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Post by Bean on Oct 31, 2014 8:56:52 GMT
When I used washable bedding before, I don't remember ever seeing any boar glue. I really don't think the marks on the light fleece are anything to do with them - it's on the top where they'd have contact with, but I just think it's something that got on it some other time.
I used towels under the fleece but now good outdoor drying weather is rare, I've switched to newspaper. They rarely wee out of their pigloos/ litter tray so although I initially had other plans, I don't really need to worry too much about how absorbant/ odour controlling it is.
The calcium deposits are just like a white chalky residue rather than a stack of anything - they'd wash out easily but can indicate their diet is a bit too high in calcium. If the pellets you use are alfalfa or they have a lot of calcium rich veg like spinach and broccoli, it can add up.
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 1, 2014 20:16:49 GMT
Calcium is the white stuff that comes out with the urine. Depending on how much extra calcium there is, it can just be a white spot, or a mound of crystals. Boar glue between boars usually comes from dominance, a rumble that went a bit too far. Morty does it sometimes, when Mia is in heat. Otherwise not. If you don't have little mounds of crystals, I wouldn't worry about it.
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Post by Bean on Nov 3, 2014 20:17:18 GMT
Bought one of these sorts of shred-a-logs the other week (mine was much cheaper!). The rabbits showed no interest in it so tried it with the guineas and Josh has gone mad for it - I think he'll have got rid of it within a few days! Didn't think anything would trump pine cones for amount of fun had chewing, but this definitely comes close!
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 3, 2014 20:52:43 GMT
Cool Morty and Mia have chew tubes for bunnies, as Morty is too big for piggy tubes. Momo has the one that looks likeca log. She loves that. Glad the boys enjoy it
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Post by glittze2001 on Nov 3, 2014 23:47:19 GMT
U piggies use to love their tunnels and chew them all the time. They never lasted long! Glad josh likes it. Will keep him busy for a few days! Good for the teeth too! X
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Post by Bean on Nov 5, 2014 9:02:44 GMT
We'll definitely get a few more for over winter - they need more things to entertain them when they're not going out to graze every day. They enjoyed that and it also tired them out, so energies need redirecting!
What's the log one you have 3piggles? Mine have never shown much interest in chewing up the chubes although they like to run through them.
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 5, 2014 19:40:33 GMT
Mine only chew things that don't move. They weren't at all interested in apple branches or hanging toys. I will post a picture when I get to the computer. Still haven't figured out how I loaded pics, before. This is the chew log: www.petguys.com/-026851022030.html?productid=-026851022030&channelid=FROOG&utm_source=CSEs&utm_medium=GoogleShopping&utm_campaign=PetGuysMomo has completely eaten or destroyed her hay cake. Morty and Mia are making good progress with theirs. Poos are still good. I am using up the Carefresh I had. I'm not impressed. The whole room smells of urine, and has since I stopped using the kitty litter. I was using unscented kitty litter, and it still stopped the urine smell completely. The pine bedding pellets also stop the urine odor completely. Both the kitty litter and pine pellet bedding weigh a lot, and once I clean out the two kitchen areas, I can't remove the bag from the waste bin, to put it out for collection. The kitty litter becomes cement, if the water bottle lets go, which is has twice. Both times, Momo needed to have the cement soaked off her. The Carefresh is definitely lighter weight, and much easier for me to handle, but the smell is overwhelming. The smell became overwhelming before I changed the hay, but the change to the hay cakes and a different brand of hay may be contributing to the extreme smell. I will use the rest of the Carefresh, today, then have to decide what I'm going to use.
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Post by glittze2001 on Nov 7, 2014 7:09:33 GMT
It's amazing how you can small The difference so much. Our noses get used to a certain smell and when that changes it always tends to be so over powering. It's a struggle between practicality and what you want out of the type of bedding.
Momo covered in cement is making me smile tho, we used care fresh granules over the top of our megaZorb and I think that seemed to help the smell quite a bit. Are you looking at changing the hay also to see if that helps?
