Fleece bedding not working?

[Bettyb26]

Hey all,
Just wondering if anyone can advise me about fleece bedding. When we got our boys in March we used the recycled paper disposable bedding stuff but I found it such a pain to clean out and tons of extra rubbish on top of our normal household waste, not to mention expensive (our dudes live seperately so a £10 bag a week was required). I then made my own fleece liners out of just polar fleece and mattress protectors, which we usually put one of the bobbly bath mats on top of. While a lot more convienient and cheaper (in the long term) to use, I find that they tend to get dirty so quickly, and smell quite strongly of wee after a couple of days. Is this likely to be because of the lack of an absorbent middle layer? I’m not sure if it’s worth just spending the money on some decent ones from Etsy that have the Zorb layer in the middle - can anyone vouch for this and tell me whether it stops the urine smell? I obviously want to avoid the strong smell for the boys’ health but also to save our front room from smelling . I know I could change the current liners more often but I honestly have so much other washing to do I don’t want to be washing them more than once a week. Any tips would be greatly appreciated, thank you

 

[Deleted member 148738]

I ues rewashable puppy pads in my cage and change every two days no smell. I got them from amazon and they are brilliant.

We also put towels down too but do find they need washing as they can hold smell sometimes.

I was using sawdust when I first got them and that smelt so bad!

 

[Bettyb26]

I ues rewashable puppy pads in my cage and change every two days no smell. I got them from amazon and they are brilliant.

We also put towels down too but do find they need washing as they can hold smell sometimes.

I was using sawdust when I first got them and that smelt so bad!

I’d never heard of these but just looked them up and they look perfect - thank you! Look a lot easier to wash as well thanks so much x

 

[Tigermoth]

How often do you clean? Weirdly you can do it too often. They want it to smell of home so the more you clean, the more they scent mark. Leave something dirty in there and don’t do it too often. I have mattress protector and fleece overlay and it’s generally fine. I’m down to one pig so there isn’t much pee these days but when Timmy was alive we would have periods where they stank to high heaven for a week or two for no reason (that a non pig could see…) but it was largely not a problem.

 

[Deleted member 148738]

I’d never heard of these but just looked them up and they look perfect - thank you! Look a lot easier to wash as well thanks so much x

They are good. We have our pigs in the spare room and they work fab. Just chuck them in the washing machine. I'd say get a washing bag though to catch hair or your washing will be full of guinea pig hairs haha. The initial outlay is a bit pricey but we've had 3 packs now and used them for months.

The farmyard smell from sawdust for me was a killer but the mats have stopped that.

 

[Bettyb26]

How often do you clean? Weirdly you can do it too often. They want it to smell of home so the more you clean, the more they scent mark. Leave something dirty in there and don’t do it too often. I have mattress protector and fleece overlay and it’s generally fine. I’m down to one pig so there isn’t much pee these days but when Timmy was alive we would have periods where they stank to high heaven for a week or two for no reason (that a non pig could see…) but it was largely not a problem.

I poop scoop and get rid of dirty hay etc twice a day and then do a full change once a week. They just seem to produce so much poo (one pig is a big boy so he is the main culprit) but I don’t know it just seems to look and smell gross very quickly

 

[Deleted member 148738]

I poop scoop and get rid of dirty hay etc twice a day and then do a full change once a week. They just seem to produce so much poo (one pig is a big boy so he is the main culprit) but I don’t know it just seems to look and smell gross very quickly

I understand totally. We have 4 piggies. I clean the poops out every day and probably mat change every two days.

 

[Bettyb26]

They are good. We have our pigs in the spare room and they work fab. Just chuck them in the washing machine. I'd say get a washing bag though to catch hair or your washing will be full of guinea pig hairs haha. The initial outlay is a bit pricey but we've had 3 packs now and used them for months.

The farmyard smell from sawdust for me was a killer but the mats have stopped that.

Do they tend to wear out with frequent washing? I don’t mind spending a bit and they’re not as much as the ones on Etsy (which are beautiful but it would be like £140 for 4 ) think I will order some tonight as they seem a lot better than what I’ve got. I honestly didn’t mind the disposable stuff but it was a whole mission to clean them out and like a full extra bin bag of rubbish which wasn’t really sustainable for us!

 

[Deleted member 148738]

Do they tend to wear out with frequent washing? I don’t mind spending a bit and they’re not as much as the ones on Etsy (which are beautiful but it would be like £140 for 4 ) think I will order some tonight as they seem a lot better than what I’ve got. I honestly didn’t mind the disposable stuff but it was a whole mission to clean them out and like a full extra bin bag of rubbish which wasn’t really sustainable for us!

No they wash really well. I wash them on a 30 degree gor half sn hour come out super clean. We've had the mats we've got for several months and still going

I think they are good because you can add cosy bits on top if you want x

 

[Bettyb26]

No they wash really well. I wash them on a 30 degree gor half sn hour come out super clean. We've had the mats we've got for several months and still going

I think they are good because you can add cosy bits on top if you want x

Brilliant, just ordered some! Thank you for the recommendation. Yeah we have cosy beds and mats for them so I think they will enjoy still having a soft layer underneath instead of sawdust or paper bedding x