What is the Best Guinea Pig Bedding? Fleece vs Pine 

Researching makes me realize how badly I took care of mine when I was a kid...

I literally dont know who's cuter, Scotty or those precious piggies! 😍

0:06 I’m dead 😂😂 Scott said “come on turtle man” to Mike lifting the hut with his tiny head ❤️

I have had guinea pigs 3/4 of my life and I’m 64 years old now. I have made mistakes in the past but now my current pigs are reaping the benefits of my experience. I use aspen bedding I order from Amazon for ridiculously cheap price! But all along the edge of the cage I use carefresh or pet fresh bedding (paper). This is where they pee! I replace it every day with fresh bedding. Every four days I replace the aspen bedding. This keeps my pigs happy, odorless and dry!

For those who use fleece, Little Adventures has a video on her channel about washing fleece in a 'horse bag' that keeps your washing machine and dryer clean.

I have a hard time keeping up with the spot cleaning on fleece so I have better luck with pine shavings. I find it easier to spend a half hour once a week versus 10 minutes twice a day. Pigs seem to enjoy fleece more but are also happy on shavings as long as they are fine enough.

Nails is so chunky and fluffy now. He looks great :)

My guinea pig is addicted to her pine. When I've tried with a fleece, she just started crying and rumbling... When I've changed the fleece with pine - she was just a happy guinea pig, popcorning all around 😁

"fleece can almost become an addiction" calling out skinnypigs1 😂

Your videos always get me in a great mood. They're always so helpful for everyone

Top of my wish list: a top rated washing machine & updated house plumbing

Hi Scotty. I use waterproof mattress pads under my fleece. That seems like it works pretty well.

I started with pine shavings but switched to fleece. I feel it’s easier to clean and allows me to see their poops and pee to see if there are issues. They love new fleece and popcorn like crazy! Only issue is that I have to run the washer a lot.

We have become new piggie owners in the past few weeks. I had no idea what went into taking care of a guinea pig or how much personality they had! Our Feona and Peaches have brought so much joy to our home. You have been SO HELPFUL! Just wanted to say thank you for making these videos.

Right now the best setup I've had is bathroom chenille rug! Very easy to maintain.i still put towels under them just in case. Sometimes I use fleece and 2 towels under it when I'm really in need, but I still prefer the bathroom mat. I would love to be able to buy proper cage liners somedays, but it is quite expensive to make good ones ship to my country 🙈 one day tho!

Your piggies seems to be very healthy and happy 😊

I love my guinea dad fleece I really love it cause it stays clean and dry for my girls ❤️. My girls love when I change their fleece Everytime

Your videos have been so helpful! Thank you!!

I tried all fleece and all kiln dried bedding but what works best for us is 3/4 of the cage fleece and 1/4 of the cage is the “kitchen area” I made a litter box with coroplast that fits perfectly 2x1 of our 2x4 c&c cage and i have kiln dried in there. My piggies are getting really good at doing their business just in the pine bedding.

Great info. Thank you Scottie.

That was really helpful, thank you!

Youre awesome! Thanks for excellent.video. Loved how.you give so.much love to the.guinea pigs

I’m looking forward to getting 2 or 3 guinea pigs so this really helped!! Thank you 😊 🙏

Love this your helping me out so much ♥️

Thank you so much for these videos you make! Guinea pigs are so underrated and thought of as just a beginner pet. Not enough people post videos about just them.

I want to thank you! I have learned soooo much from you with just two of your videos. I love how you explain everything. Thank you! 🙂

Your piggies are so precious! You videos help me alot with my two males!!

Sorry, just to add that I use large drawstring mesh bags to put the towels and fleeces in, for the washing machine. And I use 100% natural veggie flakes or soap nuts in the wash, with a nice dollop of white vinegar in the 'softener' compartment for each wash, and they come up smashing! 🙂👍

7:00 So sweet. Awe.... Nails he is so special.

Both of my girls use a toilet, thank goodness. So I just use regular fleece blankets to line their cages. I dump their large toilets(packed with paper bedding) about once a week and wash their fleece bedding about once a month. I've been blessed with an extremely easy care routine. They are happy/clean piglets.

I just rescued a male guinea pig who was living in a very tiny cage. He's so sweet. I am having him fixed so we don't have more babies. And l make all there bedding by hand .. I use old comforters and cut them up and see by hand pads for them.

