Fleece Or Wood Chips?

[Piggie_lover_20]

Hi everyone,
Ever since I got my girls I have been using Newspaper with Aspen wood chips over top for their bedding. But, when I was reading about bedding online, I found out about fleece. It looks like a lot of users on this forum use fleece too. I am wondering if it would be easier to use it, and if I do, how to set it up?
thx

 

[Jeniva]

I'm not expert with fleece as I'm fairly new to it.
But generally what I did was buy a couple of large fleece pet blankets, I got from the B and M store.
Bought a large quantity of puppy pads.
You want to wash the fleeces a few times so that the water doesn't sit on it and will drain though Then place puppy pads in your cage, cut and fit the fleece in the cage over the puppy pads. Have some spare fleece to cut to square sizes and have an extra one where your piggies sleep and eat - with an extra puppy pad underneath. Change them if they get sodden daily. Sweep poops up.
Have a kitten tray for hay and put puppy pads or newspaper in the tray to absorb wee. Change the tray once a day at least.

My gpig has tummy problems and smears his poo every where, I have to jet hose off the poo stains before cleaning properly. But if your piggies have normal poo then you can just either bung it in the washing machine or hand wash with a non perfumed sensitive detergent (not too much of it).

Some people sew or place towels under the fleece as well or sew it into the fleece - it's up to you really .

The fleece looks pretty nice and it does save you money in the long run. I've got a big c and c cage and woodshavings were costing me a bomb.

 

[Swissgreys]

Hi everyone,
Ever since I got my girls I have been using Newspaper with Aspen wood chips over top for their bedding. But, when I was reading about bedding online, I found out about fleece. It looks like a lot of users on this forum use fleece too. I am wondering if it would be easier to use it, and if I do, how to set it up?
thx

I have used both and I think I would say it depends on a few different things.

What type of cage are your piggies in, and where do they live (inside or outside)?
How big is their cage?

I started out using newspaper and Auboise (hemp chippings) and have now switched to fleece.
The initial outlay for fleece was quite large (compared to a bale of shavings) but the mess in the house is much less, and cleaning their cage is super fast and easy. Long term I think fleece will be cheaper, but a lot of that depends on how much you pay for shavings.
Having said that I now do approximately 2 extra loads of laundry a week just for the guinea pigs, which isn't a problem, but certainly something to consider.
Plus I sewed a pile of little absorbent pee pads myself using cheap fleece or off cuts from the fabric store. I shudder to think how much I would have spent if I had to buy all of them!
I think they smell less on fleece (but only slightly), and although it might sound silly fleece looks nicer (they are in our living room)!
Fleece is easier for the kids to clean out, but the new cage is also a better design for indoors.
I was previously filling a compost bin per week with shavings and newspaper, which is fine in the warmer months, but in Winter we only get one collection a month, so sustainable disposal would be a problem (this is a big one for me personally).
I am not convinced that fleece would work in a traditional wooden hutch, or outside. I think in this case shavings would be a drier option for your pigs.
Having said that if they live in a shed then it doesn't really matter.
I worried that putting them on fleece was less 'natural' and they would miss digging around in their shavings. To offset this I provide them with large hay trays and replenish them twice a day. The pigs seem happy.

I agree with @Jeniva - it's a personal thing and depends entirely on your individual circumstances.

 

[Piggie_lover_20]

Thx for the replies everyone
My mother is the one who would be doing the laundry, so I will have to talk to her about that.
My guineas do live indoors and are in a standard cage at 24x48

 

[PembsGP]

I'm very interested in this thread as I too have been thinking about changing from woodchips to fleece. Thank you for all your advice. The extra washing is something for me to consider. I have lots of rugby and football kits to wash, dog beds and towels as well as family washing and no drier so wouldn't consider towels underneath. I will have to price up puppy pads. I get our woodchip from Wilkos as it is cheaper there than anywhere else where I live.