What is best for guinea pig bedding
What is the Best Guinea Pig Bedding? Fleece vs Pine
man let's talk about guinea pig bedding
what kind of guinea pig bedding is the
best and what are the pros and cons of
each regardless of what type of bedding
you choose you want to do it right you
don't want to wing it and so this video
will help you with all the information
you need to make the right decision
Timmy needs to be on fleece because of
his mobility issues but because I use
both fleece and pine bedding I can tell
you the pros and cons of each and we're
gonna do that in just a second look how
nice this really looks there is
something to be said for a clean fleece
cage it looks so cool but there are many
reasons why a pine shavings bedding
might work better for you in this video
we're gonna talk about all those reasons
Jiri what's that on your nose you got
pine shavings on your nose Gary
hey Scott here Scotties animals what
kind of bedding should my guinea pigs
have I get that question a lot when I'm
volunteering at the L a guinea pig
rescue or in the comments to a lot of
these videos or just in my email if you
have questions you can go to my website
Scotty's animals and there's a forum
where you can send me a question but you
could also put it in here and so one of
the questions that I get is what is the
best kind of bedding should I use pine
or should I use fleece and what else is
there so in this video I just want to
talk about all of your options the ones
that we recommend at the guinea-pig
rescue and from my personal experience
what I like the best so as you just saw
in the opening sequence Timmy and Mike
they live on fleece down here and that's
because Timmy has mobility issues so he
needs a soft smooth surface but let's
talk about all the different types of
beddings and the benefits and maybe some
of the drawbacks that each one have
because I don't think there is a perfect
bedding but I think there are numerous
options that will be right for you so
Gary lives on pine shavings now at the
rescue most of the guinea pigs also are
live on kiln-dried pine now if you've
gotten your pine shavings from either a
pet store or a feed store or some store
where this indicates that it is intended
for animal bedding then it is ok as long
as it says kiln-dried we use the same
type of pine shavings in the horse
stalls as we do with the guinea pigs now
some people think that there may be
upper respiratory infections associated
with pine shavings now I know that cedar
cedar is a no-no wood that has a very
strong smell you want to stay away from
and cedar is one of them Aspen is okay
in my experience but pine will always
say kiln dried pine shavings or kiln
dried pine bedding if it is okay for you
to use for small animals nails also
nails and pinky smalls well they have
kind of a mixed bag because they live on
pine shavings but they also have a loft
which is fleece so they can go up there
and sit on the softness anytime they
want but to be honest they spend most of
their time hanging out below the loft in
the messiest part of the cage where they
do most of their business okay now look
you're on shirt I was love to remind
people look how far nails has come since
this in this shirt he's still wearing
his he had to wear a sweater to prevent
him from itching because of his mange so
if you I mentioned my website if you
want more information about mange or
ringworm or other illnesses on my
website there's links to not only how to
identify it but how to treat it and some
of the medications and over-the-counter
products that we use at the rescue and
that I use here at home what are all the
types of beddings why don't I just why
don't I just put all the types of
beddings I'll just list them here so we
have kiln dried pine as I mentioned okay
and other wood beddings would be Aspen
is okay and cedar is not okay okay
sometimes it doesn't actually say what
it is but most likely when it just says
all wood shavings it's most likely pine
and as long as it says kiln dried you're
okay okay so now let's talk about the
paper bedding there is a type of paper
bedding called carefresh there's other
brands that also make it
it's a little paper wadded up bedding
it's totally fine to use it is just very
expensive for not that much and not only
that when it gets wet I think it tends
to smell kind of funky kind of little
moldy and gross so it's not my preferred
bedding for those reasons but if
somebody was to give you a truckload for
free I would say use it it's great and
maybe sprinkle a little pine shavings in
for the odor and the moisture absorbing
properties that the pine has let's talk
about fleece so the fleece is not just a
blanket that you get you know at a store
these are specifically made absorbent
pee pads where you have two layers of
polar fleece or some fleece similar to
that people who are fleece experts
please in the comments let people know
what kind of fleece we got a pop Corning
piggy over here so police experts let us
know what kind of fleece to use and not
to use but in the middle of these two
sown layers of fleece there's an
absorbent layer sometimes it's a u-haul
pad which quite literally the pads that
you get at u-haul that you put to make
sure your furniture doesn't get damaged
when you're moving those pads can be
used sewn into the middle are you
kissing me
if you don't want to use the u-haul pads
you can also get cotton bedding batting
sorry cotton batting and use it as
bedding the batting you'll find in
sewing stores fabric stores and and also
the big bigger you know big box stores
okay so it's up to you to decide which
ones are right for you let's talk about
the different beddings and the pros and
cons of them and put you back let's talk
about fleece fleece is very soft it's
very comfortable for your piggies but it
tends not to be as absorbent as you
might want it to be as you might think
it is or as some other alternatives okay
okay so with fleece sometimes your
piggies will pee but they will roll over
into the little people before it has a
chance to absorb and I find that that
makes your piggies sometimes monthly
smell more like pee even if you're spot
cleaning twice a day
they can still end up getting their fur
wet from their own pee just because of
the way they lay in it depending on your
big some pigs will go in a corner and
that's their spot and in in that case
