Product Review: Oxbow BeneTerra Eco-Straw Litter

Today we're going to review a new Oxbow product: Oxbow BeneTerra Eco-Straw Litter. In general, we love Oxbow products, although we usually review the edible kinds.

Hey, that looks like our pellets!

Although this stuff kind of resembles our morning pellets (Oxbow Essentials Cavy Cuisine Adult Guinea Pig Food) at first glance, there's no mistaking it once you get up close. This are bigger, fatter pellets that don't smell tasty at all. They don't smell like much of anything.

Why would someone create bedding that looks like our morning pellets? Is this a prank?

If your guinea pig somehow gets fooled by this trick and ends up eating some, don't worry. The package claims it is "Safe If Consumed," and the only ingredient is wheat straw (which isn't very nutritious, but is harmless as far as we can tell).

We are fearful creatures in general, so we were kind of scared of the new bedding at first. (Lola pretended not to be since she wants to prove she's the dominant one, but trust me, she was scared too). The humans had to lure us onto it with a treat to give it a chance. (The things we'll do for treats!)

I'll just wait here a couple minutes and make sure this new litter doesn't swallow Lola whole or anything like that. You never know!

Even after we got over our initial fear of the new litter, however, there were problems. One of the problems with this litter is that it's too hard, making it unpleasant to walk on. This was the same problem the last bedding we reviewed had. We didn't hear the humans complain much about odors or being difficult to clean, which is good. However, this is probably because we didn't spend much time in the little cage once they put this stuff in, so there wasn't a lot of mess for the litter to absorb. In addition, some humans have complained about this stuff being expensive, and that if your guinea pig actually goes to the bathroom a lot on this stuff, it will break down into a "powdery, fibrous mess" that your human will probably complain about cleaning up. Yuck! On the plus side, this stuff is environmentally friendly.

Oxbow, we love your treats, but we didn't love this litter. We'll give it 2.5/5 stars.