Alternatives To Fleece: A Reflective Study!

Mamphers

Mamphers

Junior Guinea Pig
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so our little angel Tulio figured out how to burrow under the fleece. And no amount of weighting, distractions or adaptations would elivate it.

We have finally decided to decide an alternative and pets@home had a wooden litter on offer for 30L. Last night we did a deep clean and filled the bottom of the c and c with it. OH thought it looked like pellets and said they would try to eat it. To prove him wrong I offered it to Miguel. Who being the little s*** that he is, took it fully in his mouth and started chewing. A**hat.

Needless to say he got it stuck behind his teeth, and after five minutes of us panicking and holding him, he swallowed it down. We very cautiously opened the cage and let the boys in to inspect. Tulio took great joy and running and jumping through the pellets as it made a fantastic noise.

Both are using the tunnels and pads as stepping stones so think it's not particularly comfortable on their precious feet that have been on fleece their whole life!

Neither have eaten anymore, I think Miguel learnt his lesson and told Tulio to avoid.

Once this bag is used I will give wood shavings a whirl! The fleece was just getting too higher maintenance and our poor little washing machine couldn't handle it!

I will feedback with information on how the spot clean goes!
 
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Is it the wooden cat litter pellets? I use that in my litter trays. I lay hay on the top to make it more comfortable. I bought a huge sack of it but once it's all gone I will switch to something else. I have found the litter trays still need changing every day and when the pellets become wet with urine, they swell and expand then disintegrate. The trays end up twice as full and twice as heavy very quickly.
 
have you tried to put the edge of the fleece under the absorbent basis? it is difficult how to explain, look at my pics below. My fleece's edge is under the layer of newspapers, as you would do with a matress, and piggies cannot hide underneath: it works amazingly and is cost-free
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Mamphers said:
so our little angel Tulio figured out how to burrow under the fleece. And no amount of weighting, distractions or adaptations would elivate it.

We have finally decided to decide an alternative and pets@home had a wooden litter on offer for 30L. Last night we did a deep clean and filled the bottom of the c and c with it. OH thought it looked like pellets and said they would try to eat it. To prove him wrong I offered it to Miguel. Who being the little s*** that he is, took it fully in his mouth and started chewing. Asshat.

Needless to say he got it stuck behind his teeth, and after five minutes of us panicking and holding him, he swallowed it down. We very cautiously opened the cage and let the boys in to inspect. Tulio took great joy and running and jumping through the pellets as it made a fantastic noise.

Both are using the tunnels and pads as stepping stones so think it's not particularly comfortable on their precious feet that have been on fleece their whole life!

Neither have eaten anymore, I think Miguel learnt his lesson and told Tulio to avoid.

Once this bag is used I will give wood shavings a whirl! The fleece was just getting too higher maintenance and our poor little washing machine couldn't handle it!

I will feedback with information on how the spot clean goes!
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I feel your pain. Pudding has turned out to be a burrower, even in my lap! I tried wood shavings in her enclosure for a few days but she didn't seem to like it, and then cleaning out a 5x2 was a right pain. Just so much shavings! But the burrowing continues and she pulls up the edges hide and toilet , even though they have hidies and cozies, sigh.

I look forward to hearing how it goes for you!
 
Well clean out one was done by OH. He moaned at the amount of time t took but overall I think our living room is less pong. The guys virtually bounded out for floor time though so think they aren't loving it too much haha.

OH couldn't find any wee clumps but it's my turn to spot clean tomorrow so we will see what the pro can find!

On another note - with the pellets you can hear when they're running around popcorning from another room as the pellets skid all over the correx haha!
 
rome_italy said:
have you tried to put the edge of the fleece under the absorbent basis? it is difficult how to explain, look at my pics below. My fleece's edge is under the layer of newspapers, as you would do with a matress, and piggies cannot hide underneath: it works amazingly and is cost-free
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I like this idea, but we had this initially and Tulio managed to get under all three layers! (Fleece, towel and puppy pads!)
 
