Crown Animal Bedding consists of recycled newspaper that is compressed into pellet form. Crown works best when used in combination with another bedding, serving as the odor control agent underneath a layer of softer bedding, such as timothy hay. Another recycled paper, pelleted bedding is Yesterday's News . It comes in regular pellets and soft texture pellets, and contains an odor-controlling agent. Corn cob bedding is also an alternative, though it is more prone to growing mold than other beddings.
Straw is completely unsuitable as bedding.
It does not absorb urine, and the hard stalks can cause serious injuries. Timothy hay is arguably the best bedding for guinea pigs. Timothy also smells nice when fresh. It is best to buy hay directly from a feed and garden store or a farmer, as the commercially packaged hay that is sold in pet stores has been dried out to prevent molding on the shelf. It is harder, drier and less suitable as bedding than fresh hay.