Just Switched to Fleece

[Pinny Gigs]

After seeing all the cages here with fleece, and getting fed up of woodshavings (kiln dried pine) being kicked all over my room I decided to switch to fleece. Went out after univeristy to get the supplies and neglected any work I should be doing on my thesis to make up cosie fleece cage liners, and a litter box! Left over correx has so many uses!

After searching all threads on fleece I decided to go with a layer of towels and a layer of fleece to see how that goes. I'm hoping the girls will get the idea of the litter box, they never peed on the carpeted area of the cage before so here's hoping...

I've stitched the fleece together to form a sort of pocket that the towels can be taken in and out of so everything gets a good wash. The underneath looks kind of like a tissue box with a rectangular opening in the middle.

Put the girls in and I haven't seen such wriggly pigs for a long time! Only hope I don't have the smell problems that some people seem to have. Thought I'd share a couple of pics...

[DocDolittle]

Oh my goodness, it looks so neat and clean! I like the pattern, very classy.

[JennG]

I love the look of your cage. I just bought some puppy pads to use instead of newspaper. I'll give these a try and see if it cuts down on my odor. Not that I have odor issues, its just when I go to clean out the cage and move the fleece & towels is when I notice the odor.

[C&K]

It looks really cozy!

I am going to be switching to fleece too, when I first came here it seemed so strange, but I saw a member post about switching with before and after pictures, and seeing a two story C&C cage filled to the brim with shavings just looked really funny, and he mentioned, a nightmare to clean!

I found fleece blankets at Giant tiger for $3.97 each. I figure with two of those, I should have enough fleece, and that is not even the cost of a big bag of pine shavings, which isn't even good for them!

All I can say is, Way to Go!!

[JennG]

I also like the fact that I can take my little hand vac and hoove up the poops. It takes me 10mins to suck up the poops. It takes me an hour and a half to clean the entire cage. But I have to do alot of contortion movements to get to a few areas. Hence why I'll be changing my cage yet again.

[Cozeck]

I love the look of your cage. I just bought some puppy pads to use instead of newspaper. I'll give these a try and see if it cuts down on my odor. Not that I have odor issues, its just when I go to clean out the cage and move the fleece & towels is when I notice the odor.

Hello,

New member here and new piggie owner, You are going to love the puppy pads they work so well under my fleece. I also buy at Wal Mart small cage liners made by hartz they are like a paper towel material with plastic backing. I put the sheets under my fleece and it is super absorband and dries very quickly. I move them around and they last close to a week a piece.

Enjoying reading the boards and learning lots of new things that a piggy owner should know.

Matt

[JennG]

Thanks Matt for your input and welcome to the group. This is a great place to ask questions and learn about piggies. How many do you have and what are they boys/girls? How big is your cage? Did you make your cage? Its a blast to build the cage. And we always enjoy pigtures.

[nismosmama]

Am I the only weirdo that just picks up all the poops by hand? LOL

I love fleece, its just so easy to maintain, I also use puppy pads underneath, towels then the fleece. I also use scraps of fleece so Nismo can build his own little fort in the corner, hehe.

[Lisser]

I use fleece as well but I have since stopped using the puppy pads. They were holding in odor more than just using old newspapers. So now I use thick layers of newspapers, even thicker in the corners where they tend to urinate more. I have no odor what-so-ever. I bought a shop vac and I vacuum poops out at least once a day...most of the time twice. My piggies love to snuggle up to their fleece.

[JennG]

Well I didn't get a huge amount of puppy pads but I thought I'd give it a whorl. I really like the fleece and think shavings is harder to clean up. Hey I just bought some nice big towels from K-Mart for $2.90 a piece. Debating on whether the girls will get these or actually let us humans use them. Hmmmm?

[Ly&Pigs]

Am I the only weirdo that just picks up all the poops by hand?

Nope, welcome to the weirdo club. I either pick it up by hand or use my small mini broom and dustpan to pick them up.

Pinny, I love your fleece pattern. I also really like the paw print thingamajiggy. I bought my girls a new fleece blanket today at the grocery store for $5. The girls have at least 10 full size blankets now. Plus all the blankets that I cut down that I was using in the 2x3. Every time I see a blanket with a pattern I really like, I usually end up buying it for them.

