Does anyone PREFER standard bedding (aspen or carefresh) to fleece after trying both??? I am really struggling with switching to fleece. The thought of lugging several sheets(a weeks worth of fleece) of urine stained/somewhat soaked fleece down to the apartment laundry room and washing it in the same machines that people wash their clothes in doesn't sound to appealing. I do enough laundry as it is.
I started out using aspen shavings, and did so for about a month. I *hated* the shavings all over the place -- I'm *still* finding them stuck in my couch 3 months later! I decided to switch to fleece; I originally used a layer of puppy pads on the bottom, topped with 2-3 layers of towels and/or recycled queen-size mattress pads, and then the fleece. When I eventually ran out of puppy pads, I didn't buy more. Now I put down a mattress pad layer, then 2 layers of towels, another mattress pad layer to sort of even out the lumpiness, and the fleece on top of that.
I change the fleece every 3 days, and I can fit all the bedding + cozies /cuddle cups from a single change into a load of laundry. For me, the fleece is more economical. My water bill hasn't gone up significantly; I live alone, so I usually only have 4 or so regular loads of laundry, and then I have 3-4 additional loads of bunny/piggy laundry each week. I do live in a house, so my laundry room is a lot more accessible, and I imagine I'd probably get tired of lugging it any kind of distance.
I've never understood why people are bothered by washing pig laundry in the same machine used for their own laundry. By the time I run the bedding through the "whitest whites" cycle, and a second rinse/spin with vinegar, any germs are gone. I shake all the hay and leftovers off the fleece before it goes in the washing machine, so the worst thing that goes in there is some guinea pig hair. Before I had a washer/dryer of my own, I took everything -- including bunny laundry -- to the laundromat once a week... with 8+ rabbits at any given time (due to fostering), I left a lot of bunny hair behind! I just made sure to wipe down the inside of whatever machines I used, and figured what other people didn't know sure wouldn't hurt them. Besides, it's no different to me than someone who washes their child's cloth diapers... they're just as urine-stained/soaked, and our urine is certainly just as germy.
I can't imagine going back to the shavings... the girls run around on the fleece so much more easily, and the mild obsessive/compulsive in me doesn't have to worry about adding shavings to or evening out the bare spots they'd make. If they dump their pellet bowl, it's no big deal; if their salad falls off the plate and onto the floor, they don't have to dig around for the small pieces of pepper and no shavings get stuck to their tomatoes! I hand sweep the poops a couple of times each day, but they tend to pick the spots they like best, so it's not like there are poops all over the cage. I just can't think of a compelling reason to switch back FROM fleece.