Does Anyone Use Fitch?

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Pets Palace TV

Pets Palace TV

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I have been considering changing my piggies bedding to Fitch - does anyone here use it? How long does it last? The wood-shavings I use cost £5 a bale and lasts about 1-2 weeks - I have 8 guinea pigs and I like to spot clean them everyday so bedding doesn't really last that long :)
 
I use it for my hamsters and love it, there is no smell and it is really soft. If I didn't use fleece and Vetbed and wanted substrate instead I would use Fitch.
 
i use it for the rabbits litter trays, and occasionally in the piggy cage if i don't have any fleece washed and dried. it's lovely and soft, and dust free. :)
 
I am also considering switching to Fitch! I have always used megazorb but it seems to be a lot more dusty recently :(
 
aimzer said:
I am also considering switching to Fitch! I have always used megazorb but it seems to be a lot more dusty recently :(
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I was also considering megazorb as I have gerbils and it's good for building tunnels but if it's dusty then maybe Fitch is a good option
 
Pets Palace TV said:
I was also considering megazorb as I have gerbils and it's good for building tunnels but if it's dusty then maybe Fitch is a good option
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When I started using megazorb around 3 years ago it came packaged in like clear woven sack type material and it was really good. Recently they have changed the packaging to white plastic and I have always thought they changed the actual megazorb as well as the bag. This is when I noticed the dust as I tipped some into the cage I could see the dust coming off it :( and it was never like that before!
 
I now use fitch. I noticed the poor quality of megazorb last year and called them to ask what was going on (I also found bits of an aerosol can which was the final straw!) when I mentioned the bedding was for small animals they became very defensive and said there was no way they would recommend megazorb for small animals! So I promptly changed. Fitch is fab, my hammy happily makes lots of tunnels and 'mansions' with his and my guineas love lying in it. Definitely recommend it.
 
I use fitch in the hayloft and kitchen area. Its like white tissue that's been through the washing machine. It lasts for around 10 days for me between full changes, doesn't smell but does show everything up as its white. I personally prefer Megazorb to fitch as I feel that a bag lasts longer but after carrying out an experiment with my herd, they chose the fitch areas to lounge around in over the megazorb so I bowed to the majority vote:-)
 
That looks good! I'm looking for a better and cheaper alternative to shavings for my boys. How long do you think a 10kg bale would last for 2 outdoor piggies? Their bed area is changed every day and the whole of the hutch cleaned weekly and wet spots picked up daily although they seem to be using their litter tray too!
 
aimzer said:
When I started using megazorb around 3 years ago it came packaged in like clear woven sack type material and it was really good. Recently they have changed the packaging to white plastic and I have always thought they changed the actual megazorb as well as the bag. This is when I noticed the dust as I tipped some into the cage I could see the dust coming off it :( and it was never like that before!
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Oooh, that's not good! :(
 
Guinea Slave said:
I now use fitch. I noticed the poor quality of megazorb last year and called them to ask what was going on (I also found bits of an aerosol can which was the final straw!) when I mentioned the bedding was for small animals they became very defensive and said there was no way they would recommend megazorb for small animals! So I promptly changed. Fitch is fab, my hammy happily makes lots of tunnels and 'mansions' with his and my guineas love lying in it. Definitely recommend it.
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Oh really? I just did my weekly clean today. Going to order some Fitch tomorrow!

How big is a 20kg bag? Much larger than the megazorb sacks or around the same?
 
garfieldette said:
I use fitch in the hayloft and kitchen area. Its like white tissue that's been through the washing machine. It lasts for around 10 days for me between full changes, doesn't smell but does show everything up as its white. I personally prefer Megazorb to fitch as I feel that a bag lasts longer but after carrying out an experiment with my herd, they chose the fitch areas to lounge around in over the megazorb so I bowed to the majority vote:-)
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That's a long time! Does it include spot cleaning? :)
 
It's hard to say. At first I went overboard and used too much. I 'think' it's similar. Marginally less than equivalent in megazorb but much much better. I used to sneeze and itch when I first put in megazorb, I never ever do with fitch.
 
I use it as my main bedding, i have 3 cages to clean each week and it's lasts me 3 weeks, so that's be 9 clean outs if you have one cage!

It's amazing, it's soft, good odor control, non dusty, easy to clean up if flicked out the cage, you can buy it in bulk if you have somewhere to store it!

I use newspaper underneath and it lasts all week sometimes i have to clean the odd corner if they have peed a lot but it's fab!

It's helped with my allergy to megazorb and shavings use to make me sneeze and cough but this hasn't ever...

I wouldn't use any other bedding now, i couldn't recommend it enough! :P
 
MushiiPeas said:
I use it as my main bedding, i have 3 cages to clean each week and it's lasts me 3 weeks, so that's be 9 clean outs if you have one cage!

