Carefresh vrs Fleece Survey?

[Christys GPS]

I am conducting a little survey from all you cavy slaves.I was wondering through everyones opinions, what has came across better, Bedding or fleece? Which one is eaiser to clean, prices and so forth,

I know myself when I use beeding it is fine cept with a 7x3 it gets costly I do two big $15 bags a week. Then with fleece it is cheap and easy cause you can take it off and wash it, but I get hay from my messy guys all over the place and it is hard to get off the fleece.I swept it and then pic at it. And I dont want to ruin my washer, after washes, there are still little pieces of hay on it.

Anyone know what can be done about that.?

Well I would appericiate if you can help out?

 

[Piglet]

I prefer using towels and vetbed. I know that the whole hay-sticking-to-the-stupid-towel scenario is annoying. I know keep my hay in a hay rack, and hardly get any mess.

 

[Christys GPS]

Thanks Piglet, see my guys take it from the hayrack and drag it around with them, how big do they make vet beds?

 

[Piglet]

really? Mine just stay put and munch away! They make vetbeds in a variety of sizes, you just have to take your pick

 

[Slap Maxwell]

BEDDING!

Your cage, with that many pigs.. will reek. Trust me, within a few hours, it will smell nasty. And puppy pads are expensive. And the poops will be a pain to pick up...

Those are just my thoughts. I am not anti-fleece.

 

[Slap Maxwell]

Vetbed is a good choice, but with your big cage, it will cost an arm and a leg.

 

[pennick]

I have a 2x4 3 level. I use aspen on the bottom. It costs me approx. 17.00 a bag. I change the cage every 2 weeks. The bag lasts me 6 weeks. Not expensive at all. I use vetbed on upper levels. Washed it today for the first time after 3 weeks. Washed and dryed well. Very happy with all.

 

[Slap Maxwell]

$17.00? Wow. I get my aspen for $10 a bag and it lasts me a month, so my bedding is very cheap. If I could use kiln-dried pine, that would be my first choice ($5 a bag) but Maia is allergic to it.

 

[Christys GPS]

Slap, Thats what I thought that vet beds are expensive expesically for the amount I need, I am looking it up on line now, I use carefresh and I am thinking of doing a mixture of carefresh and aspen Just with aspen my sheltie gets it all over him, he is my rolling piggie he rolls all over the place, never thought piggers could do that. Thanks for answering.

Slap where do you get aspen so cheap? and how big is the bag?

 

[pennick]

$17.00? Wow. I get my aspen for $10 a bag and it lasts me a month, so my bedding is very cheap. If I could use kiln-dried pine, that would be my first choice ($5 a bag) but Maia is allergic to it.

My size I get is 2.0 cubic meters which expands to 5.0 cubic meters. Its the largest bag I have ever seen. There are all different sizes.

 

[Slap Maxwell]

What acctually works nice for pigs is what Amy uses, wood stove pellets. They won't get caught in his coat.

 

[Eventrocker33]

Newspaper and then fleece works great for me and it doesn't smell.

 

[Slap Maxwell]

Thats because you have one pig! It smelled crazy bad with five!

 

[Sabriel]

I use fleece and I have 3 pigs. For my boars level (about 2X3 with a 1X1 chunk taken out. Temporary accomadations untill his neuter. Then I'll reconnect it to the ground level.) I use newspaper under the fleece. He's slowly being litter trained. I found some pee in his litter tray last night.

For the sows' 3X3 ground level I use Yesterday's News under the fleece. It's like a big bean bag chair. The girls are very litter trained. They almost never pee on the fleece. Every week I change the fleece and scoop out the soiled bits of Y.N. A big bag lasts me a month. They poop all over the place though, but I don't mind. Cavy poop is very dry so I use a dustbuster to pick it up. I use Carefresh in thier litter trays. But I go through a medium bag in 2 weeks. Thier litter trays double as a place to put hay.

As for keeping hay off the fleece, the girls have a hay rack and the litter tray. The hay rack sits outside the cage (it's solid plastic. I can only use it on the lower level as hay falls out. But my coro's on the outside of the grids on the lower level so it's OK) I put some bricks next to it in the cage. The hay they don't feel like eating falls on the bricks and stays off the fleece. I vacume up the stray bits. I put the stuff they pulled out in the litter box and they think it's brand new

 

[Eventrocker33]

Thats because you have one pig! It smelled crazy bad with five!

Ya thats true..lol.

 

[laura220]

So if I use fleece with only two pigs will it stink?

 

[Matt & Guins]

I use kiln dried pine, and purchase it in a 20kg bag (44 pounds) - I get this for less than 10Aus$

I purchase hay and straw by the biscuit, but purchase it from someone who buys it by the bale - so not spending a fortune from petshops!

I find that it is very low mess - having the coreflute on the sides of the C&C cage, and the occasional bit of woodchips on the ground only takes a second to sweep.

Definately the best cost effective product for me.

Matt

 

[Eventrocker33]

So if I use fleece with only two pigs will it stink?

I don't think it will stink. If I get another pig then I am still going to use fleece. You might just have to clean the cage every other day or every 3 days or something.

 

[laura220]

Do you mean cleaning as in washing the fleece or sweeping up the poops?? Would it be fine to wash the fleece once a week and just sweep up stray poops everyday? And I'd have litter boxes so hopefully they'd do their business there. How often would I need to clean the litter boxes then?

 

[LuvMyPiggers]

In opinion and experiance,
Fleece should only be used with2 or 3 pigs. Any more will make it stink unless it's changed every 2-3 days. Since I have two, I change once a week because I have puppy pad lining, Towels, then my fleece. As for carefresh, It's great stuff it just is expensive, sometimes hard to clean out and it can be hard to locate in some places...