Mamphers said:
I like this idea, but we had this initially and Tulio managed to get under all three layers! (Fleece, towel and puppy pads!)
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ahahahah!:)):))
Tulio wants to be a mole!:))
Maybe the same fleece could work if you put a great amount of hay on it, so that Tulio can go under the hay. He likes being covered, it happened months ago here, under the cupboard where my lazy piggies liked to spend (too much) time during floor time. I used to put an old tablecloath, but they always got under it
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that was their floor time... until I changed the arrangement of the floor... I closed the cupboard's lower access :sly:
 
My girls are currently on hemp bedding but hopefully I'll be changing back to fleece soon. All the girls prefer is but Amber is a burrower! I'm hoping that buying some heavy duty fleece liners may help as they may be too heavy for her to pull up. XD
 
I use a kind of paper bedding... it's called Fresh N' Comfy. It's supposedly safe to ingest (though the only time I really had a pig persistently try to eat it is when Hadley was on Baytril, which upset her gut and made her try to eat a variety of non-nutritive items, not just bedding but also carpet, drywall, baseboards, etc.) It costs more than wood shavings, but it absorbs better, doesn't smell, and I'm seriously allergic to most wood beddings, including the hard woods like aspen. I did try fleece for a bit, but Sundae was freaked out by the change and I didn't like having more laundry to deal with (I already have three kids and my husband and and I so I already do a ton of laundry a week and our washing machine is on the old side.) I also used Carefresh (another paper bedding) for ages, but on the whole I find that Fresh N Comfy absorbs more and as the individual pieces are smaller, it is easier to spot clean the pee corner without removing half the bedding in the cage each time!
 
Freela said:
I use a kind of paper bedding... it's called Fresh N' Comfy. It's supposedly safe to ingest (though the only time I really had a pig persistently try to eat it is when Hadley was on Baytril, which upset her gut and made her try to eat a variety of non-nutritive items, not just bedding but also carpet, drywall, baseboards, etc.) It costs more than wood shavings, but it absorbs better, doesn't smell, and I'm seriously allergic to most wood beddings, including the hard woods like aspen. I did try fleece for a bit, but Sundae was freaked out by the change and I didn't like having more laundry to deal with (I already have three kids and my husband and and I so I already do a ton of laundry a week and our washing machine is on the old side.) I also used Carefresh (another paper bedding) for ages, but on the whole I find that Fresh N Comfy absorbs more and as the individual pieces are smaller, it is easier to spot clean the pee corner without removing half the bedding in the cage each time!
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Did you find cqrefresh expensive? In our p@h it's extortionate!
 
So I spot cleaned today, and it's a bloody nightmare. The pellets turn to an almost dust when wet and doesn't clump - a nightmare not only for guinea lungs but also my boyfriends weak asthmatic lungs!

Will change to wood shavings asap unless suggestions are out there? X
 
Mamphers said:
So I spot cleaned today, and it's a bloody nightmare. The pellets turn to an almost dust when wet and doesn't clump - a nightmare not only for guinea lungs but also my boyfriends weak asthmatic lungs!

Will change to wood shavings asap unless suggestions are out there? X
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Yup, that's what the wood pellets are supposed to do! Heh. Not great for the reasons you mentioned, though, of course. I use Carefresh myself, but there's a few other options out there - Back2Nature, aubiose, Megazorb. I had to switch back to using wood shavings for a week and I could tell the difference, they're not something I would recommend long term.
 
I use fleece in the main cage. My little sweeties have never even attempted to burrow so all good there!

In the hay tray area I use hemparade bedding from zooplus and loads of hay. The hemparade is great and nicely absorbent.