It's amazing, it's soft, good odor control, non dusty, easy to clean up if flicked out the cage, you can buy it in bulk if you have somewhere to store it!

I use newspaper underneath and it lasts all week sometimes i have to clean the odd corner if they have peed a lot but it's fab!

It's helped with my allergy to megazorb and shavings use to make me sneeze and cough but this hasn't ever...

I wouldn't use any other bedding now, i couldn't recommend it enough! :P
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Great! I am going to order some tomorrow :) :)
 
I have swopped to Fitch as my main bedding. I bought a 20 kg bag and it is huge. I staggered getting it upstairs as live in a flat. It has been fab. Not dusty, very soft, no smell, pigs love it and often choose to sleep on it instead of fleece bedrooms.. I use newspaper underneath.
I spot clean but also clean twice a week. I prefer to use a thinnish layer as they are in my lounge and clean often. However if I have been away or short of time a thicker layer does last a week. I'm just very fussy and prefer a twice weekly clean.
I was going to swop to fleece but not now as fitch is cheap and perfect for my two girls.
 
I use Fitch for all of the pets now (rabbits, chinchilla, hamster & piggies) they all love it! It's great at odour control, very absorbent - so protects the cage bases, & it's so economical! I found that on woodshavings, even the dust extracted stuff, my piggies & older bun would sneeze. They've stopped that completely since making the move to fitch! I couldn't love it more :D
 
I love Fitch but find it too expensive as I have several large pens. The price plus delivery (£17.79 from their website) was just too much as it wouldn't last me more than a couple of weeks. It is fab though and if I found somewhere where I could pick it up locally then I would. It's soft and snuggly and dust free and doesn't smell either.
 
Kit06 said:
I love Fitch but find it too expensive as I have several large pens. The price plus delivery (£17.79 from their website) was just too much as it wouldn't last me more than a couple of weeks. It is fab though and if I found somewhere where I could pick it up locally then I would. It's soft and snuggly and dust free and doesn't smell either.
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I found that if you buy it singly which is what i use to do it is really pricey if you have a lot of cages to clean out, i've got 3 a week so it was quite pricey while i was testing it out. Thankfully my sister lives down the road and has an empty garage so i can buy it in bulk and store it in there which makes it so much cheaper thankfully! :)
 
I have mostly used woodshavings, but on a guinea pig rescue site I read that it is not wise to use because of the particles of wood they breath in. I am going to try fitch, megazorb or the paper bedding nowx
 
Kit06 said:
Thanks @MushiiPeas I might give buying in bulk a go, sure I can fit eight bales in somewhere!
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Good luck i can just about lift one so i can sit on top of my wardrobe for saturday clean outs and then when that runs out i can get another one from the garage, there's also a bale of hay on my wardrobe! Piggie things everywhere in my room... :))
 
We just get the one bale & it lasts us around 2 months! The cages we have are: 5x2c&c, 3x2c&c, 2.5x5ft cage, large hamster cage & chinchilla cage :) With one of the bunnies though, we get away with a spot clean every other week. We will most likely be changing the pigs & one of the buns to fleece once we have the new cage set up though, just because it's easier for me to clean xx
 
We have 8 piggies. At the moment they are in 4 pairs due to a fungal infection but usually we have a group of 4, a group of 2 indoors in cages and another group of 2 outside in a hutch.

I've been using Fitch in one of the indoor cages (a commercial cage) and the outdoor hutch for the last 3 weeks so am quite new to it. I bought one bale which I think cost me £16 inc postage.

I am using fleece in the other two cages and used to use wood shavings in the past.

Overall, I like Fitch and am happy with it.

Some of my views are
Pros:
I could see the benefit to the piggies feet soles very quickly after changing from wood shavings. The dryness has gone which is great.
It is very soft and warm for them.
It lasts a week for me between full cage cleans with no smells.
Cons:
Purely aesthetic - poops show up instantly so it looks dirty quicker than wood shavings and yet it's not as easy to spot clean as the fleece is.
Although I think the bale will last us quite a while - based on what we've used so far, I'd expect it will last about 10-12 weeks, it is going to work out more expensive than using fleece is.
It might be dust free (I agree it is) but I personally think it makes just as much mess as wood shavings when it gets kicked out of the cage/hutch and I don't particularly find it easier to pick up when that happens.

So what I intend to do going forwards is use Fitch in the hutch because of its great absorbency and slowly switch all cages in the house to fleece now I've tried that too.

As a new user myself, I'd be really interested to hear how you get on with it - I saw you've said you're going to order some.
 
rosie and bramble said:
How far west are you, i am in Tyne and Wear and buy in bulk anyway if it would help you at all ?
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Thanks, that's very kind of you but I've ordered 8 bales. I think I can fit them in my garage roof space (it's boarded over), my OH is adamant that he'll have no problems lifting them up there - can't wait to see this, they weigh a ton!
 
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