Pig Mammy Fed Up Of Washing Fleece

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Emmnpete

Emmnpete

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Anyone else fed up of washing fleece....:hb:
I do love it as a bedding, my boys love it....it always looks so nice and fresh and sooft under their little feet.....
My son spot cleans twice daily and a full clean once or twice a week.
I use puppy pads underneath and its all been great.
Until recently I've been poorly and finding it hard to wash all the fleece, pee pads etc;
It's a lorra, lorra extra washing hahah...:hmm:
So I've decided to trial some wood shavings....after debating over it ! And yes I've bought some GP friendly stuff.....so oils ...nasties etc....
I've had three days of the woody stuff and so far so good, they actually have enjoyed the change around in the cage....
Anyone else had wash pile up problems ? Xx
 
I spot clean once or twice a day, fully change the fleece liners twice a week but if i get a whiff of wee i do it there and then.. it is a lot of washing, 2 cycles lasting just over 5 hours for them both on my machine.. not so bad in summer as it goes on the line outside... altho i have hung it out in winter when its been dry! With two kids & 2 pigs the poor washer is always on!
 
That's why I stopped using fleece. I couldn't keep up with the poop as my piggies trood it in before I even got a chance to take it out and I found cleaning it really hard so I switched to shredded paper.
 
Mine poo mainly in the hay tray ... sometimes they leave me a nice neat pile in one corner...
 
I have a large run for my four girls with fleece and litter trays.Works great for me as I have joint pain so cleaning g out a huge cage would be too much for me.Just sweep up once a day, change litter trays every two days and pick up full fleece and towels,roll it up and shake it into bin.Have a rabbit in cage for now, is going in bigger accommodation, he's only a baby and he has a litter tray I change every day.Find my girls rabbit cage and boys guinea pig cage hard work to keep clean cos that's a full clean every two or three days and involves heaving large cages about.
 
Well we have all got along very well with the shavings....and the piggy boys don't seem to mind. As a family we are cleaning easier...
I may ( like others ) go back to fleece in the summer ( lto line dry )...
I still have a piece of fleece in the cage under the pigloos - for comfort for them....I'm a softy !..
Like all things - trial and error, what works for one piggy family, doesn't work for another :bronco:
 
I was the same. I loved the fleece but with being at college and work I didn't have the time to spot clean or change the fleece as often as it needed it.

I now use paper shreds from the shredding machines at my parents work and college. It's free and doesn't smell. So far it's worked really well.
 
hsn97 said:
I was the same. I loved the fleece but with being at college and work I didn't have the time to spot clean or change the fleece as often as it needed it.

I now use paper shreds from the shredding machines at my parents work and college. It's free and doesn't smell. So far it's worked really well.
Click to expand...
Ahh that's a good idea ! Do they not eat the paper ?
I have access to a massive amount of shredded paper at work .
Do you lay it all over the base ? X
 
Mine are on all fleece, including beds/cosies too & I don't find it a problem at all. They do have a litter tray with newspaper & hay in so a lot of wees go in there. There are just two rattling about in a 5 x 2 cage so maybe because they have a lot of room that helps. Of course they poop anywhere (Usually their beds lol) I poop sweep about 3 times a day :) I wash their stuff in 2 lots in a horse bag. I strip the whole lot every 5-7 days to wash it.
 
give carefresh a try! bright colours, no smell, VERY soft! I use it for my hamster and will be using it for my indoor pig when her wounds heal x
 
:D I have eight pigs in 5 big C and C cages (smallest 4 X 3). They have round fleecy hides, wooden houses, washable puppy pads and Trixie boxes. I poop sweep twice a day, change the pads in the fleecy hides every day, change the beds in the Trixie boxes every 2-3 days, change the puppy pads once a week. The fleeces and towels that cover the floor are changed once a month. There is always something waiting to be washed! But as I do not have Correx bases in the cages, this prohibits the use of any other type of bedding. (The puppy pads under the grass baskets prevent wee from getting onto the fleece underneath. The pads are sewn onto the baskets so that they cannot get pushed off the pads. There are carpet tiles under the log bridges to prevent the fleece from getting soiled here as well. )
Here is my set-up. The other 3 cages are similar.

IMG_4863.webp
 
Emmnpete said:
Ahh that's a good idea ! Do they not eat the paper ?
I have access to a massive amount of shredded paper at work .
Do you lay it all over the base ? X
Click to expand...

They did to begin with because it was new but now they just leave it. And I put down newspaper first and then a decent layer of shredded paper on top and then hay in the houses and hay racks. ;)
 
Emmnpete said:
Anyone else fed up of washing fleece....:hb:
I do love it as a bedding, my boys love it....it always looks so nice and fresh and sooft under their little feet.....
My son spot cleans twice daily and a full clean once or twice a week.
I use puppy pads underneath and its all been great.
Until recently I've been poorly and finding it hard to wash all the fleece, pee pads etc;
It's a lorra, lorra extra washing hahah...:hmm:
So I've decided to trial some wood shavings....after debating over it ! And yes I've bought some GP friendly stuff.....so oils ...nasties etc....
I've had three days of the woody stuff and so far so good, they actually have enjoyed the change around in the cage....
Anyone else had wash pile up problems ? Xx
Click to expand...
ME - after reading posts about fleece I thought I would try it so I went to a material shop and had two pieces cut for £18 I thought in the long run it will be cost effective as I had read - three days on I hated it the pigs didn't look as happy at all, my husband said it was smelly and after two days the top house was changed back and day three I rushed and bought more supplies and changed the bottom house too! Many many people do use fleece but it's not for us - it looks lovely maybe it's because having 5 girls it's not practical I'm not sure.
 
I have four sows and a boar, three in one part and two in the other.
Personally if I just had fleece I wouldn't get on with it for long, it needs and absorbent layer underneath. For me this is polyester wadding, sandwiched between two bits of fleece like a quilt.
To keep it fresh and avoid smells they also have an area - a tray - filled with more traditional disposable bedding. Out of the nine pigs I've had so far all nine have simply decided to do most of their wees in the disposable bedding, and it's mainly just been a case of scooping the poop from the fleece, and scooping out the soiled bedding each day.

If you have just fleece they're going to wee on it, it will get damp and stinky. Hay will stick to it, it will be a pain to maintain, I really do recommend a bedding tray for the hay and for them to wee in. It generally works really well after that.

Golden rules are:
1) have something absorbent under the fleece. People have their own preferences, I find a fleece quilt is really easy to change and wash and dry, but use SOMETHING under it
2) have a tray of disposable bedding, they'll do most of their wees in it :)
 
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