Fleece So I've been thinking, and I need advice!

When I got my first two, I used fleece and towels. It worked very well and was very cheap. Look for fleece on sale at fabric stores if you're not too picky about the pattern. I used two large towels for my 2x4, folded in a way that offered two layers. I still used dish towels for added protection in high-traffic areas. The fleece was held down over the the tray with binder clips.

You *can* buy liners which makes cleaning much faster. I've bought them for as low as 40 USD online. The good ones are around 60.

I have a 2x4 and I use two towels on the bottom, each folded in half and then a layer of fleece on top. I just do my best to tuck the ends under the towels to keep the fleece in place. I use a dust pan to sweep the poops up once or twice a day and I wash the fleece/towels about every 6 days. I don't ever want to go back to normal bedding!

I am really loving the uhaul pads I switched to. I was using towels, but with the 5 of us we need all the clean towels we can get!

Yeah, Ive been reading about the benefits of Uhaul pads and such, and I might take that, considering we only have so many old towels at my house, and we need them for 2 constantly muddy, wet dogs haha.

And I'm hoping that when I start using them I'll never have to go back to regular bedding too!!

I know when my mom wants to get stuff ultra clean or not smelly she sometimes uses a little vinegar. Is it safe to wash the towels and fleece or fleece liners i might make with vinegar just as an added disinfectant (my mom is a little leery about letting me use the washing machine for guinea pig stuff. And, since I'm staying with her while I go to school that may be problematic. Other cleaning methods might work for me as well, though there's a laundromat a mile away from the house if I need to use it.

I use Uhaul pads under fleece. (except the kitchen where I use disposable bedding) I was the fleece and uhaul pads once a week. You will definitely want to add vinegar to the wash to help with any smells. You will want to make sure you don't use any detergent with fabric softener and no dryer sheets. I use ALL Free and Clear for my girls bedding. I love the fleece and could not imagine how expensive it would be to buy bedding for my whole "cage" (2x5 + 2x2 loft)!

My cage is completely fleece.
In my experience the anti-pill smells faster than the blizzard. I use fleece/uhual pads. I cut some squares for areas that receive more urine. I use 2 layers of uhual and 2 squares ontop of the 2 uhuals in each "high pee" area. I switched to fleece to save money, so using ANY disposable bedding anywhere in the cage defeated the purpose(to me). The only area that smells in my cage, is the loft, and that has anti-pill fleece. I change that out every 3-ish days.

I love the blizzard fleece. It is softer, thicker and doesn't smell as fast. I've heard reports of hay sticking like crazy. I don't have that problem.

You could start out with old towels just to get a feel for how it works. Once you get a better handle on how often you need to change it out you can try uhaul pads or something more absorbent. I had something similar to uhaul pads (hospital grade under pads) and I changed it once a week for 2 piggies. I still had to sweep up poop daily though. It really is cost saving.

We use Fleece, towels and puppy training pads. Fleece is ok in the washing machine, most of the "bits and pieces" that we can't brush off just dissolve and anything too hard (like bits of Hay stem etc) will get caught in the filter, so be sure to clean that out regularly so it doesn't get blocked.

Apart from that we wash all the cage things on 60c (140f for you US owners) - with no fabric softener/conditioner and washing powder, not liquid.
I guess that's preference, but i always find the powder does a better job at cleaning.
Fabric softener/conditioner tends to make the fleece either less absorbent or too absorbent, so it gets dirtier quicker and doesn't wick as well. Think of it as teflon or scotchguard oO

Awesome! thanks you guys! I have one more question I can think of right now, on the sites that you can buy pre-made fleece bedding liners, the makers sew in the uhaul pads or terry cloths and such, but none of the tutorials (on here at least) show that as a method. Is it a better idea to sew them all together, or keep them separated?

PopePopsicleIV said:

Awesome! thanks you guys! I have one more question I can think of right now, on the sites that you can buy pre-made fleece bedding liners, the makers sew in the uhaul pads or terry cloths and such, but none of the tutorials (on here at least) show that as a method. Is it a better idea to sew them all together, or keep them separated?

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I'd personally keep them all separated as they would be much easier to clean (In my opinion).
The only advantage to keeping them totally sewn together that i can think of is they can't pull the fleece up with their claws and it looks tidier, i guess?

I know you can buy pre-made fleece liners that are partially sewn, with gaps so you can add/remove necessary liners before and after washing - those would probably work.

We normally just use layers on the cage with no problems, but i guess there are several ways you could do it

Cage blankets (the fleece sewn together with the absorbent layer) are easier and faster to use when cleaning cages. It's much easier for me to take out a cage blanket/pad and shake it outside.

If you make your own, make sure you make them a few inches longer/wider than your cage.

So, @MrWhistles said that anti-pill makes the cage smellier than blizzard fleece. Has anyone else found this to be true, or are they equally smelly? Also, is there any other way to reduce the smell than changing the type of fleece?

I've never had a problem with anti-pill. If it's wicking properly it shouldn't smell as long as you have a decent absorbent layer underneath.

Not really a way to reduce the smell apart from spot cleaning, sweeping up poo and stuff regularly between cleaning the whole cage.
Litter training helps, but not all pigs can be litter trained.

EDIT: You can buy special types of disposable bedding designs to reduce odours, as well as cage deodoriser - but, i think the latter is just a gimmick as i've never seen it work before myself or on other peoples' cages.

I think my anti pill smells faster because it is in an area that my girls use most.