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C&C To sew or not to sew. THAT is the question.

mommazilla

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We built our coroplast box last night, I have yet to actually put it in the cage. For now I just have the towels placed in the bottom and the fleece draped over and clipped to the edge of the box. I have considered sewing which would involve a lot of cutting to make the towels work and I'm just not sure if it's worth it. I love the look of the sewn together pads y'all have pictured but I'd like to see what others have to say. Preferably those who have done it both ways. Besides the effort and time and skill involved I also worry about them burrowing under the mat, poo rolling under it (I'm a little fanatical about getting all the poo up) and I worry if I don't have the fleece over the edges of the coro, they will chew it.

Thanks!
 

MissJean

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I switched from using loose fleece over towels (Held in place by clips), to liners. The liners are way easier for me. Cage cleaning days take much less time.

My liners have an extra inch or so on each side, and that holds all the poo in. My pigs haven't been digging under it. When you sew everything together it's more bulky and a bit more difficult to burrow under. So my pigs don't even waste their time. They have enough hidey houses to feel safe enough,too. That might also prevent the burrowing.
 
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Inle_Rabbit

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I found it much, much easier to clean the cage with sewn pads than just clipped on fleece. Some poo does fall under the fleece but when I change fleece pads I clean that all up. It doesn't bother me much at all. You could always sew a liner that folds up and over the coro edges.

I do have one piggy that is a burrower but he does not tunnel under fleece pads. I think they might be too heavy for him to get under. I do fleece/uhal pad/fleece with mine.
 

Raine59

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I started out with both layers separate. At first I had this idea I was going to drape the fleece up over the edges of the coroplast but found it was just too hard to do. My cage is up against a wall and I couldn't reach to the far side to arrange it properly. So I just left it lying on the bottom and once in a while they would flip back the layer of fleece and lay on the pad underneath but they didn't really burrow. After a few weeks I just sewed everything together and it makes it a lot easier. But you might try the layers separate for a few weeks and see how you feel about it as once you've sewn everything together, you don't want to take it apart again.
 

kittymalone

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You could always sew the fleece to fit by itself and just lay the towels under the fleece liner. I think it would be easier to wash the fleece and towels if they weren't sewn together but I know a lot of people here do it that way. The problem with cutting towels is that you will have little bits of towel to clean up. You may want to look into Uhaul pads instead of towels as they don't fray and absorb like towels. I use Uhaul pads and towels with fleece draped on top and clipped with binder clips to the coro and it works well. It takes me about 20 minutes to a complete cage change (I have a 3x6). Play around and see what works best for you.
 

mommazilla

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Thanks for all your responses. I did a trial run on the sewing by making a few mats for the hay area. I did one layer of towel and then folded the fleece around the edges and that was about all my sewing machine could handle.

I did have a heck of a time with draping and clipping the fleece to the box. It was definitely a headache that I don't want every 4 or 5 days. So I think with y'alls suggestions and my experiences I will be attempting to sew a mat for my 3x3 cage and 1x3 loft. I think I'll just do one layer of towels and just lay the second layer down on the coroplast so I don't ruin my sewing machine.
 
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