why use fleece?

I have never had a problem with fleece. When you use fleece you need to have an absorbant layer beneath it. The fleece will wick the moisture down to that layer. People use different layers such as towels, puppy pads, newspaper, or any combination of those. I use a hand vac to clean the poos every morn and night and once a week I wash the fleece in the washing machine with about a half cup of vinegar and regular detergent. Before I put it in the wash I take it outside and shake the heck out of it to remove and hay or hair that is left on there.

I use fleece and I love it. I would never go back to shavings. After a week my room would smell when I had shavings, but miraculously, using fleece, my room never smells anymore. That might be partly because Misty is a good girl and pees in her litter box most of the time and that gets emptied daily so doesn't get chance to smell. Also, I think as well as the moisture getting wicked down to the absorbent layers, the smell does too.

Also, having shavings meant they were constantly tread all over my room and into the rest of the house too. And the GPs always had shavings opn them when I picked them up. Now I don't have any of those problems.

I tend to do spot cleanings everyday with a mini dust pan and brush, not a dust buster because mine is cheap and doesn't suck up things stuck to the fleece. It is quick and easy to do the spot cleanings and it keeps the cage looking tidy, whereas I found with shavings that it always looked messy.

When cleaning the whole cage it is much less hassle. I dust pan and brush the big excess bits. Then what I can't get up, tends to come off, when I shake it vigorously outside. Then I bung everything into the washing machine and wash it like a normal wash. Some poeple use vinegar but I don't bother because I don't seem to need it. I do need to do 2 washes because my layers are:

rubber backed bath mats
towels, doubled up at the edges
Fleece

The fleece and towels fit in one wash but the bath mats have to go in a separate one. I use rubber backed bath mats because then nothing gets to the actual cage bottom so I don't have to wipe it down or anything, although I do wipe it down with disinfectant occasionally just to be extra clean.

With your fleece, wash it through once or twice before you use it because it might be waterproofed - it is strangely standard for fleece to be waterproffed. If it is, then even with absorbent layers underneath, it won't let anything through. But if you wash it, it washes out the waterproofness. I found this with the fleece I used, I only had to wash it once to un-waterproof it.

If you are worried about the fleece getting discoloured, which isn't actually a problem that I have, but if it is a problem for you, you could try using a darker coloured fleece.

I would definetly recommend using fleece. It means you don't have to buy wood shavings all the time as well, so it saves on cost and inconvenience.

Give it a try, I think it's a really good idea.

Hope this helped, sorry for the length :sarcastic.

I just finally started using fleece & Puppy Pads yesterday and, from my two days of experience, I can tell you MANY reasons why you, too, should use fleece.

I'm using fleece blankets. I bought 2 of them for about $40 at Target. I will not have to buy bedding again for a long time. The Puppy Pads were fairly expensive, ran me about $150 or so for the two sets (I have a larger cage, and you obviously need additional pads for when you take the soaked ones out). So, for $170, I have bought bedding for a VERY long time.

Before, I used CareFRESH Ultra which was quite good, but quite expensive. I also used Hay for a bit, which smelled awful and magically disappeared as my pigs ate it - ate SOILED hay. Way back when I first got them, I used the shavings that came with them. I could smell the shavings, and that means trouble for my girls whose noses are half an inch off the ground. On top of all of these problems, there are STILL bits of stray Hay, CareFRESH, and shavings making trips across my house on people's shoes.

Another problem I no longer have is detecting when my cage is dirty. It's pretty easy to see poop on blue fleece. It's much more difficult to see it in piles of hay or shavings. The white CareFRESH offered a good contrast, but again it's expensive as all hell.

When I do clean the cage, all I'll have to do is bend down, pull out the fleece like a hobo's knapsack, shake it out out front, and throw it in the washer with my washable puppy pads. This pales in comparison to the amount of work involved in scooping any of the alternatives for twenty minutes, then wiping down the bottom of the cage, then drying it, then smelling around to see if there's any disinfectant smell left over. My back used to be a serious problem when cleaning and I would nearly fill a kitchen trash bag to capacity.

Finally, what other type of bedding doubles as a clean, attractive, simple form of corral bedding for floor time? None, unless you REALLY love vacumming and you have the space to store stockpiles of bedding.

Seriously, try the fleece & puppy pad combo. My pigs were popcorning only when I fed them or rearranged their cage before. Now, they popcorn whenever I walk in the room.

What I'm saying is, your pigs will love you for it, and you won't mind cleaning up after them nearly as much.

Here's a link for some unscented rewashable puppy pads (some of them have a scent to attract dogs to them. Probably not too important, but better to be safe then sorry):

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A fleece blanket you can find pretty much anywhere. I got mine at Target.

Two notes:
- Make sure you get enough pads and fleece to fit two of your cages, because when you're washing one, you'll need another to put in the cage.
- If you're going to use the fleece as corral flooring, make sure you get a nice big blanket. You can always tuck the excess under the cage when it's in as cage bedding, and the bigger the blanket, the more room for your pigs to run around on without destroying your carpet during exercise time

What I plan to do is put the pigs in their carry cage, set up the corral with the used pads and fleece, put the pigs in the corral, put the new stuff in the cage, then transfer the pigs to their cage while I put the old bedding in the washer. I use two different color blankets, as they are not color-blind and appreciate some change in their lives here and there.

