sick of fleece

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meganhannaford

meganhannaford

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fleece is gettting annoying for with fleece * have to spot clean and thats so annoying when i work have school and formal coming up :( i know ppl suggest fleece so much but do * reckon it would be okay to change to bedding after all ** pigs no is fleece i reckon ill have a fleece section plus they have fleece beds and stuff i just need a break from all the work till i knock out having to do homework, school and formal prep

ppls opinions :)
 
sorry you find fleece annoying, its not everyones cup of tea.

I love it, I work full time and very long hours, I have 6 pigs, two gangs on fleece. I am up at 6:30am work days, I feed the dog, get up, cut up the veg for the day, plate it up and leave their tea in the fridge for the OH to pop it in. Today I cleaned out the boys, then went out to feed the herd, spot cleaned and all fed and watered, its now 8:15am and the dog is done, the pigs are done leaving me a quick 20 mins to have breakfast and go to work.

I wouldnt have it anyway, spot cleaning takes just 10 mins per pen, then just top up hay and change the food bowls/water and they are done - its so quick.
 
I think fleece takes more time per day and at full clean outs than bedding and during exam time I dont use it, I stick to bedding because bedding takes me 20 mins a week whereas fleece/vetbed is 20 mins a day + 30 minutes brushing and shaking 1x a week + 60 mins in the washer + 60 mins in the dryer etc etc.

My geriatric girls prefer bedding, they lived on shavings for about 3-4 years before I adopted them so they get happy when they get bedding for a week, I also use bedding all summer as its less smelly, during the summer the vetbed needs doing 2x a week which makes it loads more expensive than bedding.

Do what you feel is right :-)

I like finacard, good quality shavings, aubiose, megazorb :-) not sure if you can get those though.
 
Each person and pig to their own. I started using fleece for all my pigs but when I got Buddy he really didn't like it plus he didn't like having a hay rack. I got fed up of cleaning hay off the fleece where he pulled it all out of the rack so he could jump in it and so I switched him to shavings with a big pile of hay and he's never been happier. When I move and set up my piggy shed I will put them all on shavings
 
I gotta say I like my fleece because it gets so dirty! Regardless of which bedding you use the amount of poops n wee is the same. Because fleece shows it up more it makes me clean more often, resulting in less smelly and nicer for the pigs! Once over with the handheld vacuum two times a day takes me 20 seconds at most! However, if it isn't working for you then it isn't working! Go with what feels best for you!
 
I use megazorb and love it :)-c they have a fleece hammock and when I get my new CC cageset up this weekend they will have some fleece beds, but I am happy to keep my megazorb and soft hay 8)
 
All mine are currently on shavings - I am going to change over to fleece bedding though only because I have quite a few piggies and I go through alot of shavings which will turn out to be costly.

Each payday one set of pigs by one i'm going to switch the piggys over to the fleece/vet bed. Doing it monthly as it is quite expensive.

If i didnt go through so much shavings, I probably would stick with it.

I've got an old hoover that isnt good at cleaning carpets, so I'm looking to buy a new hoover this month and use the old hoover to cleaning up the poops! As i only have about an hour to get ready in the morning and my piggys are poop machines!

But i have always used shavings as bedding and never had a problem with it!
 
meganhannaford said:
fleece is gettting annoying for with fleece * have to spot clean and thats so annoying when i work have school and formal coming up :( i know ppl suggest fleece so much but do * reckon it would be okay to change to bedding after all ** pigs no is fleece i reckon ill have a fleece section plus they have fleece beds and stuff i just need a break from all the work till i knock out having to do homework, school and formal prep

ppls opinions :)
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my ditto has a layer of newspaper with a layer of wood shavings on top (a nice thick layer) then hay in his sleeping area. I clean him out every 4 days as hes in a ferplast 120 so has loads of room ..ive never liked fleece personnaly i imagine its smelly when there weeing on it allday and then washing it in the washer i wash my cloths in? Yuk! No thanks :-P
 
Yeah it's just more work in the end than bedding. So until things are over asks school and formal. formal. I **** will change back later lol plus they still have fleece beds and I'm having a small fleece area lol
 
Surely you have to 'spot' clean' no matter what bedding you use really?! Apart from maybe woodshavings....

I find fleece gets a bit stinky, but I don't fancy woodshavings either..
 
by taking out the worst area if needed.

I do clean one corner of my boars cage where they toilet once between cleanouts but thats all :-) and the bit of bedding underneath my girls hideys gets taken out midweek.
 
