My litter is 3 weeks old now and they are still at the moment in the 4ft x 4ft whelping box. I have taken out one half of the vet bed and put in newspaper as they are now toileting on their own. The pups are now going onto the newspaper to poo/wee rather than on the vet bed which is fantastic.  However it is not absorbent and despite going through 15!! newspapers today they have still managed to walk through pee and sit in puddles or walk through poo which they have then walked onto the vet bed.  My lovely yellow pups are now a dull colour already and they smell like old ink which is disgusting. The smell of the wet newsprint is also irritating my asthma somewhat too (dogs are not a trigger fortunately). This morning they had ruckled it up and pooed and weed to such an extend that it was all in bits, stuck to the wooden floor of the box and they were covered in slimy poo covered bits of paper.

I know that 99% of people use newspaper but there must be an alternative that is at least a bit more absorbent isnt there?  Can anyone tell me anything about this 'teabag bedding' that Ive seen talked about?

Alfieshmalfie - up to my armpits in poo

I bought a load of the mats washable mats you can buy for kennels and used them under the newspaper, saves the carpet and is easily washed. I do use puppy pads under the newspaper until the pups discover them and start trying to eat them. Never really had a problem with the pups stinking even overnight.

If you are using newspaper, I found it helps if you put a thick layer down and then put loads of shredded newspaper on top of it, then the wees and poos are not swimming about on top but rather they go through the shredded bits and get covered up by the shreds of paper.

I use the puppy pads but I have a toy breed and usually only 2/3 puppies in a litter so it never gets too messy.

I don't know about teabag bedding, sorry.

I shred everything in the shredder and use this, and with the newspaper I shred that by hand (tear across the grain into 4, and then into short strips with the grain), much more absorbent, and keeps pups clean.

Really comes into it's own the first clean up of the morning, no pooey feet in your face.

Only disadvantage is it travels, but I don't mind the extra hoovering.

I used a piece of vinyl flooring underneath the newspaper to protect the cardboard whelping box (it came up the sides about 6")  then a wad of newspapers and shredded newspaper on top.   Once in the puppy pen it was the same, Vinyl to protect the laminate from seepage, newspaper and shredded on top.   I was cleaning them out every time they wee'd and poo'd and of course being springtime pups they spent a lot of time out of doors from about 4 weeks on which helped, then I just had to mop and pick up outside LOL    I'm always amazed at how much wee and poo young pups can put out though   

Luckily, only 4 pups in my litters, knowing that was the average was one of the deciding factors when weighing up whether or not to breed, not sure I could keep up with a larger litter LOL

Do you have a routine for them?   I found that feeding them just before they crashed, rather than feeding them when they woke up, meant that they would poo just after eating, then sleep, the poo on waking, then they would not wee and poo until they ate again so weren't running through it  - making it easier to pick up as it was more predictable.  I did have to be on the ball in the morning though to catch them as they woke up :-D

if you type in teabag bedding there is two companies that sell it.it comes in 15 kg bags it excellent and it sdoks up everything and all you do is pick up the soiled bit.e mail me and will get the info for you

Can you post on here the companies that sell them - I'm sure many people would be interested - thanks

I use vinyl tablecloth off the roll from Dunelm. Only 2.99 a metre. I use white. Very easy to clean.

Please could you post up the link for the teabag bedding as I've searched through CD for ages as I know I've read about it before. I think the vinyl tablecloth would be great for underneath something absorbent but it would be like a skating rink on its own.

I buy online a 4ft roll of brown paper purposefor wrapping ebay stuff i spose but it works great.i lay this on top of the whelping box bottom,then on top(and ive tried a lot of things)i useon one side white vet bed that you can SEE little wee wees before its the smell you notice to make you change it then on the other side i use newspaper shredded.i lay puppy pads down ontop of the brown paper and shredded paper seems to fall into the little wee wees and soak it up...but then i make sure i clean up after every single poo so not to run in it.works for me

