I'm wondering if anyone raises their litter exclusively on puppy training pads (or adult incontinent pads) with success. I have used newspaper and hated it! What a mess and the pups ripped that up within minutes. I have used shavings and although that made for cleaner puppies, I hated the dust and the chore of changing all that litter every day. I most recently used wood pellets in a litter pan and that worked ok but I still felt like it was wasting my money because I could have had nearly the same result teaching them to use an empty litter pan. They dug in the pellets and went outside of the litter pan as much as they went in. Sometimes just their front legs were in the pan but the mess ended up on the floor for everyone to walk through. This litter I have now is almost 5 weeks and I have been using just the puppy training pads so far. The puppies are using those about 50% of the time during the day in their big pen and almost 100% at night in the whelping box. I would love to stay with this but I'm worried they are going to start ripping them up as they get older and more curious. Also wondering if the pads will hold the amount of urine a litter of 7-8 week olds produce or if I will be changing pads every few hours throughout the day. Input from anyone who has used the pads would be very appreciated! TIA
I use the potty box with the pellets, and line the outside with potty pads covered in newspaper.
Yes they do shred the potty pads if I leave on even the least bit exposed. I don't like the idea of my puppies eating plastic, so they're always well covered.
I start using potty pads at 1 1/2 weeks in the whelping box, by the time the are 3 weeks old and ready to move to the big set up in the den they know about where to go. I put papers down and put the potty pads over them so they get the idea pretty quickly.I gradually phase out the potty pads, they will chew them and they do have that wickedly absorbant material that gives puppies a tummy ache. Some litters faster than others. It is still cleaner than shavings, no smell, when they go I fold up that part of the paper and put fresh paper down. However I am home all day and my DH is home all evening and this works for us.