I use megazorb for all my animals. Its fantastic. All the piggies & hamsters love it. The piggies have their snuggle beds and also wicker huts or pigloos & the hamsters have their soft bedding.
Cleaning time is so easy, i tend to do spot checks each morning and then at tea time i brush down the snuggle beds, shovel up the wet/dirty parts. Takes no more than 2mins. Then once a week (sometimes more) i empty it all out, use a very diluted mixture of milton baby fluid and give the cage a good scrub down. Ive not had a problem with smell or flies even on the hottest of days. Ive tried pretty much everything and this seems to suit me and the animals. Its a bit expensive as i have to pay £5 each bag for delivery on top of the cost price but when i worked out how much i was spending using other things it actually worked out cheaper. Nicola x
 
I'm sooooo glad that someone else feels the same!
I thought I'd like the fleece as so many peoples cages on here love it, after them being in their cage for 2 days, I hate it 8...
It's so untidy, I'm gutted!
Me and my hubby are looking at other ideas now!
Thankfully it was a bargain on ebay.
 
I used fleece but they kept burrowing under it and i was sick of getting the hay off before it went in the washing machine. I hate hay racks-pigs like to forage and hay racks stop them doing what's natural to them.

My girls are now on newspaper and hay and it's fantastic, I would never go back to fleece. I simply roll it all up-there's barely anything to brush out. They love foraging amongst their hay and popcorn like crazy when their cage is all done with nice fresh hay.

They have their snuggle sacks so they they still have the 'feel' of fleece. When their c&c cage is done I still won't use fleece. In my opinion fleece isn't a natural habitat for guinea pigs.
 
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I've been quite lucky, I switched to fleece a week ago now, as they used to kick sawdust EVERYWHERE, which is such a pain to hoover up!
I can totally understand that problems with fleece, but my two have litter trays in the corner, which i've made into a little snuggly corner, and those are filled with sawdust, and have a big handful of hay in every day (like my profile picture - I've neatened up the covers for the corners now so they could use them as hammocks too if they want). They've really taken to them, and now I just have to change these every couple of days and wash the fleece and towels once a week, I do have to poo pick every day, but again, most of it is in the litter trays! I guess the washing is a pain...and a bit gross, but I'm going to try and get enough stuff for 3 sets, and then I reduce the number of wash loads and drying time as I can keep one dirty in a bag on standby for the wash! I'll probably make sure the washing machine gets a rinse out after their stuff has gone through...
I'm still a little unsure, but so far, it's better than sawdust getting spread through the house!
 
There's no right or wrong way as long as you use appropriate materials and keep it hygienic, and they are happy so whatever works for you :)
 
PAMELAKT said:
Surely you have to 'spot' clean' no matter what bedding you use really?! Apart from maybe woodshavings....

I find fleece gets a bit stinky, but I don't fancy woodshavings either..
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You don't need to use wood shavings, just thick layers of newspaper and hay is sufficient.
 
I tried Fleece and just could not bear the smell or the mess, I think it looks lovely in all the pictures but when I did it that look only last about 10 minutes and then it was poops galore!

My lot get so excited about hay it is lovely to see and when I finish painting the new hutch they will have a run attached which will more then likely have fleece bedding in it, but for most part I am a hay and newspapers person!
 
Bekki2308 said:
by taking out the worst area if needed.

I do clean one corner of my boars cage where they toilet once between cleanouts but thats all :-) and the bit of bedding underneath my girls hideys gets taken out midweek.
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oh yeah i do that lol
 
Amysmom said:
I used fleece but they kept burrowing under it and i was sick of getting the hay off before it went in the washing machine. I hate hay racks-pigs like to forage and hay racks stop them doing what's natural to them.

My girls are now on newspaper and hay and it's fantastic, I would never go back to fleece. I simply roll it all up-there's barely anything to brush out. They love foraging amongst their hay and popcorn like crazy when their cage is all done with nice fresh hay.

They have their snuggle sacks so they they still have the 'feel' of fleece. When their c&c cage is done I still won't use fleece. In my opinion fleece isn't a natural habitat for guinea pigs.
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i agree that is why even when i am not as busy i might only have a small fleece area not a ful cage and well I'm so glad others agree i feel bad but its so so hard :( especially as for a small amount of time the pigs have to be in their smaller cage (dont worry they get extra floor time) its just to hard and gets to messy (I'm waiting to i buy a new cuboard as my old one broke which meant i have to use boxes so they took up most my room and i share with my triplet sisters so space is limited AND they were complaining to dad so its either a small cage or they go so i thought for only a short period would be okay but found the cage cleaning hard :( wah wont my own house but only part time work atm)
 
Amysmom said:
You don't need to use wood shavings, just thick layers of newspaper and hay is sufficient.
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what i am going to do is mix wood shavings (the largest ones i can get (i get it for free) and recycle kitty litter (been told it is okay as only news paper, ppl on here all agree its okay) together as shavings are softer and the litter is better to soak everything up, however when i can get my hands on carefres (hard in australia) i will
 
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