but sometime, my piggie will sneeze once in awhile (I guess cause from the hay in the rack though placed for hours)

 

[craze_176]

Fleece is so economical and easy to maintain. It takes me 10 minutes to change my 2x6 c&c with fleece and I don't have to pollute the world with a garbage bag full of bedding every 2 days.

I also use fleece for my ratties, many many people do this too, and rats chew big time. It's annoying if you have a 'chewer' yes, but it's not dangerous. Guinea pigs definitely wouldn't actually eat it! Would you eat your comforter? It's not food! (and yes, they eat paper too but they can actually digest that, unlike us)

I also use fleece for my hedgie and my budgie has fleece accessories.

Corn cob is an unhealthy bedding. It can get impacted in your pigs and it molds very easily.

 

[Willie]

I've switched to hemp, which I can get cheap in big 15kg bags. I also put all my hay in a
bin so the dusty parts can drop to the bottom.
This all seems to help against them sneezing so much, I hardly hear a sneeze anymore.
I'm not sure why you would need to fill a garbage bag full of bedding every 2 days, unless you
have a lot of piggies.
The bedding I use comes from a natural product, so there's no pollution.

 

[bpatters]

waicatz, I'm sure most of us know nothing about hay supplies in Singapore, but here are a couple of suggestions.

If there's a horse farm or a stable anywhere around you, it should have horse-quality hay, which is what you need for a guinea pig. You might ask where they get their hay, or they might give you enough for you to see if your guinea pig is allergic to it (or if it's less dusty than what you have).

Oxbow sells products in Singapore, but I don't know whether that includes hay or not. It's almost certain to be more expensive than local hay, but may also be better quality. The website is here -- click on "Contact" and then on "Oxbow International." They should be able to tell you where to find their products.

 

[craze_176]

I've switched to hemp, which I can get cheap in big 15kg bags. I also put all my hay in a
bin so the dusty parts can drop to the bottom.
This all seems to help against them sneezing so much, I hardly hear a sneeze anymore.
I'm not sure why you would need to fill a garbage bag full of bedding every 2 days, unless you
have a lot of piggies.
The bedding I use comes from a natural product, so there's no pollution.

I've only ever had two pigs at a time but I like to keep my cage really clean, and with fleece I can because I'm not throwing out tons of stuff. Bedding in a 2x6 cage would be a lot of bedding!

 

[Ama4884]

Your piggies are named House & Wilson? How cute!!!! I love that show!

I love fleece as well. Easy to maintain and Lucy and Daisy seem to like the softness on their piggie paws. It ends up being much cheaper in the long run as well. I had to convince my boyfriend on that and building our cage, but now he loves it just as much as I do.

 

[Willie]

My girlfriend thinks that fleece would be a lot easier when it comes to cleaning and scooping
their poops.
But what do you use under your fleece to absorb the urine? I take it you have to replace whatever
you use every 2 days or so, which seems a hassle because you would need to remove
the fleece and all. Maybe i'm wrong?

 

[akstrohm]

Read the sticky called "The Fleece Project" in the bedding section. It will answer all your questions. In short, you can use towels or absorbent mattress pads under the fleece. Most people wash the fleece and underbedding once every week.

 

[craze_176]

You don't need to change the fleece every two days but I have been lately, but you can get almost the same level of clean by just sweeping up poops in a dust pan every few days.

I've been changing all the fleece though as Spike and 'newpig' are still adjusting to living together and it helps, but you can imagine if I had to clean out bedding that often and how much garbage that would be!

Also, I like spot cleaning (sweeping poops) when I use fleece but I hated spot cleaning with bedding because the poops were so scattered and it was hard to find the pee spots! Much simpler with fleece.

I use towels underneath my fleece and it works amazingly. If I spot clean the cage stays relatively odor free (for boars anyway!) for about a week.

 

[luvmypiggie]

I am a first time piggy owner and it didn't take more than a week for me to change from carefresh to fleece. It is so much easier to clean, and softer for the little feet. I have also noticed my little Annie chewing at the fleece but it's not enough that i think i should worry about it. I also read in another forum that they might be chewing on it due to bordem, i still think it's a better option. I also agree that you should get rid of the sawdust, if you do decide to use the carefresh or yesterdays news, it does seem to take alot less time than fleece to need to be change, like almost 3 days max. course i am a neat freak, any way you go good luck~~!!