Getting the most from your Bags of Fun…

Bags of Fun sold by www.planetguinea.co.uk are great for encouraging guinea pigs to forage, a natural behaviour that can be lost or even dangerous depending on the bedding. Fleece and veterinary bedding/Happy Soles do not cater for foraging and Planet Guinea does not recommend it as a permanent bedding used over all the guinea pigs’ living space. Similarly wood shavings are not an acceptable bedding for guinea pigs, as well as the drying action they have on the skin (leaving it prone to fungal problems) they can respiratory problems, not ideal for a guinea pig to forage in.

To help your guinea pigs get the most from their Bags of Fun it is essential that they are stuffed with a good quality hay (dust free and either golden brown or green, and smelling of grass ( as opposed to a musty smell). Dust Free Hay sell 3x dust extracted hay which the guineas here love. For extra foraging fun hide some dried Plantain amonst the hay, available from www.thehayexperts.co.uk

The rest is up to the guineas! There is no set way of using your Bag of Fun, providing it is stuffed with hay the guineas will do what comes naturally; usually eat the contents and then create their designs on the Bag- or not! Feedback from customers has confirmed that guineas seem to do the same each time with the Bag, after eating many will nibble a hole in the back and create a tunnel, others prefer to shred it until it is no more, while others prefer to sit on top of the Bags, sometimes making a noise encouraging the more optimistic members of the Planet to ‘wheek’ expectedly. The ‘non Party Pigs’ are happy to have their Bag of Fun refilled again and again

During 2009 we have added coloured Bags of Fun after first using them to help raise money for Comic Relief. They proved very popular with the Humans who found the brown Bags somewhat dull and boring and at their request (and insistence in some cases!) we have slowly introduced more colours and now offer Red Stripe, Blue Stripe, Pink Stripe and Rainbow coloured Bags. The guinea pigs don’t seem to favour any colour in particular but are preferring the larger Bags.