I use huge wads of newspaper...imagine coming down to 9 large breed very fluffy pups after a night...they have a large run but boy can they make a mess !!! Last trip out into the garden at about 12 midnight then up by 6am... to seagull screaches, they can trash a run full of newspaper completly. I get through about 10 dog food bag fulls of newspaper to a litter at least. Puppy pads would be so expensive and easy to trash, brown paper too would be too expensive, at least when I put clean newspaper down at night and they decide to shred it it is still absorbant... I have a piece of vinalay under the run with the newspaper on top. I put it down in wads because they do love to shred it!! nothing like 4 Bern pups at 7 weeks all playing tug of war with sheets of newspaper. I find they do huge poos too and it is easy to just roll up a bit of paper with the poo in it and dispose of it.
It is a full time job when they are awake.. Thats why I like to get them out into the outside run as soon as possible...then a shovel and mop is brought into play!
Aileen

I tried the teabag bedding put found the puppies slid on it and I ended up with bare spaces on the whelping box floor where they spread it everywhere.

A friend on FB has litter box trained her puppies, not actually litter as in cat stuff, but a small space in a tray with absorbent puppy pads or old peoples home incontinence pads which is what we used this time. My plan to try this is when pups toileting on there own have whelping box with 2 crates one at either side of box. One sleeping quarters, other play den and then there own WC place puppies in here after meal times sleeping etc as you would with one puppy putting outside for toilet training. Paper in play den but pads in the WC vet bed and blankeys in the sleeping quarter. This way they wont smear or run through doings when playing.

this is the link for the bedding http://www.lawsonanimalfeeds.co.uk/bedding/136-white-shredded-paper-beddig.html
it is fantastic and soaks up everything its can be a bit messy, but it does the job and the pups stay nice and clean
hope it helps

That looks good, how do you get rid of it ? Do you burn it ?
My last litter we bagged all the newspaer up and took it to the tip. The man at the tip was fine about it, but it was a bit of a pain making several trips a week.
As it was a winter litter it seemed to rain everyday and so we couldn't burn it, but if I have another litter, I may look into some sort of brasier or garden burner if there is such a thing.

With mine it goes in bags and into black bin (destined for landfill) with the rest of the dog waste.

I use puppy pads, and then newspaper with a puppy pad on top when they're about six week old. I put lots down with pads beneath and just take off the top sheets when needed. They do try to play with them sometimes but only first thing in the morning as during the day when they're not sleeping they're out and about with me in the house or garden.

Thank you for all your replies, today I had a delivery of tea bag bedding and at the moment I am really impressed!  I have put a thick layer of newspaper down first in the box then a fairly large plastic dog bed with some vet bed in (pups are now 3 and half weeks and medium breed so dont have a problem with getting in and out. The rest of the box has a layer of the teabag bedding in.  It comes really quite compacted, more than you think and you fluff it out so you dont end up with any hard lumps.  When the pups have poo'd the strips tend to wrap around the poo for easy removal and any wee's are easily picked out. Not one of the pups has tried to eat it yet, but it its very thin and where tissue goes soggy and in a ball this tends to disintegrate.

Ive tried puppy pads however overnight they shredded them and the contents has some sort of gel in it together with some sort of cotton wool type fibre I really didnt like the look of.

We shall see how this goes, it might all go belly up if it travels everywhere!

You can easily use a barrier against the puppy pen to limit the stuff travelling too much (I used a length of skirting board).

Thats brilliant thank you, it is working fantastically, however it does travel a little. But I have much cleaner pups, they arent walking through everything and the poo is much easier to take out. The pups dont smell of newspaper now either, even though there is a thick layer at the bottom of the box.

I found shredded paper (I shred my own so it's multicoloured and use all read letters, bills, the junk mail thin card etc) not only keeps pups cleaner but reduces the smell, and as you say makes it cleaner and easier to remove the soiled areas and poo.

A bit like how they dealt with kids being sick at school by covering it with sawdust first and then swepign away.  Ditto at shows to cover and dispose of soiling in the ring.

two companies sell it ie JSW & SONS COACHBUILDERS andTHE PET FOOD COMPANY anymore problems post me thanks

I bought mine from the Coachbuilders company.  Very quick service and straw bale type sized bags of bedding.  It is working out really well, it does track a little but that is only if it gets attached to your sock or something.  No smells, no bits being eaten, no dust and no bedding type smell.

