My Fleece Bedding Solutions - How it works for me

[Slave to the Wheek]

I have made a cage quilt and just finished my first week of testing it out.

I took two layers of 200wt Walden Mills Polartec Fleece otherwise known at JoAnne's Fabric's as "Alpine Fleece" and sewed a quadruple layer of high loft batting between them, and ran some seams in the center to keep it from bunching in the wash. Then I took strips of fabric and sewed it to the edges of the quilt, like a bumper pad for a baby crib or like a chair pad for a dining room chair. It wasn't too cheap as it took a lot of fleece, however cost is no object for me. Since my pigs are my only hobby, I put the cost on the back burner to try to find my solution.

My personal priorities were:
1. Odor control and Dryness
2. Time to do daily cleanings
3. Ease of cage changes
4. Longest possible time between washings
5. Convenient to wash

I like that it's double sided because I can flip it when one side gets too worn out. I also think it's a key to why it worked so well on my first trial.

I poked tiny holes in the folded section of my coroplast and run the strips through the holes and secure them by tieing them to the grids on the cage floor. Essentially it functions like a chair pad works.

Under that quilt is an old mattress pad should they pee through the quilt, which they did do in certain areas. I cut the sides off of the pad that I was going to throw out and it was formerly my "asborbant" layer until my pigs got too big and the pad wasn't enough for a full week. (pics in my gallery)

I use small pieces of cut up mattress pad, hand towels and fleece baby blankets in sections of the cage where they hang out the most such as underneath hidey's and inside their "chubes" and change those out each day when I vacuum the cage.

KEEPING IT CLEAN - Daily Maintenance

I purchased a $30 USD Craftsman Shop Vak from Sears/Orchard Supply that is 2 gallon size. This vacuum works great and comes with a nice end on it that works perfect for scooping poops and stray hay bits. Each day I clear the cage of everything and vacuum up all the poops. It goes quickly because the fleece is secured to the cage and doesn't move around on me. Believe me, if your fleece isn't secured it's sooo much more work.

I have to put some baking soda carpet freshner in the shop vak or it STINKS to high heaven after two days. Hay DOES get caught in the hose, so I have to stop once or twice while vacuuming to unclog it at the point where it attaches to the vaccum. If you had the larger shop vacs with the wider hose, you wouldn't have hay clogging it, but then it would be more awkward. I decided to stay with the smaller hose, since I have very bad hands that couldn't hold the fatter hoses on the bigger shop vacs. Of course, the wet dry vacuum is very noisy. To solve that problem at first we moved the pigs out of the cage.

However recently we found a that if we purchased the "car care kit" that they sell for it ($20 USD) we could quadruble hose length and put the vacuum outside the door while vacuuming. Now, I just "shoosh" the pigs upstairs when I clean downstairs, and vice versa for upstairs. It's funny. I honestly think they are learning "up" and "down" like a baby does.

Then I move all their hideys and tunnels and boxes and haybox to a new configuration when I put it back together. I would say with my big cage it takes approx an average of 10 minutes each night to maintain a healthy, dry, clean-smelling (well, mostly) cage. I do not mean to say that I only spend 10 minutes though, as I often end up playing around with the cage and the pigs and all in all it takes 30 minutes or longer. My cage is pretty big, and I really enjoy this time with them at night. They love it when I'm all done and they get so excited at what's coming up that they will even come down to see if I'm done yet. The highlight of their day is to have a new "habitat" each night. They squeal with delight while they go in and out of all the new in an out places.

Once a week, I wash all the little bits and change the fleece out. Before I remove the fleece, I put the brush end on the vacuum and go over it really hard to get up all the hairs, and bits on it.

Since I live in a 4th floor city apartment I simply HAD to find a way to make fleece work for me. I'm very happy now with what I have done.

[Naomi]

hey sounds great!! I may just give that a try, too bad I'm not so talented with a sewing machine

[Slave to the Wheek]

I've been getting several requests inquiring about how I use the batting with fleece. I thought that I would just do an update.

My comforter has been a true lifesaver and continues to work great. I have found that they seldom pee through it except in a few areas. I solved that by just keeping disposable bed liner pads under it. I haven't had to change the bed liners, since they don't get wet enough. They just catch stray wet spots.

I want to get some fresh pics uploaded, and I'm also writing up an extensive article on fleece which is taking me some time to research before I post to the web. In the meantime here is a pic that sort of shows what it looks like,
TurboLips.JPG (image)

the star of the pic is "Turbo T. Pig C.S.P." ..in the words of Homer Simpson..."the T. stands for T." hehe...The link is to a GIANT image of this shot. Turbo is a Cavy Spirit Pig!
It's actually a bit confusing since it looks like the sides of the comforter go up the cage, but it was actually scrunched up. It normally lies flat, but when I was taking the pics it was when I was in the process of pulling it out and catching pigs. Although, if one was super talented, they COULD sew up sides onto it. It would be like the worlds largest cozy cup!

The truth is that having my haybox (pics on gallery) has also been a huge influence as well. The boys pee a ton in it and keep much of the wetness away altogether. The haybox is a favorite place.

Now ...the big test. When I get all three boars in the same cage!!!