I love how your Guinea pig squeak when you go near them it’s so cute 😊

Omg you are the sweetest man alive

Scotty needs to be given a award for guinea pig knowledge you rock Scotty and those piggies love you ;)

I love fleece-less messy and looks so cheerful.

Love pine shavings. Glad to hear you do too. I tried paper and fleece but just feel pine shavings are soooo much easier and nicer to work with for all the pro reasons you listed in your video.

I am new to the guinea pig world. I just adopted two female piggies. I really appreciate your videos. I have found them so helpful in learning to be a good mother to Primrose and Fern. Thank you Scotty!

Love Scotty as much as the guineas.

OMG!! I LOVE their names!!! I have learned so much watching these videos! my husband and kids LOVE our piggies! Petco sold us only one piggy and very small cage! We have upgraded her cage and added another piggy after watching these videos!

I love watching you with the piggies. Your ideas are very helpful. I use the crumpul up newspaper which is too expensive. So I will layer it with wee wee pads in corners and the shavings you said that were better for absorption and smell.

Oh my gosh Nails is such a chunky boy now!! Amazing to see his transformation from when you rescued him Scott!

Great video!! My favorite is fleece however in my 2 by 5 I have a separate coroplast that is a 1 by 2 that has paper bedding the're hay and there food station. Also under my fleece I have like people potty pads that are one by twos and also a layer of towels however I'm finding that I'm almost duplicating my work so this week I'm not going to put towels because there's nothing on them. It's a process of elimination and that's why I love the videos. You get new ideas and you try new things find out what works for you. Thanks for opening this conversation love to all the piggies especially Piggie Smalls. Got to pick an different one for you to love on each time haha

I’ve been using paper bedding for about 1 year and it’s really expensive and just started to use a carefresh mix of paper and pine shavings and I’m excited

Very helpful.😊💖💖💖

I have only recently discovered your channel and I love it, it's so informative and your love for the piggies is so evident its brilliant. We use fleece and have found it works best for our furry potatoes, u were right about it being an addiction to, I spend more time picking out which piggie fleece design I'm going for then what I'm going to wear ☺️☺️

I love guinea pigs, Scott,

We have 3 GP’s and a C&C cage with the same bedding combo as Piggy Smalls & Nails and it works perfectly for us all. It means I can do spot poop cleans twice a day and then a full clean once a week. Also as the piggies are indoor ones, it really works to keep the room they’re in smelling nice and fresh. Great video Scott! 👍

I mainly do aspen shavings but have the shredded soft kaytee bedding in there sleeping area they will just lay all belly up on the soft stuff they love it. It's adorable

I was thinking of paper bedding but now I will get my piggies kiln dried pine and I’ll buy things to make fleece liners! Woo to sewing skills!! 🙌🏼

Fab videos Scotty🥰..I use fleece but think both are good. It's what works best for yourself. I reccomend trying both😊

I love love love your channel! I rescued 5 guinea pigs in the last two months! I am soooo happy and they are too! Although I am allergic to them, I will never let them go. I just have to take allergy medicine daily.

I just found your channel and I'm grateful I did. Being new to owning a guinea pig and loving it we had to take our little one to the vet for an upper respiratory infection. We are hoping he's going to make it and I didn't know about cedar shavings being a cause of that. I've now switched his bedding to fleece and pine shavings. Thank you so much for this information!

thank you very helpful

I used to use aspen bedding but switched back to fleece, I thought the aspen was too messy but now that I have 7 I might start using both, I still have aspen bedding left over🥰 🌳

I recently switched my piggy to fleece, he loves it and I noticed him snuggling up more! I put a container of normal bedding in there incase he wants to lay in it but he only sat there for a bit when I first put it in there.

Informative. I recently switched to pine

Thank you, this was very informative. I've had pine bedding until now but I'm thinking about changing to fleece because two of my guinea pigs are allergic to the pine shavings. Also, I have a 5m² cage (~53,8196 square feet) and I spend around 60€ per month for bedding

I recently switched to fleece, and have found it to be the option for me. It's an investment at first but it should last you a few years at least. That being said, it's very important to be informed before you make your decision, and this was a very informative video.

