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Post by shades on Sept 19, 2015 10:55:59 GMT
Hi,
I'm thinking about using litter trays although I realise my chance of success is probably quite small.
What I want to ask those who've been successful is : what kind of tray do you use? Is there a special cavy litter tray or do you use a cat tray ?
Thanks.
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 19, 2015 19:22:40 GMT
Good luck. Litter training the pigs seems to actually be litter training the people. If there are places the pigs always tend to go to the bathroom, putting litter trays there helps with the clean up a bit. Most pigs go where they sleep and eat, so putting trays there might help. The problem is that pigs shouldn't get into the kitty litter, so you have to put a barrier between them and the litter. No matter how low dust a litter may be, it is way too dusty for pigs to breathe. It's designed for cats, whose legs keep their noses a minimum of six inches off the litter, and when squatting, their noses are many more inches away from the litter. Guinea pig noses are 1/2-1 inch off the surface, and way too close to the dust in the litter. Whatever you put over the litter to keep piggy respiratory systems safe will also need to be changed with the litter. Not sure how much help it is.
In one cage, I used a kitty litter box as a hay box. I put about an inch of kitty litter in the bottom of the box, put a layer of fiberglass window screen over the litter, and covered it all with hay. You use a lot of hay, but it's where the pigs spend a lot of their time, so went to the bathroom a lot. Every day I tossed the used hay, wiped off the screen and reused it, and scooped the pee clumps out of the litter. It worked pretty well, but reusable litter trays take up a lot of space in the cage. If you have the space, you can hang the water bottles over the litter box, as long as the pigs have easy access to it all.
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