Bed O’ Linum

Bed O’ Linum

Criteria and questions:

Animal Welfare Act minimum size cage, 4 foot by 2 foot, used to make the trial realistic. Guineas will always differ in “output” though!
2 guinea pigs
Enough bedding to cover the newspaper but NOT deep, (Deep bedding can easily hide injury to limbs/walking abnormally).
Bedding removed and replaced as opposed to added to, this is known as “deep littering” and is not advisable due to fumes building up, plus encouraging spores and bacteria to grow/spread).
How absorbent in comparison to other beddings?
How compostable in comparison to other beddings?
How financially economical in comparison to other beddings? Cost is important once safety is established!

Bed O’ Linum is the pet pack version of Flax bedding. Flax is a bedding used for horses and comes in large bales. The Bed O’ Linum is more suited to Humans that only have a few guineas and are unable to store the large bales sold for horses.

When choosing bedding it is the guinea pigs that are paramount, the bedding must not be solely chosen because it suits the Human. Guineas naturally like to forage, Bed O’Linum allows for this, beddings must be, of course, comfortable, Bed O’Linum is comfortable though not snug but putting hay under houses/in the bedding area or just random piles addresses this.

Bed O’Linum is very absorbent and lasts easily until the next complete change of bedding. All guinea pigs are different but Bed O’ Linum that is wet should be removed and replaced daily (ie replace one handful of wet with one of dry). There are often patches that will be wetter than others eg under houses.

Depending on the depth of bedding you give one 35 litre bag will do approximately 4 changes of bedding where the cage is a 4 foot by 2 foot and houses 2 guinea pigs.

Bed O’ Linum is a lot less bulky than Aubiose ( a similar bedding) and will rot down in 6-8 weeks making it environmentally friendly and therefore more appealing to gardeners who are looking for manure for their compost heap. The Bed O’Linum is spread onto of newspaper throughout the 4 foot by two foot cage making a pleasant walking surface and an absorbant base under houses that are filled with hay 🙂

Financially Bed O’Linum is more expensive than buying a bale of Flax for equines but makes a useful and reasonably long lasting package for those that are unable to store large bales.