I do buy the bedding because shredded paper would have to be changed every day (we tried it, and couldn't keep up.) It's supposed to be unusable by-product of the paper making process, and I felt a little better at least composting it, but if it could be used for bedding I'd like to reuse it one more time.
I am trying to get my young children psyched about being worm farmers, they already like to turn compost so they can check out how many worms are employed under the pile. So, I guess we'll sort of treat them like pets, though there will be many more casualties. Obviuosly, we're trying to minimize worm deaths.
I have read lots of contradicting info on this forum, such as the virtues & dangers of using banana peels, egg shells and other things. Maybe I'll just need to try it and find out?

I think you have the right idea about trying things and seeing how they work. That is what I have done. After reading hundreds of posts on three sites I came to the conclusion there is no exact way or right or wrong with few exceptions. I don't use meat or milk products as they tend to smell. I would set up my bin and try the bedding and see what happens. You might need to keep a light on at night until they get used to their new home since it will probably be different than where they came from. I would guess that you will have children that develop 'worm buddies' and recycle your little animals bedding.

Are you serious about the light? I am confused. I thought I read if there was light, they would keep escaping, do I have that backwards?
How much food & bedding for a new system at first? I'll read some other forums, but since I have experienced wormers, I thought I'd get some insight from your experiences.

Worms don't like the light. They will shy away from it and dig back down into the dark so having a light on ( a low wattage bulb) would deter the worms from wandering off.wait until you see if escaping worms are an issue. It probably won't be.

As to your use of shredded newspapers for bedding, you said that you had to change teh bedding everyday. I assume you are talking about the guinea pigs bedding asnd not the worms bedding. You can just drop this used newspaper down to the worms and they will eat it. With the right design, the guinea pig poop could simply drop through the mesh floor right on to the worms in the bin, urine too.

All right I will give it a try and keep you posted as to how it works.
I don't use wood shavings, but I know a lot of people who do. Has anyone tried?
My sister has a rabbit, I wonder if she would bring me the "leftovers". This is where friends and family start pretending not to know me isn't it? We probably have more stuff than the new worms will be able to eat until we find out what makes them "happy little worms."

Pine and cedar wood shavings are bad for small animals. Certain compounds that they give off can cause serious health issues, unless the bedding has been heat cured.

I use standard woodstove wood pellets for my rabbits boxes (litter trained). They're like $5-6 for 40# and work as well as anything else I've found.

My worms are all outside in large areas, so the sawdust from the pellets isn't an issue- it gets mixe in with everything else.

We have two guinea pigs and we use shredded newspaper for their bedding. It goes directly into our outside compost bin when we change it (every 3-4 days). We also have one gerbil and I am considering getting more. The gerbil will shred items that I normally throw away and cannot recycle. Toilet paper and paper towel rolls, non-corrogated boxes (kleenex, cereal, etc), and even corrogated boxes. The one gerbil shreds these items at a considerable rate! All of this is used for its bedding and I regularly clean it out and put it in my worm bin inside the house. Works great!

Thanks.
I finally set my bin up yesterday. And had to pick up worms from my uncle. My bin came with coir and shredded paper, so I used a third coir, paper and old bedding. I am going to have WAY more bedding than I could ever use inside, so I guess I'll just continue to compost it outside.
Just ordered "Worms Eat My Garbage" from the library. It's a great book for using to explain to others what vermicomposting is. Everyone I've talked to has lots of questions. Think I should probably buy it, and keep it in my car.
(The librarian at my child's primary school is very interested, she's heard of school programs.)
My aunt (married to the "worm uncle") is not really a gardener but is along for the ride with my uncle's "nutty" schemes, compared worm bins and the sharing of the starter worms to bakers passing around that bread starter, it made me laugh. I did drive 20+ miles to pick up these guys.

Well, you get like 42 cents a mile driving allowance. Worms are $16-$20 a pound. Driving 20 miles each way- you still save money if all that you got was 1 pound. Good deal!

New issue: After depositing the little guys and letting them relax for a few days, and then poking in after them, I have come to realize that my uncle may have given me only 20ish worms, with about a pound of castings, in a cool whip container, which as a joke, my husband offered my mom, (who usually stores leftovers in these containers), luckily she is a gardener with a sense of humor. They seem to be happy(?) or at least not dead. Between the small lot of them, the 1 strawberry hull and 1 pear core which have been in there for over a week and are very furry.

So, things are moving VERY slowly. I am wondering if i should just order a pound or so of worms as things could take a year at this rate.

Worms multiply very quickly and there are probably eggs in your Uncle's worm casings. You can always order some but if they are going to be delivered, you'll have to hope that the weather isn't too cold and they don't freeze to death. As pointed out in an earlier post, they are pretty expensive too.

Just wanted to reply to an earlier post about wire bottom cages - these are ok for rabbits, but very dangerous for guinea pigs. They will cause the piggies to break their feet and legs and get a condition called "bumblefoot". A google search will get you more info.

Also, by the way, my worms *love* eating my guinea pig's poop. It's one of their favorites. :)

redchrysanthemum... You will need more worms, or just keep on moving ..slowly.

You just need to realize that with so few worms you will need almost no food put in the bed other than the pig leftovers. They will eat the bedding if they get hungry. You should have a bunch of egg sacs in the castings. They look like little lemons about the size of the o's in most typing. When nearing time to hatch they turn darker brown. Once you see one you can always find them easily.

Been looking around the internet for ways to use our guineapig poop when they arrive and I’ve been a vermicomposter for many years and have done my fair share of research on the subject. I am however no expert.

I just really want to remind everybody about the fact that small animals and rodents are usually “de-wormed” with medications that will also kill your compost worms.

Please please please ask your vet or do some research into how long it takes for these medications to become inert. Usually an aging period is sufficient or even an outdoor rinse in the garden will do because most medications are water soluble. Then feed to worms as bedding.

Ive used cow poop, horse poop, chicken and duck poop, and pig poop in the past and was always baffled at the lack of worm reproduction and the slowness of the decomposition until I found out about this and stopped feeding it until the meds were aged or rinsed away by the rain, after this I had massive population explosions and the process was sped up incredibly.