Fleece or sawdust

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Amyxx

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Hi everyone, We would love advice on whether fleece or sawdust is better for indoor hutches. We have swapped from sawdust to waterproof fleece but are finding it tricky to keep clean. Any advice or suggestions would be great. Thank you in advance :luv:
 
Hi there, we have starting using inconti-pet washable pet mats under our normal fleeces and it has been quite successful, on day 3 now, and just changed the top fleeces as the ladies have been a bit rumbly the past day..We have two layers of newspaper under the pet mats, so if they are damp it will be a good indicator to wash the lot. We were previously using towels under the fleece..was getting a bit grubby quickly..Our set up is correx and grids though..we do use wood shavings in the new toilet hay bucket area now.

I think it is personal preference, it can be a lot of extra washes with the fleece, but I think I would find it more of a chore cleaning out wood shavings, and it is easy to poo pick on the fleece.

Is it a wooden hutch? If so I am sure someone else might have a few handy tips also!
 
Thank you for your reply, it does seem to be a lot of washing but the girls are definitely worth it. I was worried about them getting respiratory issues with the sawdust.
Your idea of using the pet inconti pads sounds like a really good one, I have found the fleeces are not absorbing as well as I’d hope but I will persevere.
They are in plastic indoor cages which I feel is better for cleaning than the wooden?
Again, thank you for your reply. I’ll be interested in how you get on with the inconti pads.
 
What do you mean the fleece isn’t absorbing as well as expected? Does the wee go through to the bottom? And do you have something underneath the fleece to soak it up?

I'm also using the inconti-pet pads in their hay/feeding area, instead of puppy pads.
 
Sawdust definitely isn’t recommended due to respiratory issues. Just imagine if you had to sleep on sawdust! I’d be sneezing and sore for days!

Old towels can work well. Putting fleece over top for it to soak through so it’s comfy and dry on top while the towels soak up the pee makes for a great combo. Others have also used bed sheet liners instead of/with towels.

You can use other store-bought stuff like hemp shavings, aspen, or paper bedding, but these can be quite expensive after a while and aspen in particular can be a bit rough on the paws. But, it is easy to clean up in the sense that you can just scoop up the messy parts instead of washing all the bedding and it is faster if you already have the bedding on hand.
 
I use fleece liners with absorbent middles.
I've bought them from Ziggy's Piggies (Ziggy's Piggies - Closed for now) and CandECosies (CandE Cosies - Small Animal Accessories).
They are a bit pricey initially, but can be washed and reused over and over. They have an absorbent middle which means you don't even need to put anything underneath. I do have a "litter box" as well which I use a tiny bit of Paper litter (Breeder Celect Recycled Paper Pellet Non Clumping Cat Litter | Pets At Home). My piggies use this litter box a lot as I have put it in their 'kitchen' area.
I can definitely say that even though they only have a small bit of litter in their cage, they somehow manage to flick it EVERYWHERE 😂 I don't even want to know the mess if they were only kept on litter. So I'm actually considering going fleece liner only. I'll give you my list of pros and cons:

Pros:
  • Looks so cute. You can get all sorts of colours and designs. But this comes with a minor con - I want to buy SO many cute fleeces and matching accessories 😜
  • Nice and soft for piggies feet and they love to just 'sleep where they land'.
  • Absorbent - keeps piggies dry without 'wetting' the bottom of the cage.
  • Cleanup is easy. Brush/ hoover off poos & hay, then just pop the fleece in the wash in a bag!
Cons:
  • Can get smelly if you don't wash the fleece correctly (NO conditioner or fragrances) or often enough. (I wash mine once a week - I have a 4x2 C&C.
  • WILL block your washing machine with fur and hay if you don't use a pet bedding bag - I use this one Moorland Rider Petwear Wash-Bag Large Green: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies
  • Expensive initially - but cheaper in the long run if you take care of them.
 
I've changed all the piggies bedding to fleece in May. I used paper bedding in their hutch before but can't managed our past sick piggy Cookie to stop eating it (we were managing her weight and needed to know if she was eating enough and eating paper bedding wasn't helping with her situation). So I bought a few fleece bedding sets (I have 4 sets for the hutch and 4 separate sets for the attached run). I have to change the fleece in their 2nd floor of the hutch every 2 days (that's where they poo and pee the most because that's where they sleep too) and the rest of the fleece bedding (bottom floor of the hutch and the attached run) are changed every week. Yes it cost me a lot when I bought it, but now I only spend money on puppy pads monthly, and they have less waste going to the tip (our council doesn't recycle guinea pig waste). Yes washing can be every day or two days but so far I don't have problems with it (it dries quickly too). My piggies loved sleeping on the fleece so I think I did the right thing changing.

IMG_20190921_104703.jpg
 
Wow! Thank you for your reply! It seems there are definitely more pros to the fleeces. I hadn’t even thought about the wash bag, I’ll have to invest 😬 would you recommend a litter box or is this something that would be tricky to train them to do if not started from when they were little?
 
Amyxx said:
Wow! Thank you for your reply! It seems there are definitely more pros to the fleeces. I hadn’t even thought about the wash bag, I’ll have to invest 😬 would you recommend a litter box or is this something that would be tricky to train them to do if not started from when they were little?
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You can’t litter train piggies. You may find they go in a few ‘favourite spots’. They often go where they eat, so putting a tray under a hay rack can help contain a lot of it to that area, but ultimately they will go where they want to go!

My boys are outside in a shed and I only use fleece in the summer on the shed floor, but I always go through loads of washing machine cleaner/disinfectant in the summer. making sure all our clothes and towels are washed before piggy laundry etc. I find it quite draining! I do admire everybody who uses fleece full time!
 
We are using a rabbit corner litter tray for the hay, helps a little bit as they sit on it, we do change the hay twice a day though, still experimenting as we are unsure what hay rack to get..lol still they love to drag the hay about their house, pigs will be pigs :D
 
Amyxx said:
Wow! Thank you for your reply! It seems there are definitely more pros to the fleeces. I hadn’t even thought about the wash bag, I’ll have to invest 😬 would you recommend a litter box or is this something that would be tricky to train them to do if not started from when they were little?
Click to expand...
I’d say you can probably do without the litter box. I only have the litter box underneath the hay and water bottle to catch mid-munch poops, hay and bottle drips. But I’ll probably stop using it when the bag of litter runs out.
 
I use fleece liners for my 5. I also have a growbag tray lined with newspaper and hay with a magazine rack as a hay rack in both ends of their eleven by two c and c cage. They do a lot of wees in those hay trays. I put all their veg into the hay trays and scatter feed their pellets all over the cage.

They still poo everywhere (cleaned daily) but at least the trays take the majority of their wees!
 
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