Is anyone using Vetbed/fleece in a hutch?

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garfieldette

garfieldette

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Hi

I have been reading about the different set ups people here have for their guinea pigs and reading up about using vetbed or fleece.

I have a 4ft x 2 floor hutch and have been using newspaper with hay on top but the hutch gets very wet and hay gets soiled and wasted (as well as all over the house!)

Was wondering about switching to vetbed or fleece but have only seen pictures on here of people using it with C&C set ups.

Is there anyone using vetbed or fleece in a hutch or cage? Does it work ok, or does the moisture still make the floor wet?


Beki
 
There are a few (myself included) that use fleece and or vetbed.

Do a search for fleece and you will quite a few threads about its use etc.

You wash the fleece without conditioner at least 2 or 3 times before first use then never use conditioner for future washes to make sure the wicking abilities are not affected. One has to use something like towels or inconitinence pads or puppy pads under the fleeve to absorb the moisture.

Alot use newspaper with towels on top of that then fleece on top of the towels, then the fleece stays nice and dry. I've found the incontinence pads a dream and much prefer them to towels.

I'm sure someone with a cage/hutch (I have a c&c cage) will come along with more advice.
 
I use fleece in an indoor cage. As Modwyn says, the best way is to use old towels, then incontinence sheets or puppy training pads then fleece as it stays nice and dry. I use pieces of vetbed too in the girls bed area and pigloo. It is so much tidier and saves the iving room getting covered in hay! :))

When the girls go back outdoors in their hutch in spring, I will switch back to newspaper and hay though. Jut my preference. I think they'll be warmer with hay, rather than fleece :)
 
I use fleece in my indoor cages, I tried it in the hutches in the shed but I couldn't get on with it, it was harder somehow to clean and sweep it out than in the indoor ones, and I went back to the bedding I was using before.

I think some people do though - I've got more pigs than most, so I go with whatever is most time effective in terms of cleaning!

Sophie
x​
 
I use vetbed and fleece in the hutches, though they are inside at the moment. My hutch has a plastic liner built in, on which I put towels (layer of 2 or 3) then either vetbed or fleece, works quite well for me. I change it every three or so days and spot clean twice daily (I have a touch of OCD ;) )
 
I use fleece in my indoor cages and i love it.
I wouldn't dream of using anything else xx
 
Thanks for your responses, I;m on ebay at the moment having a look at vetbed but the price seems to vary hugely so not sure why.

I read in the very useful guide on here that if you use vetbed you don;t need to have the towels underneath, just newspaper. Is this right? My OH is already doing fruit about idea of putting vetbed in our washing machine so don't want to add a load of towels as well.

Also, do I need to have the vetbed in one piece to fit the entire hutch floor or can you put two pieces in? Price seems to jump up a lot if I want a piece big enough to do the whole hutch floor but I can foresee guinea pigs trying to get under it if in pieces which kind of defeats the point of the vetbed:-)


Beki
 
As right now i use fleece on top and towels on the bottom, for my c&c. It works well, but with four piggies I seem to have major hot spot where they spend alot of time, which is the hay area. So i plan on using a litter tray with some shavings for that area. But other then that i have no problems with using fleece. I havnt use vet bed yet, i would like to try it out one day.
 
garfieldette said:
Thanks for your responses, I;m on ebay at the moment having a look at vetbed but the price seems to vary hugely so not sure why.

I read in the very useful guide on here that if you use vetbed you don;t need to have the towels underneath, just newspaper. Is this right? My OH is already doing fruit about idea of putting vetbed in our washing machine so don't want to add a load of towels as well.

Also, do I need to have the vetbed in one piece to fit the entire hutch floor or can you put two pieces in? Price seems to jump up a lot if I want a piece big enough to do the whole hutch floor but I can foresee guinea pigs trying to get under it if in pieces which kind of defeats the point of the vetbed:-)


Beki
Click to expand...

The genuine stuff has green backing. The cheaper stuff may be non-genuine (but I guess it may work just as well, the most important thing is that it will take the pee through, not just puddle on top) If you want to do without towels, I would definatly suggest puppy training pads between the vetbed and the paper to soak everything up. I use them in my indoor cage (which I change every third day) and nothing gets through to the towels.

As for burying piggies, they may try, but if it's a snug fit I don't really think they'll bother. Maybe give them a box of hay to dig in or just chuck in a fleece so they can bury themselves under that? My lot love hiding under fleece :) Our Pippa is a bit of a digger too and she doesn't try to get underneath
 
I use vetbed in just the bedroom of our 6 foot hutch. The hutch is in an unheated conservatory, so is dry. Underneath the vetbed, I use cat litter to soak up liquid - wood pellet or recycled paper type.
On top of the vetbed I use lots of hat, a snugglepac (when necessary) and another piece of vetbed as a loose blanket, propped up by the hay so they don't get on top and squish it all down. The bedroom walls are also lined with vetbed fixed to the wood!
 
I have my guineas in a indoor cage most of the time with puppy pads on the bottom with baby fleace blankets on top. i have a corner toilet with hay in they use to eat, wee & poop in. nice lol

They have a out door hutch they go in for a few hours in the day.( when warm enough) Its under a lean to attached to the house so under cover. They have kitchen lino flooring on the bottom of the hutch so the wood wont rot, then a load of news paper covered in saw dust. they have a pillow slip filled with straw for a bed. seems to keep them snug and the straw dont seem to get squished down as much. :)
 
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