Xx
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Post by Bean on Nov 7, 2014 9:19:47 GMT
I found the smell of carefresh quite strong too. I use something called megazorb for the rabbits, under their hay in the bedroom and in the litter tray. It's a great bedding, really absorbant which is extra important now the weather's colder. But I couldn't tolerate the smell inside. It's not bad, just distinctive and not a particularly homely smell! It might be better if I used it under the fleece, but I haven't ended up needing to with them using the litter trays. The last bedding I used with the pigs was a recycled paper bedding made by a company called Fitch - the smell of that didn't bother me at all inside. Probably not as odour controlling as the beddings that break down or clump and seal the odour. That chew log looks great, 3piggles. I've had a quick look and you can get them over here but they work out more expensive so we probably just import them from you!
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 7, 2014 13:50:00 GMT
No problem importing the logs. The log is not only a great chew toy, because it's stable, but it's a tube toy and Momo tips it and does her doofus dance for topling the mighy log I used a better clumping kitty litter that really clumped, but the clumps had to be scooped daily. That meant moving everything off the screen, dumping the hay and poos on the screen, scooping out the clumps and adding more litter. Absolutely no smell, though, and if a water bottle let go, it just made a huge clump, not cement. That litter was more expensive, and a lot more work. With my stupid back problems, I try to make the job as quick and easy as possible. I still have some options, and the smell hasn't been too bad today, so will probably give the Carefresh one more try. Yes, Glittze, it was funny seeing her that way. She had walked through it enough ti have it all caked in her fingers and toes, and tracked everywhere in the cage. Major clean up! She got her paws and undercarriage soaked while being fed celery leaves. Such a hard life
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Post by Bean on Nov 18, 2014 9:36:00 GMT
Got Josh another tube when he finished that one. In between that he'd been in the cage one time while I was still fixing the fleece up to the sides and managed to get at the correx - he really loved the sound it made when he chewed it and was most miffed when I covered it over! I caught him doing a perimeter sweep a couple of times, trying to find an exposed edge of correx or tug the fleece off in places - he's stopped now he has another cardboardy thing!
So you said in the other thread you didn't stick with the carefresh, 3piggles?
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 18, 2014 11:58:39 GMT
Morty and Mia soak whatever bedding I use, so I was changing their Carefresh every 2 or 3 days. Way too expensive, especially considering it did nothing to protect the cage floor from stains. Momo doesn't pee half as much as the other two, so I'm using it in her cage. I was fluffing it daily, in hers is dry. Theirs is always wet. If I'm going to risk a boar cleaning, I need the loose bedding to work perfectly.
They also sleep in the houses, in the main part of the cage. Momo sleeps and pretty much lives out in her kitchen area. The rest of her cage is a playground for her. She likes the cushiness of the Carefresh, and makes nests with the hay. So Carefresh in her cage. Fleece in Morty and Mias cage. For now, at least. It gets too cold here to have wet bedding, so I'm still working on it.
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Post by Bean on Nov 24, 2014 9:49:46 GMT
I made up the pigs' cage with regular bedding (it's a receycled paper product) on Friday rather than the fleece as we were away at the weekend and I thought it'd be nicer for the sitters if they just had to feed & water them rather than sweep poos. Three days later it still looks fine and isn't at all smelly - maybe I'll go back to being lazy?!
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 24, 2014 17:05:10 GMT
How big is the cage? The living area is fine with the fleece over the pine pellets. The kitchen area is the problem. It's about 15 inches by 2 feet, with water, pellets and hay. Two pigs in that small area seem to soak the bedding way more than twice as much as Momo soaks hers, and she lives in her kitchen area.
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Post by cookie72 on Nov 25, 2014 2:07:56 GMT
I was just reading Piggles' comment about Carefresh, and I totally agree it does nothing for odor control. And it's quite expensive too. I've been mixing this paper pellet cat litter with the Carefresh. They get the softness of the Carefresh, and this cat litter does an excellent job with the smell. I originally had been buying a paper pellet litter for small animals, until a Petco employee informed me that they have a pretty much identical product labelled as cat litter, and it's much cheaper than the one labelled for small animals. It doesn't clump at all. I have a small scoop I just use a few times a day to spot clean the wet/poopy areas. It doesn't get real heavy when it's wet either. Since I moved Guinness into the big cage, I have half with this mixture, and the other half I have fleece with just this cat litter underneath. It's working great so far! She does most of her bathroom duties on the non-fleece half of the cage, so it's been weeks and I haven't even needed to change the fleece/cat litter side. I find an occasional poo on the fleece, but she's been pretty neat about things. Here's the website for the litter I'm talking about. Hope you can see it, I'm not great at figuring out how to post links. www.petco.com/product/125461/So-Phresh-Odor-Control-Paper-Pellet-Cat-Litter.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch
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Post by Bean on Nov 25, 2014 9:15:53 GMT
Looks good, and great that mixing it with another litter makes it softer for their feet.