I like Scotty he is smart and loves guinea pigs . He always kissing them. Thank you for your advice

I like to use fleece plus smaller fleece flipper pads for houses/poop and one under the messy (another poop area !) hay eating area. They are changed frequently. I think my preference for fleece comes from good experience of fleece(or bamboo) nappies when my kids were babies. Its the whole idea of washing and re-using and minimising waste. I'm not a fan of the wood shavings because when I acquired two of my piggies they had lived on them and one had respiratory infection. However, as you say, that's more likely about hygeine than the shavings. Thanks for all your informative and entertaining videos x

There is Hemp shavings as well and works well. I use a combination of 3. Mostly kiln dried pine. But also use Aspen and Hemp to give variety to Gizmo's surroundings.

I use cloth incontinence pads with fleece sewn over top.

Scottie this was helpful. I didn't know there was a difference in fleece. I have 5 guinea pigs. Usually buy blankets at the good will and cut them in small pieces for the cages. I throw them out every few days if they get wet. I can't wash them in my washer where I do my clothes and kitchen towels. Thank you. Love your show

Great video, Scotty! Here in Belgium hemp bedding is also quite a popular alternative for piggies. They say it's absorbent and completely safe (I have never used it, though). We also have linen bedding like Bunny Nature Linum Bedding. It's really soft and absorbent (but expensive), but it is my favourite type along fleece. I also recently came across corn bedding, so I googled it and got contradictory views (some saying it might cause intestinal blockage if it ends up in your piggy's stomach). It also seemed quite hard, and I think the softer the better...

Currently we have bath mats in one side of our cage where the girl's huts are, and doggy pee pads under dog fleece blankets on the other side with their food bowls, water bowl, and bedding/pee tray, our cage is a 2x6 c&c cage. We used shavings for about 3 days before we changed over, and since changing over the cage is so much cleaner and easier to clean. I plan to sew some fleece with an absorbent bamboo inner in the future, but for now this is working. I spot clean daily.

I don’t use bedding I use Fleece liners thanks for the ideas love your videos👍

I have a hybrid system. I have a tiny "Kitchen" area where I place the hay and veggies that is sectioned off in my Midwest cage with pine shavings, and then the rest of the cage is fleece. This way where they eat is where they poop the most and where they sleep. I use fleece cubbies as well in the winter for warmth and can just change those out every couple of days. The majority of my cage stays pretty clean.

I had piggies for my daughter when she was 12 - and that was 35 years ago! I had no clue how to care for them. I am so grateful for so many informative and educational videos available these days. So glad to have found your channel, Scotty. I plan to adopt 2 piggies by mid April or first of May. In process of DIY cage like Squeak Dreams and sewing many fleece flippers, pee pads, beds, cozies and tunnels for my piggies. Can’t wait! Thanks again for great videos!

I use fleece bedding from a Guinea pig store online, bought two so I can alternate for wash days. Also I do buy pine shavings from time to time to give me a wash break.

I use a combination. I use fleece in my main part of the cage and paper bedding in the kitchen area. Although I recently discovered hemp bedding, which I will probably use a combination of of hemp and pine pellets in the kitchen area.

Piggy small!!!! That is the best pet name I have ever heard!!! My son gives me crap man for me being on him to name a pet he gets Senior Bob lmao! I tried to get him to name his pig that but he went for Butterscotch instead...I tried🤣! We love your videos..you seem just like such a nice..good dude. Your our first go to videos for anything pig related!

I love the Whale fleece

Thanks a lot, Scottie 🙂👍 I am a newby piggy adopter, and I opted for bath towels at the base of the C & C cage (8 x 4) for our 2 boys (Bernard and Dougal), with the top layer covered with standard fleece blankets where I bought either on Ebay or the Marketplace on FB. I appreciate the 'proper' fleece bedding loks very good but as I have had no problem with what I am using, I will not invest in the ready made waterproof fleece bedding, specifically for piggies. I have found that the cat carrier (that we adopted them with, and kept for them) is one of the primary locations for peeing, along with a corner cat litter tray. They do also pee at the sides of the cage a little, and I am sure as they have a large space this helps with them not getting damp from their pee. I make sure to check twice daily, when picking up poo, to check for damp patches, and make sure to clean out the cat carrier and litter tray, putting fresh hay in.

I use very thick (and folded like 3 times) fleece blrankets from the store, I've never had a problem with it, I have shower curtains underneath. I never smell it, and my piggies love it

We line our enclosure with a u-haul pad and then use an absorbent camp towel (very soft like fleece and super quick-drying) on top of that, plus pee pads in all of the favored areas. It's super easy to swap out the pads and the camp towel every couple of days and everything is washable.

