Fleece for C&C cages

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MyGuineaPigPals

MyGuineaPigPals

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hiya, sorry if this has already been discussed I had a quick flick through and didn't see any topics that I thought might cover this...

I use C&C cages for my pigs which are great I have a correx base built it all myself lovely jubbly.... but fleece.... I cannot get my head around it and why people use it. Its really high maintenance and my piggies hair sticks to it like glue I brush it off as much as possible and tried machine washing but the hair was still there... now I am a massive hair-o-phobe which is why i dislike dogs and cats so much and perhaps I enterred into pig keeping a bit ignorant to how much they would shed but now I have them I love them and really don't want to give them up! but I cant stand the hair! I can't put the fleece in my washing machine anymore for fear of it 1 breaking the machine and 2 getting on my clothes! (thats my worst nightmare haha) I have been hand washing them but it is impossible to get the fleece as clean and hairless as it shouldbe! does anyone have any tips on this for me?

Everytime I do a big fleece wash I have a mental breakdown and revert back to using recycled bedding and odour control bedding but the size of my cages means this is sooo expensive. are there any cheap beddings people can advise?

Another idea I have had is carpeting the entire cage in cheaper hay (a local small independant pet shop sells big bags of hay for reasonable prices again i would get through an aweful lot each week) but would it be ok for the pigs as they like to eat it and lay on it and I usually give them lots of fancier flavoured hays as well as they really enjoy those. they also have fleece tunnels, cuddlecups and sleeping bags which is the amount of fleece I can just about handle at the mo. both my C&C cages are 2x5

thanks for listening to my rant lol sorry for being a bit crazy - I do handle and play with my pigs but only in certain clothes and lint rollers are my life!

:o)
 
I had Rex and a US Teddy on fleece, never any issues, but I noticed that the hair of the visiting plain short-hairs and abbies does come off harder in laundry.
 
i have 2 Abyssinian guinea pigs one short hair and one thats kinda a short hair but has a really long bum fringe thing going on not sure the exact breed name lol they 2 abys's are the worst but they are all bad and shed a lot!
 
TBones said:
hiya, sorry if this has already been discussed I had a quick flick through and didn't see any topics that I thought might cover this...

I use C&C cages for my pigs which are great I have a correx base built it all myself lovely jubbly.... but fleece.... I cannot get my head around it and why people use it. Its really high maintenance and my piggies hair sticks to it like glue I brush it off as much as possible and tried machine washing but the hair was still there... now I am a massive hair-o-phobe which is why i dislike dogs and cats so much and perhaps I enterred into pig keeping a bit ignorant to how much they would shed but now I have them I love them and really don't want to give them up! but I cant stand the hair! I can't put the fleece in my washing machine anymore for fear of it 1 breaking the machine and 2 getting on my clothes! (thats my worst nightmare haha) I have been hand washing them but it is impossible to get the fleece as clean and hairless as it shouldbe! does anyone have any tips on this for me?

Everytime I do a big fleece wash I have a mental breakdown and revert back to using recycled bedding and odour control bedding but the size of my cages means this is sooo expensive. are there any cheap beddings people can advise?

Another idea I have had is carpeting the entire cage in cheaper hay (a local small independant pet shop sells big bags of hay for reasonable prices again i would get through an aweful lot each week) but would it be ok for the pigs as they like to eat it and lay on it and I usually give them lots of fancier flavoured hays as well as they really enjoy those. they also have fleece tunnels, cuddlecups and sleeping bags which is the amount of fleece I can just about handle at the mo. both my C&C cages are 2x5

thanks for listening to my rant lol sorry for being a bit crazy - I do handle and play with my pigs but only in certain clothes and lint rollers are my life!

:o)
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Hi,

I had a go with fleece as the saying goes 'you don't know till you give it a try' I gave it about 6 weeks but I never took to it, so I know where you are coming from. I went from shavings to fleece to what I do now which is newspaper layers, corners of two big handfuls of recycled paper pellets from pets at home and handfuls of hay. I feel happier now as I can roll it up and chuck it in the recycle bin.

I still have a fleece forest and in winter cuddle cups.

I hope that helps.

S
 
My piggies shed a lot and I have them on fleece. It can be hard work maintaining it, I spend at least a couple of hours doing a full cage clean and that involves brushing the fleece until 99% of hairs are gone. But I still prefer it and my piggies love it. I can understand if you're averse to hairs why it's an issue.

Hope you find a good solution.
 
I have an approx. 8 feet by 3 feet run with 5 piggies. I've tried everything but the best for me is a half inch layer of Megazorb. 2 bags cost £14 & do for 7 weeks. I use bales of hay from a local farm at £4 they get masses of this & it lasts 10 to 12 weeks. It's the only combo I've used that lasts a week between changes without smell, even in the recent heat wave. Each week all the hay is removed plus all the soiled or wet Megazorb (about 2/3 of it). The rest is placed in the areas that get wet to ensure that none is in there for more than a fortnight. Works for me but everyone to their own combo.
 
Sadly this year Cookie lost her Sister Treacle to lymphoma, so we had to get Cookie some new friends. We bonded her with Sassy and Vimto and made a trio and bought a 2x5 C&C, we lasted a month on fleece, they washing machine was always on and it stank... We never had time to wash our own clothes lol - So we are back to dust extracted wood shavings by Helms. The girls seem to like it ( I know some people are dead against them but we have always used them)

Megan our special needs piggie is however on fleece due to her breathing, but she lives alone in a ferplast 120 so doesn't create too much mess.
 
