Mice bedding alternative. What can I use for my mice's bedding?

[Crystal Lee]

I've been using Carefresh bedding for both my guineas and my mice. Recently I switched to fleece for my guineas (and lovin it). I don't want to have to buy that expensive Carefresh anymore. That's the whole reason I switched to fleece, but I need bedding for my mice too.
I was thinking of doing the mice's bedding like I did with my guineas. A sheet of fleece with towels underneath, but the thing is my mice love to burrow and move their bedding around in little hills and such and I don't want to take away their fun.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I could use for their bedding?

I was thinking of cutting up fleece into strips so they could move it around. And having towels underneath the strips. To wash I could stick the strips of fleece in a lingerie bag and throw it in the wash.
Do you think that would possibly work?

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.

[crazywiggy]

Personally I would stick to loose bedding rather than fleece for mice.

There is a high chance your mice would chew on the fleece and towels and possibly ingest it, which could be harmful.

You are correct about taking away their fun too. The natural behaviours of mice include digging, burrowing, foraging etc, and this just isn't possible with fleece bedding.
I don't think cutting up the fleece would work either, simply because there is even more chance then of them eating both the fleece strips and fabric.

You may be able to find something better or cheaper than Carefresh though. Check out this site for the best mouse info - there is info on bedding in the info section and in the forum, plus some useful product reviews. I don't know which products are available in the USA (it is a UK site) but hopefully you will find something!
There is also the option of using shredded paper or shredded / ripped up newspaper.

[AnimalFarm2006]

You could always get plain potting soil with nothing added, bake it, and than use it as bedding. You just have to change the pee spots, and toss up the soil a couple days apart, and you are set for a week & a haft. I use aspen beding at the moment, but the soil was nice because i hide meal-worms in it and they had a blast hunting them down.