[Cozeck]

Thanks Matt for your input and welcome to the group. This is a great place to ask questions and learn about piggies. How many do you have and what are they boys/girls? How big is your cage? Did you make your cage? Its a blast to build the cage. And we always enjoy pigtures.

I will sure get some pics on here soon, I am okay with computers but the whole pic uploading and downloading thing just throws me for a loop. I have two silkie males named Bert and Ernie, they are absolutely wonderful. I have grown up with animals/pets my whole life and suprisingly this is my first pair of pigs. WOW I was missing out on a great loving pet all these years. I got them from a local rescue. I did build a C&C cage and it was so much fun. I am not good with measurements, but is is 4 grids long bu 3 grids wide. That is the easiest way to explain. Now I did run into trouble with cage building my piggies are bonded and have been together since birth, they are 8 mos old. When they came to there new home everything was great they were still bonded and settled in just fine. After a few weeks I decided to add a second level in the one corner of the cage. Well it was so scary for a new pig owner, it just totally broke the bond they were fighting and chattering at eachother, a few days it was so bad I had to put grids in the middle of the cage to seperate them while I was at work. I bathed the, and tried everything to get them back together. Finially I though hmm maybe the upper level is causing them anxiety. So I removed it and as soon as I did they have been back to being bonded from that day on. How weird, I am thinking that maybe when I had the two floors that the one kinda took control of the lower level and got upset when the other one came down, but thank god now that the level is gone they are back to being good buddys again. Today I gave them Parsley for the first time, WOW it was like christmas for them they loved it. Sorry to ramble I am just so excited to be around other pig lovers.

[JennG]

Glad to hear that your boys are getting along. Maybe they were going through puberty. I'm not sure how long that lasts. I have five girls. Anyways, glad you rescued them and built a huge C&C cage for the two fo them. I think we mostly go by grid sizes here. I have a three level cage: 1st level 2x6, 2nd level has 2 2x2s and the 3rd level is a 2x4.

[Pinny Gigs]

Well, they spent their first night on fleece...and not a puddle in sight this morning! They really seem to have taken to using the litter box - I'm so happy! There were of course the inevitable beans but even they were confined to one corner and I scooped them out this morning (with my hands, my boyfreind thiks it's gross but I just tell him that digested hay never hurt anyone!)

Ly - the pawprint thing is kind of like a little piggy sleeping bag, need to revise the design so it stays open better, we live and learn!

Even though they girls ares still only babies and fairly active anyway I have never seen them squirm their way round the cage as much as they did last night! When they were done they just flopped down flat on their bellies right out in the open. They used to only lie down on the roof of their log cabin (not in pic) but I now think that was because they didn't like the feeling of the shavings on their cute little piggy tummies! Got to go to uni now then come home and make up their spare fleece!

[Slap Maxwell]

I unfortunetily have odor problems with fleece after about 24 hours. I really like it, but it makes the room smell like urine and it makes the pig's bellies smell awful. I am using pine at the moment.

Oh, yes, I pick up poos with my hands too.

Try Ly's cavy caves, they look like they stay open nicely.

[JiggityJig]

Great job! I do love a "neat as a pin" looking cage, and fleece does help with that! And since I haven't seen your cage before, let me compliment the whole design, too...looks just great for the pigs!

[Pinny Gigs]

The girls had been in it for all of ten minutes when that photo was taken, it is a shadow of its former glory this morning! Who knew a pig could poop that much! I just scoop them up and pop them in the litter tray though, no big deal!

[JiggityJig]

Hee, that's where a handi-vac is useful! Or, before I had one, I used to just take the fleece outside and shake it off. That's my favorite thing about fleece...being able to make the poops vanish!

[GAcavies]

I'm new to posting on this site, although I've been using its resources since I adopted my piggies this summer. Thank you for all of the chat about bedding. I've tried so many different types and am going to move to fleece hopefully this weekend..... (it is such a great way to put off thesis-writing, right?!). I have two boys that are going through a big phase of marking.... will fleece make the smell worse? Well, here goes --- wish me luck!

[jdomans]

I am in the weirdo club also! I pick up the ones that make it to the floor by hand!! I bought puppy pads last week and just cleaned out the girls cage! I love them. I am a shavings user but the puppy pads under the water bottle area and under certain tee tee areas make things so much nicer for clean up.