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Lorcan said:
Yup, that's what the wood pellets are supposed to do! Heh. Not great for the reasons you mentioned, though, of course. I use Carefresh myself, but there's a few other options out there - Back2Nature, aubiose, Megazorb. I had to switch back to using wood shavings for a week and I could tell the difference, they're not something I would recommend long term.
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Can I ask how far a 10L bag goes? We have s 4x2 c and c x
 
I use a 60l bag between two 2x4 cages, but I like to give them a couple of inches of bedding before I add hay over the top. That said I'll only use the Carefresh Natural, I don't like either the confetti or the ultra. I have no doubt I could make the Carefresh go further if I didn't mind putting down a thinner layer, but that's a personal choice thing.
 
Mamphers said:
Did you find cqrefresh expensive? In our p@h it's extortionate!
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I find all the paper beddings expensive, honestly. Though the one I am using now (Fresh N Comfy) I find less so because, although the pack itself is still expensive, I find it absorbs better and thus I go through less than Carefresh.
 
Mamphers said:
So I spot cleaned today, and it's a bloody nightmare. The pellets turn to an almost dust when wet and doesn't clump - a nightmare not only for guinea lungs but also my boyfriends weak asthmatic lungs!

Will change to wood shavings asap unless suggestions are out there? X
Click to expand...
Your boyfriend's weak asthmatic lungs may not appreciate the change to wood shavings either... softwood shavings (pine, cedar) have aromatic oils that can irritate asthmatics (plus the lungs of your pets.) Hard woods like aspen are supposed to be better- but I can warn you that they will bother some people too. I don't have asthma, but over years of exposure I did develop increasingly severe allergies to wood shavings, to the point that before I changed to paper, I had to pre-medicate with allergy meds and wear a mask to do cage cleanings- and that was with aspen, which is supposed to be the best of the woods for breathing issues. It was not pretty! I started out with minor stuffiness to stronger-smelling softwood cedar shavings (in childhood, when we didn't know any better that they were not good for the animal's respiratory system) and ended up with hard-core, wheezing, eyes swelling shut allergies by the time I was in my mid-20s even to the 'good' wood shavings with low aromatic oils.
 
IMG_1933.webp IMG_1937.webp IMG_1942.webp IMG_1945.webp Well today we decided that enough was enough after changing the wooden pellets and our whole living room was covered in a fine layer of wood dust. The amount that came out of the cage I really wasn't happy with, my poor boys, OH included, breathing in that much wood dust. So off to p@h to find an alternative. Luckily another piggy mum was there and told us her carefresh 60l natural lasts well over a month but didn't specify cage size. Thought it wouldn't hurt to try and should this not be acceptable, I would just buy some more fleece etc and make some more liners big enough to clip over the edges.

I have to say - so far very impressed as are the boys (see pictures) Much less effort to lift about and much comfier on their feet. To cover the floor of a 2*4 c and c was about a third of a 60l bag. Will report back after first spot clean!
 
Mamphers said:
View attachment 65955 View attachment 65956 View attachment 65957 View attachment 65958 Well today we decided that enough was enough after changing the wooden pellets and our whole living room was covered in a fine layer of wood dust. The amount that came out of the cage I really wasn't happy with, my poor boys, OH included, breathing in that much wood dust. So off to p@h to find an alternative. Luckily another piggy mum was there and told us her carefresh 60l natural lasts well over a month but didn't specify cage size. Thought it wouldn't hurt to try and should this not be acceptable, I would just buy some more fleece etc and make some more liners big enough to clip over the edges.

I have to say - so far very impressed as are the boys (see pictures) Much less effort to lift about and much comfier on their feet. To cover the floor of a 2*4 c and c was about a third of a 60l bag. Will report back after first spot clean!
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Good luck with it! It really is great stuff, I find.
 
I haven't read through all of the replies so sorry if you have had this suggestion.
Have you tried Vet Bed? I have all 8 Boys on it and it's amazing!
Absorbs the wee and holds it extremely well so they aren't lying on wet beds, easy to scrape poo off or hoover!

To change their beds all I do is remove hay and poo, take toys out shake off excess hay and then pop it into a horse rug wash bag and
stick it in the washing machine on a bed and bath setting. It dries lovely and lasts for years and years!
 
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