Fleece Final Doubts

[guinea92]

        Okay, I've tried fleece once before and it didn't work out well. She seemed to like the fleece, but she isn't very potty trained and seems to poop in all the places that were under hideys etc. It got annoying after awhile to sweep up poops every day!         Recently I've been reading all these posts about Fleece and have learned about how to be better prepared. I now know to use towels and newspaper. I know to wash it every 2 to 3 days. And to cut the fleece to the size of the cage.        But I have a few questions, how can I make sure she poops in the designated area? What types of hand held vacuums to use?        I'd really appreciate the feedback, and any other helpful tips!!

 

[pinky]

Skip the newspaper under the fleece. I only use newspaper under Carefresh or Ecobedding I have in their kitchen area. Towels are sufficient under the fleece. I shake out my fleece instead of vacuuming.  I have a hand held vacuum that I used to use, but I found it a lot quicker to just shake the fleece pads into my trash can.  Since I have two fleece pads in there, the guinea pigs just move to the other side of the cage or into the kitchen area when I shake out one fleece pad or clean that area.

 

[Rnd210]

My fleece is sewed to a Cotton mattress pad and it is velcroed to the coroplast tray so that the piggies can't get under the fleece and to make vacuuming easier so that the vacuum can't pull the fleece up and I don't have to hold it down.  My hand vac is a Dirt devil. I also sweep the fleece and mostly use the vacuum for the strands of hay and it has been working good for me.

 

[CavyTimothy]

If you want poop to stay in one area you may want to put some of their poops from the last time you cleaned so they have their scent, you also would want to put hay in the are because that helps them go to the bathroom. If your looking to potty train, it may take a while for your Guinea Pig to get use it. I use a dirt devil hand vacuum to get they hay off the fleece and then to get the poops I use a sweeper type thing.

 

[guinea92]

          So, is it really just easier to shake the fleece out? Do you shake it out every day?

 

[CavyTimothy]

I think shaking it out would be harder because you would have to take evrything out of the cage, and if you did that it would be easier just to clean the cage every day then. I think its easier to use a hand vacuum and a sweeper.

 

[CavyTimothy]

I think shaking it out would be harder because you would have to take everything out of the cage, and if you did that it would be easier just to clean the cage every day then. I think its easier to use a hand vacuum and a sweeper.

 

[Rnd210]

I think sweeping and or vacuuming is easier.

 

[pinky]

          So, is it really just easier to shake the fleece out? Do you shake it out every day?

I shake them out a couple of times of day.  I made fleece pads with fleece on the outsides and cotton batting in the middle so they're not real flimsy.  They're about 30" x 35" so they are easy to handle. I shake out one, replace it and shake out the other. My food dishes are in the kitchen area so the only things I move before I shake the fleece pads are the pigloos which only takes a second. It's a lot faster than the vacuuming was for me.

 

[guinea92]

to get the poops I use a sweeper type thing.

           Does the vacuum not pick up the poops well?

 

[Rnd210]

The vacuum does pick them up, it's just quicker to sweep it all up into a pile and use a dust pan and then use the hand vac for the stray hay.

 

[guinea92]

Oh. Maybe I'll try fleece again!

 

[anwaflynurse]

I had a 9V dustbuster that picked up just the poops, no hay or carefresh. Then I got a 12V..big difference. Its a good thing my fleece liner is Velcro'd down cuz that baby has some suction. It sucks up hay, poops, carefresh..even sucked up a piece of wood! I have had no luck potty training my boys, they poop on the go, wherever. They even send flying poop missiles down the ramp as they run up and down it. I just take the dustbuster in the am and pm and clean up the cage. Takes like 3 minutes.I put a fleece pad under all the hideys and change them out every couple of days along with the carefresh in the kitchen.If you can, use a mattress pad and fleece instead of a towel. The Mattress pad disperses the urine so it does not stay wet and smell so you would not have to change it as often v.s. the towel staying moist and smelling sooner. You would just have to change it more often. I started with towels and eventually went to mattress pads and swear by them. I have to change out my 2x5 cage every 6 days or so.