I don't have 2 lots of bedding because I can get it all in the wash and in the tumble dryer in the one evning whilst Misty is having floor time.

Wow thanks for all the detailed responses! You guys are truly passionate about your piggies….nice to see.

Anyhow, I decided to take everyone’s advice and try fleece once again. I bought a 50x60 fleece blanket from Wal-Mart for about $15. It fits my 3x5 grid cage perfectly!

I made a few big changes to my cage last night. I didn’t realize how WRONG I had everything set up until I read some of the threads on this site. My former cage had a thick layer of woodchips spread out over the entire floor, and a layer of hey on top of the woodchips. The pigs pooped and peed everywhere and anywhere…it was one big smelly mess. Not to mention I think I was suffocating myself and the pigs with that potent pine scent.

So I threw out the chloroplast box and replaced it with vinyl flooring. I placed the flannel blanky on the vinyl, and then put the grid cage on top of it. I then pulled out about one inch of flannel from all edges around the cage, and safety pinned the flannel all around the cage base so nothing could roll out and the blanket would stay put.

I then put my store bought cage in the main cage and placed a layer of wood chips on the bottom of the store bought cage only. I made a little hey rack and placed their water bottles and pellet dish inside it as well.

My cage looks better, it doesn’t smell, and the piggies seem to be much more active and happier in it. The best part is that they use the store bought cage to poop and pee in. The flannel floor area is clean except for the odd peace of poop. I am extremely impressed with the new set up. I can’t believe they aren’t pooping and peeing on the flannel. I had never imagined in a million years that they could be potty trained. Simply amazing. Here’s a pic. The cage is still a work in progress. I need to add a few toys.

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Is it a flannel blanket or fleece? You referenced both so I was not sure. You really need to put something under the fleece to wick to pee down to. If there is nothing there and they pee on the fleece it is going to crust up on there and stink. Towels are good or disposable puppy pads. The cage looks great though. I was using my old cage bottom for a litter/feeding area for awhile.

babygrl1234 said:

Is it a flannel blanket or fleece? You referenced both so I was not sure. You really need to put something under the fleece to wick to pee down to. If there is nothing there and they pee on the fleece it is going to crust up on there and stink. Towels are good or disposable puppy pads. The cage looks great though. I was using my old cage bottom for a litter/feeding area for awhile.

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Sorry, I mean't to say fleece.

Towels sound like a good idea.

The cage looks great. You should take the wire out of the bottom of the petstore cage, it's way too rough for little piggy feet and can cause bumblefoot.

Vinyl flooring? Never heard of that...whats better guys? Vinyl or chloroplast? So i know what i should get....

Vinyl is fine if you don't want sides, and you don't need sides if you are using fleece. But if you aren't using fleece you're best bet is coroplast. It depends on expense and preference.

I agree with Dagwell, you absolutely definetly need to take out the wire flooring of the pet store cage. Also, to make life easier for you, it is best to put an absorbent layer under the fleece, even if you they don't pee there. Otherwise, it looks like a really ace set up, well done!

dagwellismypigy said:

The cage looks great. You should take the wire out of the bottom of the petstore cage, it's way too rough for little piggy feet and can cause bumblefoot.

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It’s actually not wire flooring in the cage. I just laid out a couple grids on top of the wood chips so that the chips don’t go flying everywhere when they are in the cage. The surface of the floor is pretty much flat and even. I made sure to press the grids down hard enough so that there weren’t any potholes.

Giplet said:

Vinyl is fine if you don't want sides, and you don't need sides if you are using fleece. But if you aren't using fleece you're best bet is coroplast. It depends on expense and preference.

I agree with Dagwell, you absolutely definetly need to take out the wire flooring of the pet store cage. Also, to make life easier for you, it is best to put an absorbent layer under the fleece, even if you they don't pee there. Otherwise, it looks like a really ace set up, well done!

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Thank you.

I purchased some towels today and placed them underneath the fleece. It's much softer on their feet and gives them more traction.

It's still too rough for piggie feet, 'potholes' or not. Maybe you could put newspaper on top of the shavings instead.

Your pigs little leg could also get caught up in the grid on the petstore cage. They could break off a toenail or even break a leg if they were to get stuck. I highly suggest you remove them, the shaving are much better for them to walk on. You cage looks great other than that! Im sure they love the room to run around.

Hansel said:

Your pigs little leg could also get caught up in the grid on the petstore cage. They could break off a toenail or even break a leg if they were to get stuck. I highly suggest you remove them, the shaving are much better for them to walk on. You cage looks great other than that! Im sure they love the room to run around.

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Ok, I'll remove them. Thanks again everyone.

Geez, now your cage is so stylish I'm envious. I should never have posted!

Your pigs will be VERY happy. Good move with removing the wire floor. Newspaper's a good, cheap option with the absorbancy issue. I had money saved up that I didn't really need so I sprung for the rewashable puppy pads, but it's such a small improvement it's almost not worth the price. After you read the newspaper, you usually trash it anyway, so save a tree and save a buck at the same time!

The people here have such great information on everything guinea pigs. Anytime you have a question, come here, because you will get the same level of valuable information on any topic you can think of.

You might want to try one of those $3 door mats outside the eating area to catch shavings as the pigs come out. It works well. How is the blanket? I am curious as to how well it absorbs with flame retardant on it?