fleece users: how do you keep the hay off the fleece to protect your washing machine?

[webjetter]

I need some creative ideas for how to solve a problem: I built an upstairs hayloft for my 2 girls in an attempt to reduce the amount of hay that ends up on the fleece bedding. Since it's a smaller blanket than the downstairs one, I figured it would be easier to shake outside on cage cleaning day so that I could spare my washing machine from handling a bunch of hay. It still ended up being a mess, so I put a placemat under the hay bin which almost covers the entire loft. There's just enough space left beyond the placemat for a piggie to cuddle up on the fleece. (My PJ girl loves hanging out in that spot since it's at the top of the ramp.) Now my problem is that since the pee can't be absorbed away, it puddles up on the placemat. So they're standing in it when they eat hay, then when they drag hay out of the bin the hay gets all wet from pee. A couple of days before cleaning day it's smelly up there. I clean the cage weekly.

Any ideas for how to keep the hay off the fleece while allowing pee to absorb? (They always drag a bunch of hay out of the bin, so by cleaning day there's a ton of it.) I thought about having my hubby drill holes into the placemat but I'm not sure if that's the right solution.

Thanks!

 

[webjetter]

Here are a couple of pictures of the loft:

 

[catzeye21138]

The easiest thing I could think of... Would be a mini rubber maid bin filled with Aspen or carefresh or something like that.

Or you could make another coroplast box about 1x1.5 instead of a rubbermaid.

 

[babybunny]

I was using a lil rubbermaid shoe box, cut with an entrance under my rack. It worked nicely. I am using a cotton placemat under it right now though so piggie can have bigger lap space since I dont have loft/kitchen.

 

[valfl]

I could not keep the hay off the fleece, so I just use a little hand held broom with dustpan. On cleaning day. I brush the fleece and the old hay comes off pretty easily. That keeps most of it out of the washer.

I have also seen posts from others about pet brushes that will clean the fleece pretty easily that you can get at WalMart. You may need to do a search to find the exact thread.

Good luck!
Val

 

[my3girls]

I have a rectangular litter tray filled with aspen bedding in a 1x2 loft. My hay bin is a bent grid hung with zip ties. Our girls get in the litter box and eat hay there. There is a small area covered with fleece when they step out of the tray. Usually it only has a small amount of hay and aspen on that. Hardly any hay gets down in the main area of the bottom part of the cage. Hope that helps!

 

[ctinaw]

A hayloft is a great start. I had a similar problem - but worse - my piggie kept wanting to pee and poop on her hay before I built a loft, so I decided to put a litterpan under a hay bin in the loft. This does contain most of the hay. Though my pigs seem to be pretty lazy and won't pull much hay down from the loft so I recently added a small kleenex box to the litter pan which holds a bunch of hay as well - they eat that like crazy. Lazy pigs!

The bonus is most of their droppings and pee pee goes in the litter pan as well - and you can change that twice a week if the smell bothers you before its fleece changing time.

I made a custom litter pan out of left over coroplast. It works great!

https://www.guineapigcages.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/8989/cat/500/ppuser/8217

 

[Kerry]

I wonder if you could make a screen to put down on top of the fleece so the pee could go through but the hay would mostly stay on top. Just make a wood frame and attach bug screening to it. Not sure if it'd work as I'm very very very far from being experienced at this type of thing yet but it was the first thing I thought of when I read your post. I'm hoping to switch to fleece too so I'll be having the same problems soon enough!

 

[JarBax]

Just make a wood frame and attach bug screening to it.

As piggies feet are pretty sensitive, they really mustn't walk on anything like wire mesh, or really anything that could cause them discomfort - which is why fleece is so good for them (alongside the wicking benefits).

As most other folk have said, making some kind of litter tray is the very best solution to hay being dragged about onto the fleece (and pee puddles on placemats!)

I now have a dedicated 2 x 3 hay loft area, but used to use a converted basin with carefresh in it under the hay rack, which worked very well.

The next problem is to stop the bedding being trailed onto the fleece. I have used everything from bricks to fiddle stick rolls to towelling to cushions. My present ploy (sorry, thought I had a more recent pic), which works 97.5% of the time is a combination of a brick to lift the piggy out of the bedding, them onto a fleecy cushion on the other side of the coroplast tray, then down from the cushion onto a rubber backed bathroom mat, which picks up any stray pieces before they reach the fleece.

 

[Kerry]

Oh I meant the plastic kind, not the metal. I think that's pretty soft but since I have none I can't say for sure that it'd be soft enough for their feet. I suppose the nylon kind from the fabric store would work equally well (the kind you'd use for a wedding veil) as long as their nails didn't catch on it. Told ya I'm a newbie I'm reading and learning lots from here though!

 

[Jenni_Feathers]

I use a large, shallow plastic tub. It holds back the hay and about 75% of the time they use it as a litter box.
Here is a picture of it.

 

[TX_2_Pigs]

I have a litter box under my hay rack. But they still get hay out on the fleece. I have some clips nailed to the wall outside and on cleaning day when I take my fleece out, I hang it from the clips and use a small broom to sweep the hay and hair off the fleece. When I have gotten most of it, I toss it in the washer. Of course then I have to sweep the porch, but that usually needs it by then anyway.

 

[Maisiepaisie]

I tried having a litter box but most of my pigs wouldn't go over the ramp into it. I made a haybox with a low edge out of a cardboard box which was ok but it sections off the cage and doesn't do much for keeping the hay off the fleece. At the moment I'm just putting newspaper under the hayrack and changing the newspaper daily, which gets rid of a lot of the pee as they do most of it on the paper. I still need a solution for keeping hay off the fleece. Kerrys' suggestion about the veil fabric has got me thinking. If I could find some thin fabric that wicks pee and hay doesn't stick to it, it could be laid over the fleece in the hay area and changed and washed daily.

 

[ctinaw]

I think their toenails would get stuck easily in veil fabric or basically any type of mesh fabric.

 

[webjetter]

Thanks so much, everyone, for the great ideas. I've tried different things, but what's working great is that I've removed the placemat and just let all the hay get on the fleece up there in the hayloft because someone in another section of the forum recommended a great rubber brush and I ordered it from Walmart.com ... it's amazing! It gets every shred of hay off the fleece and most of the fur. Today was the first cage cleaning day I used it. Here's the direct link:

Pet Select 3-in-1 Pet Hair Remover - Wal-Mart

It was worth every penny of the $11 I paid to have it shipped to me! Some of you might be able to find it in your local Walmart for $1. My store doesn't carry them.

Now there is no more pee puddling mess since the placemat is gone. Piggies can chow down on hay in total comfort. And thanks to this handy dandy brush, my washing machine and dryer are saved. Yay!