Fleece Fleece liner or towel for lap time?

[Cosmic]

I haven't been on the forum for a while, not that anybody noticed... But I'm back with some questions.

First, I know some of you don't use anything for lap time, but for those of you who do, do you use a fleece liner sort of thing or do you use a towel? I use a towel folded into thirds and when my pigs pee on it sometimes it goes through all three layers. Is it easier to get guinea pig hair (short and long) out from fleece or from towels? I was hoping if I could make some sort of fleece liner then I would be a step closer to getting my parents to let me use fleece in the piggies' cage. They don't want to wash the pig stuff in our washer, they thing it's really dirty. (But the point of a washer is to clean things!) I get it, but I'd love to be able to give them cozy sacs and other fleece stuff.

Also so how often do you wash your lap time item? After every use? After a week? Longer? When it starts to stink?

Thanks!

 

[Kenna18155]

I have a cuddle cup in their cage, and use it for lap time. They have never peed on me during cuddle time. I wash the cushion weekly along with their regular fleece.

 

[Cosmic]

Wow, @Kelsie. A full cage cleaning every other day? Do you scrub the cage every time? Or do you use something like puppy pads so it doesn't ever get to the bottom?

 

[PiggyG]

I use a towel mostly, and sometimes set them on top of one of their cozy sacks or use one of the smaller pads that I've made for their cage. I've never had either of them pee or poop on me. I clean whatever I use weekly with my other piggy laundry - unless I fed them something that gets all over and I don't want to re-use it.

 

[Cosmic]

I guess I'll be sticking with towels for now. I don't get not washing stuff in the washer either! Do a rinse cycle after, maybe wipe down the interior, and there shouldn't be hairs, if that's the problem. I mean, it gets WASHED, the point of the WASHING machine is to WASH things, get them clean. We also don't have any laundromats nearby, in fact there are only about three in the whole city, I think. Well thanks for everybody's replies back, much appreciated.

 

[Jenna Netz]

Right now since our piggies are new to our family they spend a lot of their lap time in fleece cuddle sacks since they are shy (although they have been wanting to come out of the sacks a bit more.) We sit with them in the sacks on top of what I like to call our homemade washable/reusable waterproof pee pads.... I bought one of these for $9.00, cut it half both ways so that there were four pieces, and then I sewed fleece on the top (so that the fleece wicks into the absorbent layer and then it's waterproof on the bottom): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FED594/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_9?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3MT75038F86CX $9.00 plus the fleece for 4 pads. Honestly our piggies tend to not pee during lap time at this point but I assume they will at some point....better safe than sorry At this point I am washing them once per week with the rest of the bedding. If they are soiled or stink obviously I will wash more but this works for now!

I am using the same sort of system in our Midwest cage. I sewed those same type of pads (just bigger - got them on Amazon also) to fleece to make liners. No leaks and so far no smells and they washed great. I can't really vouch for the long-term as we haven't had our piggies very long. I got a lot of my fleece free from a family member who had a bunch to give away so the larger bed pads were a little pricey but hopefully no bedding cost for awhile now.

 

[Jenna Netz]

Here is a photo of ours:

 

[Grandmaster]

Maybe to keep your parents happy you could give the fleece a quick rinse before putting it in the wash so it's fairly clean.

 

[mufasa]

Pee pee pads are great for lap time. I have a dog, so I have some on hand, although I just use towels if I'm too lazy to dig a pad out. Amy is great about holding her pee, but Quinn loves to baptize me whenever she gets a chance.

I'm another obsessive cage cleaner who does a daily strip, but the girls are in a swimming pool lined with newspaper topped with Carefresh in the high-traffic areas and a litter box feeding zone, so it's really easy to clean.