I was looking for this type of video on your channel several weeks ago, so this is great it's all summed up. Since being a small mammal rescue, i am use to our 3 species we take in. Hamsters/Gerbils/Mice only due to their care being similar so they can share food/bedding/chews/etc. After taking on two guinea pig girls through a mutual contact, i said i'd only take Guinea pigs on once in a blue moon since i do love Guinea Pigs. Unfortunately there care requires different needs and they do not share the same stuff as our regulars. So i'm having to buy them things they need except i'm using the rescues bedding we have. I have noticed that paper bedding needs to be spot cleaned often and it does like you said, make it more costly and also it produces a funky smell. Clean and Cozy is terrible, don't ever use that for Guinea pigs. Carefresh i found works so much better. But I need to get these gals a one and done deal with that fleece here soon because the rescue needs that bedding for the other animals and we are going through it like crazy for the two girls, so washing fleece would be ideal to save money for our rescue. I'm on Etsy looking at some shops but would really love it if the community could tell me their favorite shops i should check out or maybe your favorite patterns. I'll be treating them to something nice ;)

Megazorb and plenty of Timothy hay for my 2 boars, the paper works great clumps together when wet, changes colour so I can see when it needs spot cleaning

Scotty thank you for all your info, you should recommend people to adopt before buying, we adopt ours just a few days ago from the local shelter 💫

Scotty, I haven't seen Nails in ages, lol, he's so beautiful, what a big boy he is now! I'm so happy for him! I agree with you about Care fresh bedding. One day it was on a good sale, so my daughter picked some up for me. As soon as it got wet, it was gross! I couldn't believe people pay that kind of money for it, I find it's not great at all. Totally right about the fleece as well, it's nice, but lots of work, and it needs to be replaced alot, and I have to put smaller liners and potty pads in there as well. There's about 7 to 8 loads of laundry a week, at least, but my piggies do like it,and I use kiln dried pine in their hay area.

Scotty While i dont use the same set up anymore I found mostly fleece and then a section used for the "kitchen" using aspen worked best. I had a 2x5 house i did a 2x1 kitchen were food water and hay were placed and it made daily cleaning easy then the weekly clean out of the kitchen well soon as you scoop in you will know just how much peepee it held off the fleece areas. I did eventually get a 2nd food dish and water bottle but used an old cake pan as a "kitchen" area with one of the small hay racks so there was a full kitchen and a kitchenette in the cage LOL this was after i attached a midwest cage to the 2x5 cage i didnt want someone to get stuck on one side with no food or water

My pigs live on fleece and it works great! Because they don’t sleep in the same spot every time the fleece dries in between and they stay dry. I have a little area with paper bedding with their food and hay but am not a big fan because it clumps together when wet. I will definitely try the pine shavings in the future. Awesome video!

I have a loft cage, my boys have pine on the bottom where I keep their food and a fleece layout on top with houses where they like to sleep.

i do pine in the summer and then fleece in the winter!

Fleece "expert" here :P 1. You can use anti-pill, polar, blizzard (those are the main names they are given). But don't use any plushy or fluffy fleece as it does not wick properly. 2. If your fleece is not absorbing the pee away from your piggies there is a good chance the fleece needs to be washed more in order to wick properly. Wicking means the fleece is allowing the urine to pass through it properly. 3. Best absorbent layers for fleece are u-haul or zorb. You can also use incontinent pads or old towels but it might need to be change even more frequently so buying cage liners already put together is your best bet. 4. Fleece does best being changed twice a week and small pads changed every day or ever other (pads where they pee most). Pads put in beds to change out as needed help the beds last longer as well. 5. Once you buy some fleece and love it, you will keep buying it and buying it and buying it...

im a 54 yr old father that eventually took over my sons 2 guinea pigs and i love them alot i take good care of them one of them is going on 8 yrs old and he is still going strong.i also use pee pads underneath the pine it works out real well with odor and keeps them dry especially if there is a spot that they like to sleep all the time the pads soak up and keep smell down but i still use a nice amount of shavings too,thanks scotty for all the videos they have helped me out alot

