by Gareth Wild

Created on: June 24, 2010

Guinea pigs require replacement bedding frequently as they have a habit of playing with their water bottle. Once they learn how to do it they keep on doing it. They are messy animals producing an opaque creamy coloured urine throughout the cage along with many faecal pellets. The urine scale requires cleaning using acidic cleaning agents at least once a week. This means that the more you can absorb this in the bedding the better.

There are many choices of what to use to bed the guinea pigs with. A personal favourite of mine is aspen wood shavings. These are absorbent, soft and warm. If you can get the dust free variety its better as it’s nicer to handle then. Sawdust is another possibility to use but get it from a proprietary supplier as some wood can be toxic. Don’t use sweeping from the floor of a saw mill as it will have all sorts in it. Another problem with sawdust is the fact that it can cling to moist areas such as the perineum and its best not used for breeding animals for that fact. Use larger shavings for these animals.

The wood shavings need to be used in combination with good quality meadow hay as this will provide a source of dietary fibre and bulk roughage and environmental enrichment for the animals. Hay has proven to be an important product especially in breeding colonies as its admittance has led to disastrous losses in production.

The hay should be treated to eliminate dangerous micro organisms. This can be done in two ways either autoclaved or irradiation. Irradiation is the preferred method as it retains the natural texture of the hay but is more expensive. Autoclaved hay is cheaper but leaves the hay hard and caramelised. Provide hay at least three times a week as it’s a food source as well as bedding material.

Guinea pigs like hay as it provides them with play materials for them to burrow through and create tunnels. The sawdust should be deep to allow the guinea pigs to burrow through it and exert natural behaviour.

Change the bedding several times a week depending on stocking density as mentioned earlier the bedding tends to get wet quickly if they have learnt to play with their water bottles.

Alternative forms of bedding which are less effective are paper shavings or newspaper. The shavings are warm and absorbent but not as natural or as absorbent. The newspaper isn’t much better than having no bedding as it is almost like lining the cage with linoleum. Ground corn cob has also been used but this is quite an expensive product and I don’t find it as absorbent as the wood shavings.

Along with bedding chew blocks and sticks can be provided as the adults have a habit of chewing through any exposed surface such as aluminium food hoppers. The chew blocks help to avoid this from occurring.

Learn more about this author, Gareth Wild.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.