can u use wood pellets for guinea pigs' bedding?

Question

can u use pellets for a pellet stove for guinea pigs' bedding if they arethey dont have any chemicals in them

Answer 1

You CAN use wood pellets (provided they're all natural with no chemical treatment), but it's really not recommended. Guinea pigs have soft feet with little protection. Since they spend 100% of their time in the bedding, you can imagine how uncomfortable the hard, sharp pieces of wood are for their feet.

A much better alternative is Aspen shavings. These are soft, allow the guinea pigs to burrow/dig, and they absorb odors and wetness VERY well. They're also low-dust because Aspen is a hardwood.

Do NOT use cedar shavings or pine shavings for guinea pigs. These have VERY high amounts of dust in them and the aromatic oils (caused by phenols) can cause harm to your guinea pigs respiratory system. Both pine and cedar will raise liver enzymes in your guinea pigs, and since guinea pigs have a hard time with vitamin C, that can spell disaster. Better to be safe than sorry.

You can also use Carefresh Ultra (VERY good odor absorbing), Sani-Chips (Hardwood shavings---THE BEST IF YOU CAN FIND THEM!---try your local feed/tack store!), and of course, the Aspen.

All are soft, very absorbent, and they control odors. The Sani-Chips and Aspen leave a fresh 'woody' scent too that's nice.

Answer 2

Packsaddle Pellets

Answer 3

Yes, you can use wood pellets, but I suggest either wood shavings or paper bedding, which most pet stores also sell. ifyou go with wood pellets, I suggest you have a corner with a softer bedding, so they can lie down comfortably. Wood pellets also are not very absorbant, but they look nice. you will have to change the cage much more often if you buy wood pellets.

If you choose to use wood shavings, any kind is good, except Cedar wood, because a guinea pig will eat it's bedding from time to time, and even though cedar smells good, it may be harmful to your piggie if he tries to eat it. I suggest Pine, becasue it is the kindest on a guinea's tummy, and the softest for them to lie on.

The paper bedding is more absorbant than wood shavings, but after a few days the bedding begins to smell really bad, and unless you have a very powerful air freshener, you will most definetly notice the smell.

Answer 4

http://www.guardianhorsebedding.com/pinepellets.htm

This site talks about wood pellets that are nice for small animals and large animals, too. They turn soft, it says.
I've never heard of them, but they sound very nice.

The ones our guinea pig used to have in his box were more like shavings. They were pine shavings that they sell in pet shops for that purpose.

By the way, whenever we cleaned out his box and gave him new bedding, the old stuff went right onto the flower garden. That was terrific, fertilized mulch!

Answer 5

yes you can use them as they are a very absorbant base. i would recoment using a wood pellet based cat litter as it is suitable for animal use but recycled paper pellet cat litter is even better. avoid cedar as this can cause a lot of irritation to the animal. make sure also that you supply a good soft bedding in the sleeping area such as hay or straw to make the animal more comfortable. good luck xx

Answer 6

You could, but would you like to lay on wood pellets? The best thing is ripped up newspaper, wood shavings, or cedar shavings- cedar hepls keep the odor down

Answer 7

Wood pellets? Like actualy hunks of wood? I wouldn't recommed it. For no reason other than- would YOU want to sleep on chunks of wood, or something soft?

Answer 8

It is not good to put your hamster/gunia pig on reall picecs of wood you nedd to make it soft and comfterting for the animal so that they will sleep and live longer too.

Answer 9

Pellets or shavings are fine as long as they are on a flat bottom.