Best of both worlds Scotty a cute young man and cute piggies lol

As someone who has worked for cloth nappy (diaper) companies and has also used reusable cloth for my children, it occurred to me when watching this a similar approach could be taken when using fleece bedding. Scotty mentions uHaul padding or cotton batting - I'm not too sure on those as I'm in the UK. However, for use between the fleece I have some recommendations. Different fabrics hold liquid differently. The most common used are microfibre, cotton, bamboo and h*mp - if you look up reusable nappies you'll find they come as rectangular pads (known as 'boosters' or 'inserts') or 'prefolds'/'trifolds'. Microfibre absorbs very quickly, but like a sponge any pressure will cause the liquid to leak out. Bamboo and cotton are about equal, they absorb somewhat slower but they hold liquid in much better. H*mp absorbs very slowly but it locks in moisture. Now in terms of a cage, h*mp would work out really, really expensive over a large area, but it might be something to consider if your piggy tends to pee in one area. I am planning on trying a combination of a layer of microfibre layer (the thicker type used in nappies, which is available online per metre - not the thin type used as cleaning cloths) which will be directly under the top layer of fleece, then some sort of cotton (I may use some of my old cotton prefolds, but something like flannelette doubled up or even an old cotton towel would work well) underneath that. I am planning to stitch a sort of fleece pillowcase with an opening underneath to slide said padding into, as it will dry a heck of a lot quicker if you can remove the booster fabric. My theory is that the microfibre will soak up the liquid quickly so piggies don't roll into any puddles, then the cotton will lock in the moisture as it soaks through. I would also say a thinner fleece, especially for on top, would be a good idea to allow moisture to soak through quickly, which shouldn't affect comfort levels. I'm currently recovering from illness but will post back once I've given it a go, if anyone has anything to add or any suggestions please let me know, I've not owned guinea pigs in years and this will be my first time trying fleece bedding, but decided to use my knowledge of pee catching (lol!) to see if it would work! P.S - love your channel Scotty I'm so glad I found it after looking up C&C cage guides!

I am so glad that Nails is doing so well! You did an awesome job with him Scotty. I just adopted another female guinea pig for my first female. Both pigs are so happy. I love them both. I use fleece on both of them

Hi Scotty you rule I love your videos I learn a lot from you I have a female guinea pig her name is Cookie she is so awesome

Aw the guinea pigs are cute 😍😘❤

I tried a few types of bedding and endet up with wood litter because it's absurbed the smell the best. Once a week is cleaning time and it takes 40 Minutes for 2x 4x8. So we are happy with that.

My son's girlfriend helps him buy a guinea pig, and I am in love with it, I just tell my son that he needs to keep it clean if not he has to donated, I know I don't want to do that, but since he brings it, he needs to take responsibility, I gave the piggie food, cilantro kale ect, I love the way he eats it's lovely, I want to get him a playpen to take him out when I am at home, I haven't pick him up yet. Thankyou for all you do I'll be needing advice, God bless!!

I'm really striving to find a middle ground. If want them to be happy fluff potatoes, but I dont want to be messy, tired or money stricken. I actually find it fun trying to test what works and doesnt work. Thank you for your advice

So far Peach and Teddy are on pine shavings. Would like to try the fleece. Maybe make some. When Teddy zooms it’s like snowing shavings. LOL

I use pine for some cages and fleece for my pigs with health concerns. Fleece has odor no matter what, pine is much easier, but makes for a lot of garbage. Fleece takes more maintenance but looks better and is softer. Pros and cons with both. I prefer pine.

My piggies use straw and I am going to make some fleece bedding too.

This dude is so cool

I’ve got my three boys on fleece....however they have a large 2x4 box in their cage on the one side where I put in pine shavings and hay and they love it. They have a 9x2 cage with 2 hay lofts and I have made my own fleece pads there are many tutorials on you tube to make your own and I use the u-haul and anti pil fleece. in making my own I can make them with many extra absorbent layers, I have so far not had them smell of pee. I make large pads and many small pads so I only need to change the large pads weekly and the small pads as and when the need it. I have 13 dogs, 2 cats and the 3 guinea pigs so my washing machines ( I have one for the pets and one for my hubby and myself ) are always on the go. I wouldn’t have it any other way ❤️💋❤️

Gary is so cuuuute he looks like a mini bear

I’m loving switching to fleece. Just sewed up some fleece and Uhaul pads. Much less hassle and the guys like it so much better. Much less upkeep for me but I get the laundry issue if you don’t have a washer. I do put pee pads underneath to keep the chloroplast extra clean.