Best thing is the pups wee and it gets absorbed and if they poo then the bits sort of wrap around it.  Easy to sweep up to clean out and replace.

Alfieshmalfie, I've sent you a PM. Just need an idea how far the tea bag bedding goes. :)

Will reply via pm also, but the bag of teabag bedding is very densely packed so you have to 'fluff' it up and seperate it.  I have a dog health Big Foot pen which is octagonal shaped and 8ft by 8ft. To put a 10cm deep layer of teabag bedding all over the pen (it does compact with pups running over it so ends up like a 2cm layer over a couple of hours) it takes about a sixth of a bag.

To clean it out, I do basically what I would do if I was cleaning out a horse lol. When the pups are having one of their meals and out of the pen with my son looking after them, so four/five times a day, I sweep all the bedding to one side. I then go through it and put the totally clean bedding over to one corner taking out any damp/dirty bits as I go. I do have a bit of protective newspaper under the corner where they all seem to go to the toilet the most so that all gets rolled up and put in the rubbish bag too.The wee ends up in a damp clump and the poo has paper strands around it so it is easy to take out.  Gradually I end up with a smaller pile of still clean bedding in the corner. I then mop the floor, dry it, put down some newspapers as a bit of a protective base spread out the clean bedding that is left and add some more to top up. One bale has lasted me just over a week. 

The only disadvantages I can see so far is that you have to keep an eye on their water bowl as you end up with some strands in there, they go quite see through in water so you wouldnt want a pup to drink a bit by accident.  The other thing is that it does get stuck to your feet if you walk about in the pen with socks on, it then can travel over the house a bit. But that is easily hoovered up.

Ive not had any pups eat it, it doesnt smell or is dusty when you take it out of the bag and my pups are still yellow, not newsprint grey.  I have added a picture to my signature so you can see the pen with the layer of teabag bedding in it.

That's fab, thank you :)

After using teabag bedding for the first time what's your final verdict - be completely honest? ;-) How many packs did you get through with your litter?

I'm just thinking ahead, quite a while ahead, but thought I'd ask as it's so fresh in your mind :-) Ta.

I'd be interested in hearing the final verdict too.  I was very tempted to try it but my bitch is still clearing up after the pups and they are mainly on solids now, so I don't see her stopping.  Don't want to use it if she's still cleaning after them as I would imagine she would ingest the tea bag bedding too.

Mine will clean up after their pups all the time they still go indoors/puppy pen, unless I manage to beat them to it. 

I use shredded paper and card from my shredder and if they do ingest some have found no issues as a result, so white paper should be even less of an issue.

I'm currently on my phone and running around like a mad thing untiluthis evening, will do a proper write up later :-)

Am on my computer now which makes it easier. From the time that the pups were three and a half weeks old until they went to their new homes at the end of last week aged 9 weeks (due to Christmas) I used just under five bales. That is in a 'Big Foot' dog pen from Dog Health.  I found that I had to put a layer of newspaper underneath it, but not a thick layer whatsoever, just to help soak up the wee, as I had 8 med gundog pups weighing around 6kg each! I found that I could fluff up the teabag bedding considerably and it went a very long way.  I tended to put a heap of it over about 1/3 of the floor area and as soon as it was down the pups would 'bum tuck' through it and roll around in it having loads of fun so they spread it out themselves. I found that it was so good that I only needed to clean them out first thing in the morning and in the evening, just by rolling up the newspaper and sweeping the floor with one of these: http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/jm/jml-microfibre-mop-and-bonus-mitt.jpg then giving it a mop over with some disinfectant.

The wees tended to be absorbed by the bedding and any that wasnt got soaked up by the paper, any poos got wrapped around with the strips and therefore the pups couldnt roll around in it or even walk it everywhere tbh.  I found that they didnt smell like they had done just on newspaper and stayed lovely and clean.  The pups did carry bits of it around in their mouths, however they didnt seem to eat it, certainly if they ate some by mistake it wasnt like tissue that formed stodgy pellets, it became just as teabags do if they are kept wet and sort of disintegrated.  The bales are easy to store as they come in strong clear sealed bags plus they are delivered with black thick bin bag type plastic over them too.  They are reasonably light as well.

