Fleece

[baby-wilson]

My guinea pigs are being housed in A C+C cage at the moment and I use newspaper as bedding. I have to clean them every day because they tear up the paper and make such a mess! I was thinking of usinga fleece blanket as bedding instead, with newspaper and towels underneath to absorb the wee... What do you think?
Anyone else use this?

Thanks!

[Aertyn]

I do, and I love it. Both mum and I are allergic to most bedding types, though we have found that having a small litter tray does come in handy under the hay rack.

Fleece is a very popular bedding choice, though it is high maintenance, you have to clean it several times a day and if you use the same washing machine for the fleece as you do for your clothes expect to find stray pieces of hay on them unless you shake it vigorously before washing.

Fleece would be pretty cheap now too, with it being Winter there would also be lots of different patterns and designs in fabric stores.

Newspaper as a bedding isn't a good idea, as you have found out, you want to keep the top layer as dry as possible, and with newspaper pee just makes it go mushy. It normally takes a bit of experimenting to get something that works for you, but currently I use a layer of fleece then a layer of towels.

[baby-wilson]

thanks!

[^dawn^]

We just started using fleece 2 weeks ago and it is the best thing we could have done. Ruby loves it, I've never seen her look so relaxed and comfortable and I love it because it looks so much cleaner and some say it is harder to maintain, but I disagree. Ruby doesn't like pooping on the fleece either, she started using her litterbox every time!

[staphjermz]

Fleece in combination with towels and newspaper makes life so much easier. Best thing i like about it is it keep the top layer dry therrefore you guinea pig's feet will be nice and dry. You can get nice coloured prints from go lo suprisingly. I bought most of my fleece from spotlight but it gets a bit dear. I think i spent 45 dollars on fleece for 6 metres. and today i bought a nice printed one for 3 dollars a metre or so. I'm still trying to toilet train my guinea pigs if they aren't toilet trained the fleece loks so messy with poo everywhere so the temptation to clean every half hour or so is so tempting

[kathrynj]

Being that I don't have a funtioning car at the moment to get woody pet or other bedding, I have begun to (don't laugh) get old things out of my lifeline bag to use under the fleece, sheets, old clothes, and I have found that a pair of trackie dacks makes a great warm snuggley place for the piggies.

I have a lot of people who give me bags of old clothes continually and probably more than 50% goes to lifeline!

[pigloverr]

I've been thinking about converting to fleece. I currently have a system that means only a fortnightly clean which is nice. But if anyone could tell some advantages of fleece that would be awesome.