Our cage is about 4 1/2' by just over 2', 3piggles. All one area, not separate sections as it works better with the boys if there are no bottlenecks or extra opportunities for cornering (other than entering and exiting the hideys)!
The fleece worked fine, I just like having a few days off cleaning really! It worked well while we were away as I could leave mounds of hay for them to romp around in which gives them a lot of amusement. Getting little bits of hay off the fleece is a little bit annoying! We have a litter tray under the hay rack which gets most of it, but these are not tidy boys!
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Post by 3piggles on Nov 25, 2014 21:18:34 GMT
Hubby is going to check Petco for me, and see if he can find it. Thanks for the tip
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Post by Bean on Apr 29, 2015 8:28:15 GMT
I was just popping in here to say happy 1st birthday to Rocky, but then realised I haven't even introduced our new ladies yet! As I've mentioned on this thread before, our boys Josh and Cadders had a bit of a squabbly relationship since puberty kicked in. They got along so well a lot of the time, but would have periods where they'd alternately face up to each other squawking and chase each other around. It could go on for ages and seemed to be happening more and more. We started seeing the odd little cut too - only occasional, but enough to make us think things were going too far. We'd tried giving them more space and loads of stuff to do but there was just an underlying tension with them sharing a space. A few months ago I visited a friend who had a lone female guinea pig who was clearly not getting the attention or space she needed. There were also allergy issues with the family which meant she wasn't getting handled - it was a pretty sad life really and she was such a sweet natured and lovely little pig. They knew they weren't giving her what she needed and were happy to hand her over to me, so that sort of gave us a nudge to decide we were going to get the boys neutered and pair them up with new lady friends. So we brought Poppy home! The boys neutering ops went fine and although Josh bounced back quicker than Cadders (Josh was rumbling round as soon as he got home!), both recovered really well. In the meantime another female piggy found her way to us. She was bought from a pet shop as a young kid's pet, but when the couple had another baby they decided they didn't have time for her anymore so were giving her away. My kids named her Rocky as she has a sort of mohican hairdo, and they also thought it'd go well with Poppy - as in types of music! Rocky is a feisty little lady, full of character. Very sweet too. Anyway, once the boys' pipes were clear of swimmers, we started the intros. We'd decided that Poppy and Cadders would be a good match as Cads can be a bit highly strung and Poppy has a very calming no nonsense sort of a presence. We also thought Josh and Rocky would be great together as they're both total numpties and are always up for goofing around! It all went swimmingly and they're now living very happily in their new couples. Seeing how much more chilled out the boys are now they have wives rather than rivals is brilliant, I'm so glad we went for it. The change in Cadders is especially marked - he's always been slimmer than Josh but he's put on a couple of ounces since he's been with Poppy which I think is due to the stress being removed from his life. Pops and Cads. Rocky and Josh. Anyway we don't know the girls' exact birthdays but we worked out the vague time and decided Rocky's birthday should be today, which was my gran's birthday. And Poppy's is in July which is my great aunt's birthday - Poppy will be 3 this year so is the oldest and wisest of the bunch! Rocky got a cucumber cake with a carrot candle this morning and lashings of extra hay. Here's a bonus picture of the birthday girl chilling in her favourite spot - the hammock!
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Post by jolovespiggies on Apr 29, 2015 18:12:21 GMT
I am so glad they are all happy together hun, thanks for sharing the gorgeous photos.
Hugs JO xx
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Post by 3piggles on Apr 29, 2015 20:57:47 GMT
They are beautiful Happy Birthday, Rocky I love pigtures Most people in the US seem to do Gotcha Day, which is celebrating the day the pets came to live with us. Since we don't have children, and the pigs don't know the difference, we skip it. It's sweet to have a little celebration, especially for the kids
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