Is is absolutely necessary to have wood shavings as bedding?

Question

I cant buy woodshavings at the moment for my guinea pigs' cage and they're all soaked up in urine. Can I use newspaper or cardboard instead? They eat the newspaper if I put it down

Answer 1

Newspaper is just fine, but if you have any old towels or blankets you would like to use, that would be better. Guinea pigs will love you for it!

Answer 2

I used kitty litter for mine when I had guinea pigs.

You can use whatever works for you; you want something absorbent.

It doesn't hurt the guinea pig to eat paper; for some reason they like it.  

Answer 3

they will chew the card aswell put some hay down they will eat it but put some of that down  

Answer 4

you're not meant to put newspaper down in a guinea pigs hutch because if they eat it and can get poisoned by it because i had te same problem with my hamster.

Answer 5

If you can't use wood shavings then perhaps you should buy a paper shredder. If you get letters or something you don't need anymore put them through the shredder then you can use that as bedding. I use it for my hamster and he seems to like it.

Answer 6

i would use Egyptian cotton.

Answer 7

Nwespaper and cardboard do not make good bedding. They are not absorbant enough, so they will get soggy really quickly and your pigs will be sitting in pee all the time. Their poops will also just stay on the surface so the pigs will be constantly walking in them. The whole cage will get pretty gross and the pigs will get filthy unless you can clean it out about twice a day.

For beding you can use aspen, carefresh or megazorb.

Another bedding option is the "fleece method". This is where you have a leyer of fleece on top with an absorbant layer underneath (eg towels, mattress pads, puppy pads etc).

The fleece wicks moisture away so the surface stays dry, and the pee is absorbed by the bottom layer. You hoover up all the poops every day, then once a week throw all the fabric in the wash.

You should NOT use cedar or pine shavings - these contain high levels of phenols which cause respiratory and liver disease.

For more bedding info check out:

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/bedd...

Answer 8

I am surprised no one said this, and a T.C even answered!

Whatever wood shavings you use, do *NOT NOT NOT* use cedar or pine shavings, they have phenols in them  that can cause respiratory  infections.

Use a hardwood, like aspen.

You can use newspaper, most newspapers now days use soy based ink, and I doubt they eat it, they probably just chew on it. Do NOT use fabric! It can get stringy and choke them.

Answer 9

You can only use newspaper safely if the ink on it is nontoxic.  The best way to find out is to call the newspaper and ask.  Even though it nontoxic, newspaper smells pretty horrible when pee gets on it.

Another option you might want to try is paper towels ripped up in long strips.  Plain white shouldn't be a problem and it usually doesn't smell as bad.

Another alternative is CareFresh or Yesterday's news.  You can buy these online if you can't find them at a pet store.

You can also go out to your local fabric store and buy some fleece scraps to line your cage.  It soaks up moisture and is reusable.  Fleece doesn't tear easily and have strings laying around if it does.  You just have to throw it in the wash once a week.  You will have to do spot cleaning to pick up poops, but it's easy to maintain.

Hope that helps!