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I read on here somewhere that someones piggies had recurrent utis ,when they stopped using fleece the utis stopped- mine used to be on fleece - but even when washing it inside a duvet cover we still got hay and hair all over own clothes when they came out of the washing machine - you have to make sure you put the fleece on a hot wash to kill bacteria - I am now on newspaper and hay,but am going to try megazorb.
 
its great to hear that i am not the only one who has suffered with fleece before my registration was accepted on here (i was one of the ones who waited months) every where else i looked online raved about fleece and nothing else but I really do struggle with it I have always used a double layer of newspaper under it but was looking for a replacement for the fleece as the pigs are noisey little buggers when they run on just the paper haha I will definetly try looking for megazorb but I'm thinking making a capret of hay is going to be the cheapest solution for the majority of the cage and this makes me and my piggies happy and as mentioned above easy to rolle up and bin at the end!

thanks to everyone its a huge weight off my mind that this is normal and do-able!
 
TBones said:
its great to hear that i am not the only one who has suffered with fleece before my registration was accepted on here (i was one of the ones who waited months) every where else i looked online raved about fleece and nothing else but I really do struggle with it I have always used a double layer of newspaper under it but was looking for a replacement for the fleece as the pigs are noisey little buggers when they run on just the paper haha I will definetly try looking for megazorb but I'm thinking making a capret of hay is going to be the cheapest solution for the majority of the cage and this makes me and my piggies happy and as mentioned above easy to rolle up and bin at the end!

thanks to everyone its a huge weight off my mind that this is normal and do-able!
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TBones,

That made me smile 'noisy buggars running' so true, one thing I've noticed on paper.

s
 
My piggies are outdoors in hutches for now (probably october ish they will come in for the winter) and they're on newspaper and hay out there, I really dont mind loads of hay outdoors as its easy to sweep up a yard, I dont like newspaper and hay indoors as I hay + carpet is a nightmare nevermind using it as bedding so ill be using suedecloth liners then which should be really easy for getting hay and fur off of :D. Megazorb is good for smells but really dusty and the manufacturer suggest it is not suitable for small pets when asked, just something to bear in mind x
 
TBones said:
lol they are like the worst ninjas ever! you hear their every move lol! the pitta patta of little piggie feet running up and down lol
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Piggie ninjas lol
 
Bekki2308 said:
Megazorb is good for smells but really dusty and the manufacturer suggest it is not suitable for small pets when asked, just something to bear in mind x
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I'm really confused :{ initially I used wood shavings in the outdoor hutch simply because that's what I used in the 80s and 90s but then I read that it was bad for piggies because of the high risk of URIs. I then switched to megazorb because I had read that it was one of the best things to use (maybe not as good as fleece but I really am not keen on that from the cleaning/washing machine point of view). However now it has been said that megazorb is not suitable for small animals.

What is a suitable bedding? I put newspaper on the bottom then I like to have a layer of something on top of that for absorbency then I put los of hay in the sleeping area and inside the pigloo.

Help!
 
TBones said:
ooo that sounds really good what is megazorb is it widely available?
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I buy it from my local farm stores & I've just checked your area for suppliers. You should be able to get it from the following:-

Pix Farm Feed Store, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire 01442 864652
GJW Titmuss Ltd., Wheathamstead, Hertfordshire 01582 832272

It varies in price but should be in the £7 to £8 a bag range.
 
Bekki2308 said:
My piggies are outdoors in hutches for now (probably october ish they will come in for the winter) and they're on newspaper and hay out there, I really dont mind loads of hay outdoors as its easy to sweep up a yard, I dont like newspaper and hay indoors as I hay + carpet is a nightmare nevermind using it as bedding so ill be using suedecloth liners then which should be really easy for getting hay and fur off of :D. Megazorb is good for smells but really dusty and the manufacturer suggest it is not suitable for small pets when asked, just something to bear in mind x
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I haven't experienced much dust with Megazorb but if it's used like I do with a good layer of hay on top there shouldn't be any problems as the piggies have very little contact with it & the poo & wee just drops through the hay leaving the top surface of hay relatively clean.
 
Stewybus said:
I haven't experienced much dust with Megazorb but if it's used like I do with a good layer of hay on top there shouldn't be any problems as the piggies have very little contact with it & the poo & wee just drops through the hay leaving the top surface of hay relatively clean.
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Its unpredictable, sometimes very dusty and usually equal/more dusty than good quality shavings. It was when the manufacturer stated not to use it that I decided that I would never use it again or rehome hamsters to live on it, there are totally dust free options such as fitch, finacard or even newspaper that are cheaper anyway so there are alternatives. If it works for you then fab but its not something ill be touching again (I have never wheezed and coughed to the point of falling on the stairs before from bedding!) their quality control has been somewhat dire in recent times even friends who are hardcore megazorb fans have switched because of that, when I first used it 2 years ago it was practically dust free its a shame they cant be consistent anymore for people ordering online and paying delivery dodgy batches are soooo expensive!
 
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I just wonder if some suppliers don't sell it quickly enough & have it in stock for weeks or months & then it might get dustier the same as some of the hay you buy from pet shops or even some of the supermarkets. I always buy from Farmway at Stokesley & it's always fresh & dust free. I started using it after hearing it's praises on here & even though it was developed for horse, one of the lines in it's description states "Double dust extracted - ideal for horses with respiratory problems". I'm not trying to convert you Beks because I know you are good with your animals & obviously it's down to personal taste. Minnie was in perfect condition when I got her from you & just had her & Mitch to the vets for a check-up as they've never been while in my care. They both passed with flying colours.
 
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