Another advantage came to light when I had initially bought three bales, thinking that would last me, whilst waiting for the last two bales to arrive the pups were on just newspaper. No matter how often I completely changed all their newspaper, they stank. They were on four meals a day by this time and doing lots of rough housing and playing.  They were walking through poo as quickly as I could clear it up, were weeing just as soon as I put paper down then ripping it all to shreds and carrying around sheets of paper. It was a complete nightmare.  With the teabag bedding on top, they didnt touch the paper whatsoever.

The disadvantages - there were a few.  I had to put about a foot of corrugated plastic around the bottom of the sides of the pen as the bedding just escaped, some did still come out over the top of the barrier on pups feet as they jumped up at the sides, these little bits did get tracked all over the house on my sons socks even though I swept them up frequently. It attached itself to toys (especially if they had been pooed on) and also onto fleecy type dog beds and vet bed although it could be shaken off easily. I still had to use newspaper but not half as much as I would have needed to.  The rubbish bags were bigger due to all the bedding, however they squished down easily.

I found that the advantages for the pups, ie, no smell, no rolling in poo despite frequent cleaning out and just general cleanliness much better.

All in all, I would definately use it again and even though the courier costs were almost the same amount as the bedding, the delivery was literally next day and the bedding was perfectly clean and exactly as described. I used the company JSW & Son Coachbuilders.

Thanks for feedback. You've convinced me to give it a go with my next litter!

I like sawdust :-O ... oh yes, really, I do :-D It's wonderful stuff in an outside playpen (not inside obviously, that would be plain silly!), so looking forward to working out some sort of comibination with newspaper, teabags and sawdust. What a wonderful mix that sounds!

Hope all your pups are doing well in their new homes :-D

I am going to take a trip to the local equine shop before my next litter, and have a look at what they have, as there a few types of biodegradable horse beddings out now and I thought they may work.
I used newspapers last time and pads under the vet bed, but used loads with  large breed gundog puppies, far too much to put in the bin and as we had a lot of rain I could not burn it, so OH had to bag it up and take it to the tip every other day.
Something that was biodegradable I was thinking I could use on the compost heap.

Would be a bit worried about using sawdust, I have used it with horses, but with puppies if they roll around and play in it some could get in there eyes.

Has anyone with horses used Belvoir bedding ? What do you think would it work in a puppy pen ?

Would be a bit worried about using sawdust, I have used it with horses, but with puppies if they roll around and play in it some could get in there eyes.

My breeder friend and mentor doesn't like sawdust, she likes shavings 'cause she thinks sawdust gets in the eyes. I don't like shavings as can get some horribly sharp nasty bits ... more of a danger to eyes in my opinion. It might be just my breed (I do have exceptionally clever dogs :-D ) but never had a problem with sawdust and I'll be sticking with it. Doesn't get into their eyes, gets into their coats beautifully :-D but then when they've just rolled in a bit of poo I haven't had time to clear up, the sawdust blots into it nicely!

Trouble with newspapers is that poos just get skidded in. Off now to have a look at what Belvoir bedding is! ;-)

Edited to say: wouldn't use sawdust until pups were outside in an undercover pen ... ie 5-6 weeks of age! This isn't something I'd suggest for use in a whelping box - just in case anyone thought that's what I was suggesting :-)

I found the worst period was between 3-6 weeks, after that I was letting them out at regular intervals so the puppy pen stayed fairly clean. By the time they went to their new homes at 8 weeks they were virtualy clean.

Up to six weeks, I was using thick pads of newspaper, which were soaked through in no time despite changing four or five times per day, and picking up the poohs as soon as I saw them, whenever possible. the sheer amount and the weight of the soggy paper was a nightmare. I used pads under the vet bed, and washed and changed it everday, but if I put the pads in the pen, the pups just shredded them, so we went pack to newspaper.

I saw another form of bedding called Easybed and there was some others made of wood pellets all for horse bedding but I thought they may work in a puppy pen. I don't have horses now, but when I did I always used bales of shavings, which even when the horses were stabled in winter was very absorbent.
Any horse owners out there have any suggestions ? I think their is more choices of bedding available now as it is some years since I had mine.