Changing To Fleece Bedding?

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jessiewarry

jessiewarry

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Hi! I'm getting a new cage for my piggies and I want to change to fleece bedding :) I have seen the small post about it but I wanted more information about it and positives and negatives and to see if it's for me!
My boys REALLY smell! would this be worse with fleece? I clean them out 1-3 times a week and poo pick every day.
Also, it sounds stupid but what is "fleece"? Obviously I've seen pictures but is it basically a cut and sized blanket? With a towel underneath?
How should the fleece be held down? One of my girls likes to dig her wood shavings so she might dig it up?
 
Hi! I'll be honest it is quite trial an error with fleece. I have 4 boys, 2 on fleece and 2 on shavings as they are smelly! :p The two on fleece work as a I have a small shaving section/litter tray where they do most of their poops and wees, so although they do poo in their hideys they don't wee much so the smell is easy to manage, changing the little pads every few days and the whole fleece section every 4. The other 2 wee and poo so much where they sleep and not in 1 place in particular that I couldn't keep up fleece with them, I'd have to change it most days and it would still smell. So give it a go, if they are used to shavings try keeping a litter tray with that in to encourage them to use that. Also where their hay rack/food is as they do a lot of their business there. So fleece obviously is the material, but a lot of us used made 'liners' and such which you can buy your self or make. I make mine and use a layer of fleece (pre washed twice with non bio liquid and NO fabric softener...this is because for the wee to wick through to the absorbant layer underneath you need to get rid of the waterproof layer which fabric conditioner creates) so then in mine I just have 1 layer of towel then fleece the other side all sewn together. I tried it with just the fleece on top of a towel and was so hard to do daily poop sweeping as the material bunched up and as you say, if they like to bury it's easy to get underneath. So liners are much easier to brush, shake off, stay in place etc! I'm sure some one will be along with some good links if you want to buy them rather than make yourself :)
 
Writing all that just gave me idea to do a YouTube video on it so thank you for the idea! :p
 
I have a boy who likes to make the cage smell and two girls in with him who are pretty good, but it's been going ok. When I get a new fleece, I wash it three or four times (if you don't know when the water barrier is broken, put a tablespoon of water on the fleece and it should go to whatever under layer you're using. If it stays on top, you'll need to wash it again) with no fabric softener/conditioner and only powder on a thirty degree ultradelicates (sometimes dark depending on the fleece) and then spin + pump out after. It's best to put it in a tumble drier for the new fleece so it can shrink (meaning I wouldn't let it dry on the line when you're trying to break the water barrier before letting your piggies on it).

I find I only need to put around eight or ten puppy pads down under my fleece and a towel covering some of the pads and then the fleece on top, but it depends on how your boys are with it all, so feel free to experiment. Some use bedding under it as well like megazorb. Fleece can be held down by bricks -you can cover them in fleece if you want them colourful heh- and other heavy objects in corners, but try to make sure the guinea pigs don't chew it. I hope I helped :)

@Chief Guinea Pig @Flutterby Any advice on this? You're the experts :))
 
HansPiggies said:
Hi! I'll be honest it is quite trial an error with fleece. I have 4 boys, 2 on fleece and 2 on shavings as they are smelly! :p The two on fleece work as a I have a small shaving section/litter tray where they do most of their poops and wees, so although they do poo in their hideys they don't wee much so the smell is easy to manage, changing the little pads every few days and the whole fleece section every 4. The other 2 wee and poo so much where they sleep and not in 1 place in particular that I couldn't keep up fleece with them, I'd have to change it most days and it would still smell. So give it a go, if they are used to shavings try keeping a litter tray with that in to encourage them to use that. Also where their hay rack/food is as they do a lot of their business there. So fleece obviously is the material, but a lot of us used made 'liners' and such which you can buy your self or make. I make mine and use a layer of fleece (pre washed twice with non bio liquid and NO fabric softener...this is because for the wee to wick through to the absorbant layer underneath you need to get rid of the waterproof layer which fabric conditioner creates) so then in mine I just have 1 layer of towel then fleece the other side all sewn together. I tried it with just the fleece on top of a towel and was so hard to do daily poop sweeping as the material bunched up and as you say, if they like to bury it's easy to get underneath. So liners are much easier to brush, shake off, stay in place etc! I'm sure some one will be along with some good links if you want to buy them rather than make yourself :)
Click to expand...
Thank you, this is really helpful! I think I'll give it a go in the new cage :) I will probably make my own liners to save some money as well :p and the litter tray is also a good idea, they all like to see and poo in a "spot" so maybe they will take to this :)
 
CarnivalPiggy said:
I have a boy who likes to make the cage smell and two girls in with him who are pretty good, but it's been going ok. When I get a new fleece, I wash it three or four times (if you don't know when the water barrier is broken, put a tablespoon of water on the fleece and it should go to whatever under layer you're using. If it stays on top, you'll need to wash it again) with no fabric softener/conditioner and only powder on a thirty degree ultradelicates (sometimes dark depending on the fleece) and then spin + pump out after. It's best to put it in a tumble drier for the new fleece so it can shrink (meaning I wouldn't let it dry on the line when you're trying to break the water barrier before letting your piggies on it).

