Thankyou for the info on guinea pigs and fleece!

[SamanthaFox]

I'm not sure who it was who had a thread the other day - I think Fabby started it? but someone suggested keeping guinea pigs on a fleece bedding instead of shavings.

Mine have some skin irritation, which isn't mites, and I'd been using shavings - so anyway, I thought this sounded brilliant.
They were in a tiny 3 foot hutch, before, with a run outside - but I found a big hutch on ebay which is 6ft long, and got that, and have put it outside on top of the rabbit hutch (which is the same size)

I found some old fleece blankets and some towels and have set it up for them just now - they are so amazed, and they love it!

I've put their little covered hut in there too, so they can hide because it's so enormous - but seeing them run about in there is such a relief.

The small hutch was really unfair on them I think. But it would have been much harder to organise the new one without the fleece idea - so thankyou for it!

(I also covered the floor of the new hutch with thick vinyl, to make it easier to clean...that has worked really well with the rabbits)

That is great .

I am hoping to get some fleece this week once I find some suitable. Do you think the piggies will mind what colour? .

Both our piggies are gone now (RIP) but we used to get our fleece from Ikea, it's quite big so you can cut it into a few pieces (it doesn't fray) and it's cheap as chips! They also sell a good vet bed, which could be used as a lining for their bed - it's really soft and fluffy, the pee just soaks straight through, it's washable at 90 degrees and dries in a flash like the fleece does. We bought six of them for the dogs and they're great, they've been washed dozens of times and still look new. And they're the only things they haven't chewed!

Ikea is too far away for us and for some reason they don't appear to do mail order. Sainsbury's have fleece blankets for children - will they do?

Do you mean just covering the whole floor with fleece? Or just in their "bedroom"?

Any fleece will do fab - do you have a primary nearby? I think there's are only 1.50 each. You need to wash them a few times to make them a bit more pee-resistant and to remove any nasty chemicals, but other than that any old fleece will be fine.

HI Fab

Well, mine have got a big turquoise blanket folded in half, in their main bit (you know, the bit with the wire door) on top of an orange towel! And a smaller lilac blanket folded in the sleeping bit, with a white towel under.
These are old baby fleece blankets and seem to fit really well. The towels are past their best due to hard water round here.

I've also put in a big bunch of hay in the sleeping bit to keep warm and eat.
It is so much nicer not having to worry about the horrid wet newspaper underneath.

They were actually doing that popcorn thing, yesterday! (well the slimmer one anyway...the fat one has yet to lose a bit of weight, she can't actually leave the ground atm) hopefully having more space will help with that.

I will have to find some more fleeces for when these need a wash but we have a new poundland open so might try there.

MrsL, I love the idea of those vet beds, but again no Ikea here...might try and get some from ebay?

Seeker, you will need to put something absorbent underneath the fleece. The point being, the wee goes straight through it so they don't get damp toes but it has to absorb into something. I am using old towels but cloth nappies will do, something like that.

The vinyl is really worth doing though - I can't believe I've never heard of it before, it works brilliantly - it stops the floor getting saturated with wee or damp, and you can just wipe it over with a cloth. I hate cleaning wooden floors.

Our chickens and rabbits have vinyl too. Carpet shop near us thinks we are mad. When I asked for an offcut they tried to give me carpet! 'Oh I wondered why you wanted carpet in your chicken house'

Our rabbits were vinyl munchers, they'd dig it up and chew it, then start on the floor underneath. So when we got their new hutch we decided to line it with 2mm acrylic sheet on the floors and walls - never again! We thought it'd be easy because the sheets were pretty much the right size and only needed a small amount taking off them. What we didn't realise it that taking a small amount off was a million times harder then a big amount, because you have to score it and snap it - we kept doing it wrong and had to buy new sheets! So our 'cheap' fix ended up costing a small fortune In the end it worked out very well - all the walls and floors are covered and we siliconed the joins, so the hutch still looks like new and they haven't been able to chew anything. But still not sure it was worth the hassle, a year later!

Oh gosh that sounds like a project and a half! Those sheets are murder to cut aren't they. The times I have replaced the playhouse windows, and still it happens - something bangs it and smash!

I did the cunning thing of gluing down the vinyl in ours very firmly...the first time, I used stikatak, which is an aerosol - smelt quite nasty until it had gone off (dried) then it was fine, but I do worry about the fumes with that kind of thing, so I left the hutch unoccupied for a day or two just in case.
This time I used an acrylic flooring adhesive. Very very sticky indeed, it gets everywhere! But coated the entire floor and it just can't come up at all, anywhere.

I think it is less harmful. The buns don't seem to have tried to eat it at all, and they've been in the new hutch at least 6 months now...fingers crossed!! I bet yours looks very modern with acrylic walls! A bit like Tate Modern

I can 't seem to read and retain at the moment so I am just getting on here again to have it on my threads I am on.

How often do you wash everything?

This sounds much better than sawdust.

Recently got rid of some old jackets that I could have used!

I replace the fleece with fresh every 3 days and wash it.

Well here´s another convert!

Just taking the fleece out & throwing the poo away-and no damp patches.

Wish I´d known about this before.

Still, better late than never!

Yay I'm so glad you like it!

We've got vinyl lining the bottom of our cage too, easy to wipe it with an animal friendly disinfectant when it gets completely emptied.

Our rabbits are on sisal carpeting, they use a litter tray though so no wee or poo goes on it, obviously it's not at all absorbant so wouldn't work for the guinea pigs, but our rabbits are chewers and I think fleece would last about 5 minutes.

FabIsGoingToGetFit, don't know if you know, but guinea pigs actually see in colour, so the brighter the fleece the more stimulating it is for them, we found ours really like bright primary colours, makes the room look much more cheerful as well!

Your guinea pigs will really thank you for doing it, our 4 have been so much happier since we moved them over last year, and no more skin problems

Also mine have long fur & they did sometimes get sawdust tangled in it-so it´s so much easier for that.

Unfortunately it isn´t that bright-the cheap Ikea one that was linked to earlier.

Husband brought 2 home-use one, wash one.
I took the band off one, and unrolled it.
Went to put band in bin-and the cat had claimed it!

Glad you are finding it a plus. It makes cleaning out so easy and guineas seem to love fleece to walk on!

I've wondered about this for a while - but don't you get bits of hay stuck all over the fleece?

I'm worried I would either spend hours picking bits of hay off the fleece, or clog up the washing machine with hay...

At the moment they are happy on megazorb mixed with woodshavings, but I have fleece & loads of old well-washed cloth nappies which would be perfect - I've just never quite figured out what do do about the hay

had to give up on my fleece after the left over hay on it bunged up the washing machine and it flooded!
now use newspapers then straw with hay on top - it's fab and they seem v happy with it.

I shake it out well in the garden, and put it all in an old quilt cover to wash, that stops the hay getting everywhere. Also because I keep them on fleece they only have eating hay in their cage. This is in a hay manger and so although some gets on the fleece , its not really much at all.

Mine are out "grazing" everyday at the moment so not giving them that much hay at night tbh.

There´s always some in the manger for them but they don´t seem to get it everywhere.

It just shakes off quite easily.

Hmm... I don't want to flood my washing machine - I can see my downstairs neighbour's kitchen through a tiny hole in the corner of my kitchen floor, so any leak would pour down on to them (& I've already had a leaky bath & flooded their bathroom in the middle of the night [embarrassed].

The quilt cover sounds like a good idea though.