Fleece setting fleece up in patches?

[onefutui2e]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of switching from CareFresh bedding to fleece, and most pictures I see are where it's one giant piece spanning over the cage. My question is, is it okay for me to lay the fleece down in patches? So instead of one large blanket, it'll be say...4+ smaller blankets with some overlap (I'm thinking maybe a few inches).

This is because I'll likely be hand-washing them so this will make it a little easier in say, a bath tub or something of the sort. It'll also make spot cleaning a bit easier as I can just lift away one patch at a time, though I can always put old shirts or towels down in "heavy used" areas. The major downside I see is that the pigs may dig under the fleece and get to the underbedding, which I imagine is akin to falling through the ice in a frozen pond (with less danger, probably). But I don't know how big of a risk that generally is.

Otherwise, I'm debating between wood pellets or U-Haul blankets for the underbedding. It seems like the wood pellets don't require changing nearly as often but once I need to, it becomes a huge pain to clean. U-Haul blankets are easy to change, but will need to be done just about weekly. Does that sound about right?

Thanks!

 

[miniver]

My fleece is in three pieces. I have a large piece in the middle and smaller pieces at each end - one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom - where most of the mess happens. I can take the smaller pieces out to clean or replace and leave the larger piece in place longer. It makes for a faster clean and less laundry. I don't think the guinea pigs notice the difference at all.

 

[Piggehs]

Will you be hang-drying, or do you have access to a dryer? I haven't tried hang-drying, but because the material is so absorbent I think it would be a challenge to manage fleece without a dryer.

 

[bayni]

I was also thinking that with many individual pieces they would burrow. I have one big piece and a small one in the kitchen on top of big one and they had burrowed under the front of it lol.

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[pigger123]

I have my cage liners as one long one that covers most of the cage and one smaller one for the end. This was mainly because it was easier to sew (the smaller one has to have a hole in it for a ramp entrance to the "basement"), but it does make it easier to wash too. None of my pigs have ever been burrowers so it works fine for me. The only issue is that sometimes they take off running and the fleece slides over the coroplast, which can leave a gap with bare coroplast. My liners have the absorbent material sewn between fleece so they can't get to it, but it won't hurt them to get under the fleece if it's not sewn. It's just annoying to the humans when they burrow under.

You're right about the wood pellets and Uhaul. I used wood pellets for awhile but I got sick of how heavy and messy it was to clean out (even though you only have to change it every few months). I've stuck with liners with Zorb sewn inside since then. I do have a kitchen area though, which I used wood pellets in for a long time until I recently switched to Carefresh. My spoiled piggies don't like to walk on anything that's not plush.

 

[onefutui2e]

Thanks for all your replies. The original reason I wanted to do this was because six smaller pieces are easier to clean than one large blanket. What I usually do is I wash them, air dry them, then beat them a little get rid of any rogue particles, then put them in the washer for a rinse.

And yes, one of them (Xavier) doesn't burrow, but he seems to like turning the corners up for his own amusement. I'd often wake up and find the corners folded over and wood pellets strewn about the cage. It takes a minute to fix. He also has a habit of pushing his pigloo around (kind of like a mobile fortress while he's inside) and he'll end up taking parts of a patch with him when he does it. Not a big deal either, but those are the two downsides thus far.