 

[guinea92]

So, I should get a 12v vacuum, velcro the fleece down, make a kitchen area with carefresh, and sew the fleece to a mattress pad. Then I would vacuum every day in the morning and night, wash the fleece about twice a week, and add extra padding under hideys and other high poopage areas.        Phew! that was long!This is great advice thanks everyone!

 

[pinky]

I have two hand vacs. One is a 7.5 volt Black and Decker Dustbuster.  It's rechargeable.  It takes a lot of time to go around the whole cage to suck up the poop.  I had to pick up the hay separately because it would clog the opening and it was tedious having to empty the little canister.  I kept it plugged in to keep it charged.  I also have a 120 volt Dirt Devil which is really powerful. You would need to have the fleece really anchored down because it will suck up everything, including loose fleece.  It needs to be plugged in and has a really long cord, so it's very time consuming to use. It has a hose that can get clogged with hay.  I think you need to look at the amount of poop and hay you have to clean and then weigh what's the simplest method. I think all of the suggestions will work but it's a matter of what will work in your situation. I have four guinea pigs so I probably have more poop to clean up. That's why shaking it is the fastest for me. I now keep their hay bin in the kitchen area so hay isn't much of an issue anymore. I work really early mornings so I needed to find a fast way to clean the cage before I left for work. The other plus is that just shaking it doesn't make any noise when the rest of my family is still sleeping.

 

[Deb's4Pigs]

I use my shop vac to sweep up the poops. I must have the 9v dirt devil because it doesn't sweep anything up. I takes forever. If you use a litter box, it helps me. They still poop everywhere but it's a lot less. It takes them a while to get used to the box.

 

[jenga122]

Hi everyone, I keep reading about litter boxes by their food (kitchen area?) but both of ours don't poop or pee  anywhere near there food or water.  One likes to go in the back of her igloo and the other likes 2 corners and they both like to go in a tunnel which has the fleece as a floor.  It seems they pee in the corners mostly.    We just sweep up after the piggies with a hand broom and dustpan.  We have a 4'x6' C&C with fleece and dog potty pads under.  We are new owners but it seems we will have to wash the fleece (we have 2 so we can change them out) twice a week.  Do you guys not wash your fleece once it is in?

 

[MaggieMae]

Hi everyone, I keep reading about litter boxes by their food (kitchen area?) but both of ours don't poop or pee  anywhere near there food or water.  One likes to go in the back of her igloo and the other likes 2 corners and they both like to go in a tunnel which has the fleece as a floor.  It seems they pee in the corners mostly.    We just sweep up after the piggies with a hand broom and dustpan.  We have a 4'x6' C&C with fleece and dog potty pads under.  We are new owners but it seems we will have to wash the fleece (we have 2 so we can change them out) twice a week.  Do you guys not wash your fleece once it is in?

Everyone washes the fleece once or twice a week as a best practice. If you are good about cleaning daily, have enough room in the cage, and have enough padding underneath you should be able to get away with once a week.Puppy pads underneath probably aren't as absorbent as a couple layers of towels in the long run unless you change them daily. However, I can't say for sure this is the case as I haven't lined my cage with them. I am just going by what I was told when I thought about using them.

 

[cam767]

We have a 3x5 and it takes about 90 seconds to clean their cage on a daily basis (we've timed it). We vacuum the poops once a day before their dinner. Except for their 2 litter boxes, 1 wooden pigloo we have nothing else on the floor to move around (we have a "tent" and bunk beds). Literally we just unplug our vac, run it across the fleece, empty the canister, plug it back in. Done. I've felt the fleece after cleaning it and it seems dry. We use 2 layers of towels (soon to try uhaul blankets) and 1 layer of fleece.

 

[jenga122]

Thanks for the reply, we are brand new to the guinea pig world so we have some learning to do.  The pee pads seem to work decent but when they run out we will definitely try towels.  If I had gone by what the pet store recommended we would have them cooped up in a little starter cage.  Glad I read a little on them.  Our C&C is a 3x5, I was just going by measurements which is almost 4foot by 6 foot.    I am so glad I found this site though, more information than I can wrap my brain around and all the members really seem to care about what is best for their animals and that's what really counts.