bathing sand

[jjodie2303]

Hi how often should I change the bathing sand???

[ilikedegus]

Hi Jjodie

As long as it's still mostly sand and not too much poos and bits of hay etc, and there's enough to roll in, it's probably doing its job for your goos.

Others may give a different view, but I have only ever sieved out the bits and topped up the sandbath from time-to-time (yes I have an old sieve I use for this purpose, it's not my kitchen sieve).

I suppose a very deep sandbath will perhaps start to stink after a while, but I've never got to that point - the volume of sand always goes down as they use it, whether kicked out or carried away on the fur.

If it's not offending you, I'd leave it as long as possible.

(My goos have let me know I need to dust in the past, by rolling along the top of the DVD player under the TV...and Houdini found some lovely black dust in the coal scuttle once).

[klbishop]

I leave mine as long as possible as there is lots of scent marking involved and I find that each time I change it we have more fights and irritable goos

[ilikedegus]

I agree with kbishop, I'd forgotten to point that out. Definitely a place where communication scents are left and (see kbishop's post!)

[jenowuk]

Apr 20, 2014 12:47:14 GMT ilikedegus said:

(My goos have let me know I need to dust in the past, by rolling along the top of the DVD player under the TV...and Houdini found some lovely black dust in the coal scuttle once).

LOL! I can just see your goo rolling in coal dust!

[jjodie2303]

Thank you guys I was actually changing it once a week but I was hoping I could leave it longer. I think that the sieve is a good idea haha.

[klbishop]

maybe monthly at ours sometimes even longer than that

[ntg]

Apr 20, 2014 13:45:11 GMT klbishop said:

I leave mine as long as possible as there is lots of scent marking involved and I find that each time I change it we have more fights and irritable goos

Adding onto this, I once changed the sand and gave the bath a deep clean at the same time... with emphasis on the once. I've never heard anything like it; they didn't attack each other but they wouldn't stop squealing. Smeg had terrorised the others into a corner and wouldn't let them move an inch, probably with him being blind so the vast majority of his social cues will be scent based. It settled down after the day, but even when I change dust now, I always put my hand in it so that my scent goes into it which seems to calm them down somewhat.

[klbishop]

sound like my orrible lot

[Patrick]

Is there a difference between bathing sand and bathing dust? I saw a good deal on a large container of blue cloud dust I wanted to buy but didn't know if it was OK for my goos. I currently use bathing sand for them.

[moletteuk]

I'm honestly not certain. I use a combination of a sand product and a sepiolite clay product, the sepiolite is magnesium silicate and has mixed particle sizes, some more granular, some quite fine. The Blue Cloud seems to be a very fine dust of aluminium silicate. It seems to be recommended in the chinchilla world, but I'm not certain if degus have the same ability to cope with the dustiness. Personally, I'm not sure I would use it on its own.

[animalmadchloe]

I poo sieve and don't change too often

[jamiee]

I'd never change the sand. Just sieve the sand for food and poo, then add more. They fight sometimes if you change the sand, as they don't smell familiar anymore.