you might even be able to set up a
little area with a tray or something
else like that
some people will have a little section
that is pine shavings and then the
majority of it is fleece if they're
piggies are already self trained I do
have a video about can you potty train
your piggies I'll put that right here
but basically there are some things that
you can do to promote their behavior as
I mentioned in that video but it's
really kind of up to their sensibility
as to whether or not they will do it
what are you guys doing
did you guys just get in the fight did
you just bite him did you just bite you
you just need some of his fur relax
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hey I know these boys usually these boys
usually will get in a tussle and then
they will lay down and take a nap
together so I'm not too worried about
them so to sum up fleece the pros are
it's very soft it is really fun
you can almost become an addiction the
different patterns that you can get and
if you get into the groove of it with
having little pieces on top of larger
pieces it's not too hard to change out
the different pieces and keep it clean
and fairly manageable but the cons are
your piggies can kind of smell like pee
sometimes and you really need to do a
lot of laundry and if you share a
washing machine say in a community type
environment it might be a little much
for you and also for your neighbors to
do that that laundry in the community
washing machine I found that if I'm
gonna wash my clothes I like to have a
little buffer cycle where maybe I wash
dirty towels or some other things first
boys need to give them a pile of hay
okay
so let's talk about the pros and cons of
pine shavings the pros would be that
your piggies do smell very fresh it's
very inexpensive okay well let's just we
talked about with fleece fleece you can
save a lot of money because after the
initial investment in those fleece
pieces all you're doing is washing them
and reusing them over and over so that
might be a solution for you so back to
pine shavings it is relatively
inexpensive at the rescue we have a huge
bag for $15 and usually you'll see me
diem large bag for about seven to ten
dollars so considering you can usually
get two or more changes out of those
we're talking about less than five
dollars to clean the cage or about five
to clean the cage which is fine and you
want to have with the pine shavings a
nice thick layer it can't just be a
little sprinkling of pine shavings it's
gonna stink a 2x3 needs to have this
much pine shavings and you're still
gonna really want to clean it after six
or seven days but with a 2x4 with a nice
even good layer of pine shavings it
shouldn't get too gross
okay so let's recap the pine shavings
it's really inexpensive your piggies
won't smell like pee they it's easy to
take care of it's easy to clean you only
have to clean it once a week let's talk
about the downside if you don't use
enough it can get kind of funky if you
are not cleaning it once a week it can
get kind of funky some people seem to
think that the they can get respiratory
infections with pine shavings I think
that it's just like any other bedding if
you don't keep it clean then it could
cause problems but I don't think that
the pine shavings themselves do because
especially at the guinea-pig rescue
they've saved thousands of guinea pigs
we've had numerous long-term residents
all living on pine except for the skinny
pigs so that's one thing I want to
mention skinny pigs really need to live
on fleece there they don't have the fur
protection they really it also helps
keep them warm and skinny pigs in
general they just need a little bit more
care if you want more information about
skinny pigs specifically or how skinny
pigs can live with regular guinea pigs
or hairy guinea pigs that is check out
skinny pigs one I'll put them in the
description as well as right here here's
a link to her Channel
so my two favorite beddings would be
either pine or fleece we mentioned the
paper bedding earlier and I just think
it's too expensive and when it gets wet
it's kind of funky but I did say that if
you got a truckload for free sprinkle a
little pine shavings in there they even
sell a mixture that's half and half but
it's still very expensive any time you
get into that name-brand paper bedding
speaking of paper bedding what should
you not use just shredded paper is not
good it's not absorbent enough it's to
the individual pieces are flat whereas
the pine shavings the individual pieces
are very absorbent usually porous and
not flat but they're curved or in some
way it's a lot softer so you can't use
newspaper either even unprinted
newsprint it's just not a good idea and
while I'm at it you can't use just plain
fleece blankets or old blankets and I'm
not just saying this because I'm a
bedding snob what I'm trying to say is
you will save yourself a lot of
heartache if you invest in the proper
bedding supplies the paper bedding by
itself can be disgusting and horrible to
clean up just using old towels it's very
hard to separate the stuck-on poop
pellets and the pee and all that it's
just it's gonna be gross so I really
recommend getting actual fleece flippers
the larger size to cover your entire
cage and then also smaller pieces of
either 1 by 2 feet or a little 1 by 1
squares or 2 by 2 squares you get a
whole bunch of different sizes so that
you can lay them out as you saw me do it
in the beginning
and skinny picks one I mentioned before
she has quite the fleece collection and
all her guinea pigs live on fleece so
with that let's start the debate in the
comments what's your favorite type of
bedding let's keep it positive because
remember everybody who is here who takes
the time to watch these videos and takes
the time to comment only cares for their
piggies and wants to do the best for
them alright thank you guys for watching
so much and I am really looking forward
to seeing the comments so Billy lives on
Pine but he has his fleece tunnel that
he loves sleeping in but ever since I
introduced the bigger tunnel he smells
kind of funky because you can see his
pee and poop is right there and he just
doesn't care but I was able to get a
smaller tunnel I'm not using that right
now but when I used the smaller fleece
tunnel his butt sticks out and most of
the carnage
comes out the back
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