Vetbed: vetbed versus fleece

[guinealuv]

Hi i am looking to take my guinea off of their current shaving bedding. I was trying to find some cheap towels and fleece on ebay and came across vetbed.
Does anyone here have any experience with this bedding. ie how easy is it to clean, do you still need towels under it.
Its quite expensive so i don't want to pay out if it is a difficult bedding. I would rather go for the fleece idea.

Thanks

[Rnd210]

I don't use the vet bed, I use fleece quilts that I made for my own cages. I think a few people use the vet bed but the still cover it with fleece.

How I make my quilts to size of my cage is fleece (top) heavey cotton blanket (middle) cotton matress pad (bottom) and sew it all together. I fond that this is easier than tucking the fleece aroung everything else. The quilts or very soft and very absorbant and I have no problems with them.

[Sponge]

I use vetbed and I love it.

What I do is put a layer of newspaper down (depending on what type of cage you have you might prefer towels, damp newspaper sticks to coroplast I think). Then on goes the vetbed then I put a layer of fleece on that and tuck it in around the sides.

The vedbed only needs cleaning once a week, I change the fleece twice a week and take out the newspapers twice a week. Obviously if you use a towels/vetbed/fleece combo you can just chuck it all in the wash when they have floor time.

Very handy and I totally recommend it.

[guinealuv]

Thanks for your replies

I think i will get the vet bed a give it a try with the fleece on top. The pictures i found on ebay make it look really cosy stuff. If it takes away the wet from the fleece then all the better.

Thanks again i will let you know how i get on with it

[MissFormosa]

Hi guinealuv,

We switched to fleece and love it!

I use Sleepy Paws fleece...it's a brand of veterinary bedding. I found them on eBay.

eBay Store - sleepypaws vetbeds: Large, Small, Medium

At first I was sceptical because it wasn't that expensive (and was on eBay), but I figured I would try it because we tried every type of bedding it seemed and began to be desperate. Alton seemed allergic to wood shavings because he would sneeze and sneeze when we put it in there. The paper stuff got all caught in their behinds. We tried some fleece fabric and towels, but it just didn't work right - I think we did something wrong because the pigs would be wet and smelly by the next day. Well, anyways, it works great! I had wanted to buy the VetBed brand because it is like the gold standard in fleece bedding, but it is expensive and I couldn't find anywhere to ship it to me that was in my price range. I cut the fleece to fit my cage and it didn't unravel or fuzz up at all. The pigs stay dry and it is super soft, so I am satisfied with it. It does what it is supposed to.

I know this sounds silly, but for the first few days, I kept feeling it and calling my husband over to show him that it was still dry. I don't know why he puts up with me! I just thought it was so amazing!

Under the fleece I put some reclaimed incontience pads. They are $4.00 for a 2 pack. We change them every day and it is fine - no big deal compared to digging through wood shavings! After sweeping up the poops, we just scoot the pigs and houses to one side of the cage, lift up the fleece, stick a new pad under there and then do the other side. It takes about 15 minutes. Then we wash the fleece every 3 days or so. It depends on how mucky they decide to be. This is the place I got the recycled pads, which helps disabled people to work:

http://www.odcmerchandise.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=20

Hope that helps!

Wendy