I find I only need to put around eight or ten puppy pads down under my fleece and a towel covering some of the pads and then the fleece on top, but it depends on how your boys are with it all, so feel free to experiment. Some use bedding under it as well like megazorb. Fleece can be held down by bricks -you can cover them in fleece if you want them colourful heh- and other heavy objects in corners, but try to make sure the guinea pigs don't chew it. I hope I helped :)

@Chief Guinea Pig @Flutterby Any advice on this? You're the experts :))
Click to expand...
Thank you! This is also really helpful :) although I don't have a tumble dryer but I guess I would be ok to just dry it another way?
I like the idea of putting some fleece on bricks :p
 
@CarnivalPiggy thanks, I am the fleece queen lol :))

Hmm, well, sometimes members do find that smelly boys inflict their smells onto the fleece worse than what would normally happen. What's your set up like? Is there any certain areas which get more smelly? Do you have litter/hay trays?

Fleece can be held down by bricks, which often tend to work, it's always irritating when piggies like to burrow under the fleece lol :))-finding presents everywhere, it's also unhygienic for them to be exposed to the pee-sodden towel underneath!
Pegs, or small metal binders may work well if you have a side of the cage which you could possibly clip it to?

You can also make your own liners, involving sandwich layers of fleece on the outer, then zorb or terry towel for the centre :D
 
jessiewarry said:
Thank you, this is really helpful! I think I'll give it a go in the new cage :) I will probably make my own liners to save some money as well :p and the litter tray is also a good idea, they all like to see and poo in a "spot" so maybe they will take to this :)
Click to expand...
You're welcome, if you are going to make them yourself, I find the Primark fleece and towel work great as such good prices! Go with the fluffier ones as surprisingly the hay and stuff brushes off so much easier on these! :)
 
Chief Guinea Pig said:
@CarnivalPiggy thanks, I am the fleece queen lol :))

Hmm, well, sometimes members do find that smelly boys inflict their smells onto the fleece worse than what would normally happen. What's your set up like? Is there any certain areas which get more smelly? Do you have litter/hay trays?

Fleece can be held down by bricks, which often tend to work, it's always irritating when piggies like to burrow under the fleece lol :))-finding presents everywhere, it's also unhygienic for them to be exposed to the pee-sodden towel underneath!
Pegs, or small metal binders may work well if you have a side of the cage which you could possibly clip it to?

You can also make your own liners, involving sandwich layers of fleece on the outer, then zorb or terry towel for the centre :D
Click to expand...
Well with the new cage I was planning on having a loft with just tones of hay on because hay on the floor irritates me so much as they're in my bedroom! And I haven't got one at the minute, but I'm going to put a litter tray in for them to see if they will use that to try and keep them more clean!
I should be able to clip the fleece to the new cage, I have some good clips already which I use to clip the hay racks to the side of my current cage because my silly piggies always pull it off and scatter the hay alllllll over their cage :o
 
Let us know if the litter tray/upper loft improves the situation :)
Yes they are little monkeys pulling the hay along everywhere lol
 
Chief Guinea Pig said:
@CarnivalPiggy thanks, I am the fleece queen lol :))

Hmm, well, sometimes members do find that smelly boys inflict their smells onto the fleece worse than what would normally happen. What's your set up like? Is there any certain areas which get more smelly? Do you have litter/hay trays?

Fleece can be held down by bricks, which often tend to work, it's always irritating when piggies like to burrow under the fleece lol :))-finding presents everywhere, it's also unhygienic for them to be exposed to the pee-sodden towel underneath!
Pegs, or small metal binders may work well if you have a side of the cage which you could possibly clip it to?

You can also make your own liners, involving sandwich layers of fleece on the outer, then zorb or terry towel for the centre :D
Click to expand...
Ooo I didn't know about Zorb! Going to have to try this next time! :)
 
I've heard zorb mentioned a couple of times @HansPiggies but I know someone on the forum who makes liners and they always said terry towel. Any how, thought to mention both haha :)
 
Chief Guinea Pig said:
I've heard zorb mentioned a couple of times @HansPiggies but I know someone on the forum who makes liners and they always said terry towel. Any how, thought to mention both haha :)
Click to expand...
Ahh hmm well maybe I'll get a little bit and try it and see how they compare, sometimes I find the towel makes a really hard edge on the inside when it's all sewn together so when you turn it inside out (or the right way round) after sewing it never sits completely right if that makes sense lol Was thinking the Zorb may be better for this..:hmm:
 
HansPiggies said:
Ahh hmm well maybe I'll get a little bit and try it and see how they compare, sometimes I find the towel makes a really hard edge on the inside when it's all sewn together so when you turn it inside out (or the right way round) after sewing it never sits completely right if that makes sense lol Was thinking the Zorb may be better for this..:hmm:
Click to expand...
Well I hope it goes well! I've never made cage liners. :)
 
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