Fleece bedding vs Shavings?

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Tori3610

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Hi

My boyfriend and I have been thinking about getting guinea pigs as a friend has them and we just fell in love.
We've been doing lots of research and asking our friend for advice.
Our friend uses shavings for her three piggies, and we were going to do the same until, during some online research, we discovered fleece bedding.
People describe it as being much less messy, easier to clean, and it wicks away the urine onto the puppy pads beneath. It sounds great!
So we were just wondering what other people think of it? My boyfriend is a bit worried that it will smell but surely if you clean it regularly and wash the fleece once or twice a week it would be fine?
Let me know, thanks! :D

- Future guinea pig parents
 
:wel:

Its about personal preference!
My piggies live in my shed so I use both beddings. In winter their shed and hutch is bedded with aubiose or shavings and topped with a full layer of hay. In summer their hutch is still aubiose/shavings topped with hay but their shed is fleece. I do it reduce bedding costs for part of the year. I do like the fleece, it is easy to clean, washed twice a week. But I actually prefer the disposable bedding - Poop picked and wet areas removed daily (as is necessary with fleece also) but only a full clean once a week, whereas the fleece needs a full clean twice a week. I would always have a large hay area though as my piggies spend so much more time in amongst the hay, eating, playing, sleeping in it whereas they tend to come out for a wander around on the fleece bit of an explore with their tunnels and hideys but always go back to the hay area for resting.

These guides may help furhter

A Detailed Guide For Fleece Bedding
Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview
 
I used wood shavings when I started having guinea pigs around 8 years ago. It was an okay substrate but I eventually got tired of it being kicked on to the carpet and such. So I tried other substrates like Megazorb, paper bedding and aubiose. Megazorb was fine at first, but the smell changed to worse and became dusty so have to stop using it. Aubiose is good but it also gets kicked out of the cage so didn't really used it again. I honestly love paper bedding but the problem is the cost and when the pandemic started and the tips closed, we had nowhere to put the wastes. I then fully changed everything to fleece. I always had fleece on the attached run and paper bedding on the cage, but since Feb last year, everything is on fleece. It's easy to clean and even though I have to wash a few times a week, it doesn't bother me as much as being bothered with cleaning the shavings. Plus the piggies feel comfy enough to sleep on fleece, whether the fleece beds or the plain fleece pee pad.

It's really a preference of how you want to handle the wastes and washing you have to do to be honest. If you would want fleece, I would advice to get a few of it and in smaller pieces. Washing machines will handle it better. I have loads of smaller pee pads as well in the heavily traffic areas so it can be replaced as often as possible when it gets dirty and soaked.
 
My piggies are indoors so I've always used fleece and I personally found shavings too difficult for me. I have a bad back - my cage is raised up so I don't need to bend...far easier for me to grab fleece than to scoop shavings.

I work in the same room as my piggies and it smells like hay in here more often than it does anything else. I wash my main fleece once a week but I use bath mats, pads and a hay tray which get swapped out more regularly to help prevent smells. I use mattress protector under my fleece too.
 
I have half the cage with fleece and half with hay and newspaper. They like the hay half best! I have never tried shavings as I assumed that they would get everywhere and its bad enough with hay.
 
We are currently on wood shavings (dust extracted), and they do spread around the room a bit but so does the hay! There's no noticeable smell in the areas they wee though. We've just ordered a lot of fleece to make up reusable bedding. Mr squeekle is thinking about 50cm square pieces as suggested upthread for easy washing. Afraid I can't let you know if there's a smell yet though! The RSPCA suggested old blankets or smooth bath mats, or just a good layer of hay over newspaper.
 
Welcome! We use fleece liners and love them! We started with shavings and found them way to messy switch to fleece and we love it, we don’t notice it smells we wash every 5 days! And think of all the fun colours and prints!
 
Like everyone has said so far it’s a personnel choice. I don’t like the smell of shavings plus they make me sneeze non stop so they weren’t an option for me Carefresh is a good alternative but I found for my size cage it was really expensive for the amount needed to have good cover. Vet bed is really good but after awhile I found it hard getting the hay out of it plus if you have cage size pieces it’s really bulky to fit in the washer. I now use a mixture of fleece and chenille bath mats which works best for me. If you get a good quality fleece liner that has been wicked well and has a good centre layer it should last a week before it needs changing as long as you use extra pads/bath mats in high traffic areas and change these out a couple of times a week. Fleece can seem expensive to start off with but I found it’s saved me loads in the long run and bath mats I couldn’t do without now. They are so easy to use, if you get a rubber brush and give them a good brush over all the hay comes straight off and they wash and dry like rags some of mine I’ve had for about 2 years now and they still look great.
 
Tori3610 said:
Hi

My boyfriend and I have been thinking about getting guinea pigs as a friend has them and we just fell in love.
We've been doing lots of research and asking our friend for advice.
Our friend uses shavings for her three piggies, and we were going to do the same until, during some online research, we discovered fleece bedding.
People describe it as being much less messy, easier to clean, and it wicks away the urine onto the puppy pads beneath. It sounds great!
So we were just wondering what other people think of it? My boyfriend is a bit worried that it will smell but surely if you clean it regularly and wash the fleece once or twice a week it would be fine?
Let me know, thanks! :D

- Future guinea pig parents
Click to expand...
Hi!
It’s honestly about preference & budget.
With liners, they’re more expensive (esp. nice ones) and are worse for the environment and have to be cleaned often. But, they don’t have to be replaced/bought again nearly as often, and can be more comfy for the piggies.
With shavings, they’re a lot better for the environment if you buy paper ones, and they’re a lot cheaper. I usually buy one bag for $8-$10 and the I replace the shavings once a week and I usually go through the bag in about a month or more. I personally prefer shavings, but again it’s about your’s and the piggies’ preference!
 
We use cheap fleece blankets over towels. And we love it. It's more upfront cost but definitely works out cheaper over time. For us as we can't get hold of wood shavings that don't come in plastic packaging and don't have a space to compost bedding it's the most eco friendly option too.
 
Hi I use fleece liners my guineaoigs love them I also have a litter tray in the corner with some sawdust in which blossom my older guineapig uses to wee in and the baby is now copying her. So they never wee on the fleece just poop which is easy to pick up.
 
Disposable bedding isn’t as cheap, though fleece is exp
Emma2313 said:
Hi I use fleece liners my guineaoigs love them I also have a litter tray in the corner with some sawdust in which blossom my older guineapig uses to wee in and the baby is now copying her. So they never wee on the fleece just poop which is easy to pick up.
Click to expand...
do you mean sawdust or shavings?
 
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