Guinea pigs!

[Kate Groves]

I am about to receive my new Hotbin, first time user. Does anyone have experience of putting the wood shavings, hay, newspaper and dropping from a pet rabbit or guinea pig into their hotbin? Thank you.

[Tamilou]

Hi
I'm new myself and waiting for my new Hotbin, but spotted an article that may help: https://www.hotbincomposting.com/blo...t-bedding.html
(I'm really enjoying looking into all of the things that can go in!)

[Lois Addy]

Hi Kate - I have a guineapig too. That's why I got the HotBin - for the hay and droppings. I've had it I think 3 -4 weeks now?

I read on the blog of Hotbin that I need to put the equivalent volume of animal waste (hay/droppings) as fresh green waste. Then use that volume to work out how much paper and bulking agent to use.

So what I've been doing is getting a third of a bucket of droppings, hay discoloured by wee, and biocatolet paper litter discoloured by wee when I muck him out. I've taken a third of a bucket of green waste (veg peelings, garden leaves etc all chopped to less than 4cm long). And mixed them together.

Then I've added the same volume of shredded paper and mixed it together. Then eyeballed 20%/ one fifth of that volume and added that much bulking agent. I've got through the initial bag of bulking agent already and today my bin is nearly to the top.

I do this twice a week. And I leave the lid CLOSED for 48 hrs before I check the temperature.

So far the temp has always been around 50degs for the internal thermometer 48hrs after I've added the batch of well mixed stuff. I mix it in 2-3 buckets then tip those in cos of disability I can't do stirring etc.

At first, when we set it up the walls were running with water and maggots were trying to escape. Now though it seems quite dry and you really can feel the heat near the vent. No idea what it looks like at the bottom. I came today to try to find out at what stage I open the bottom up, and whether I need to drain off some leachate....

How is yours going?

[Jastikur]

Yes, I put shavings and hay in mu Hotbin. I have a guinea pig and had some initial difficulty sorting out all this waste. The Hotbin does a good job and makes some pretty great compost for the ground. I`ve been using it since I had my own vegetable garden. Everything grows! Regarding the guinea - do you buy some kind of special litter for her? I used sawdust in the beginning, but she doesn't seem to like it very much I dunno what to replace it with yet… I’m also thinking about adding some variety to her diet. Been reading up on https://pawbility.com/can-guinea-pigs-eat-celery/. Never knew guineas had such a wide range of edible food.