cat litter under fleece

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Popcorning Poppy

Popcorning Poppy

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Ok before everyone tells me I'm insane and it isnt safe! Let me just clarify I am talking about a cat litter that is a natrual compressed wood, you probably cant get it in the UK but might have something similar, it is pressed compacted wood into pellets, and looks abit like the food pellets! just found a link http://www.oz-pet.net.au/litter.html it is listed as not only being suitable for cat litter trays, but safe for bedding for small animals. So I am wondering if anyone has tried anything similar under fleece, and if it worked? I am still trialing fleece and have towels under the fleece and my fleece is at last wicking and the top is dry so very impressed, but it is now three days, (and I poop clean more than twice a day, it spoils the look of the cage, lol) and there is a little pee smell now, reminds of the smell at a horse stable but not that strong, lol, my main concern is that will the wee wick into a pellet litter bed beneath? I have found that the contact between the towel and fleece needs to be flush otherwise the pee dont wick through well. I love the fleece in the sense I dont have woodshavings all over the house through constant spot cleans where I pretty muched changed the bedding daily.
Any thoughts would be great.
Hubby suggested using the crystals that asorb the pee and smell, but I said I dont think that would be safe, although my piggie has never pulled the fleece up?
 
There is a risk of your piggies eating them which could cause blockages. It would also be uncomfortable for their little feet.
 
I think the wood pellets would be fine as they are similar to shavings and bunny rescues say they can be used in bunny litter trays. I use wood cat litter in my piggies litter tray underneath some newspaper and a pile of straw.

but clumping litter, or crystals is a definite no!
 
Wood pellets can be used IF there is no added 'ingredient' Oz-Pet Pellets has Eucalypus oil added

Guinea pigs do enjoy chewing their bedding and as eucalyptus oil in particular is known to be poisonous to guinea pigs, any bedding containing this oil must never be used for bedding guinea pigs on. On the same note, it's not preferable to use bedding treated with citronella oil as this may cause harm to your pets if consumed.
 
I use a tray with newspaper in the area that they eat (and they do 90% of their business right there as well) So I change this every day. I also put new newspaper down on the tray (a new layer over their business) about every hour when I am home...just so they don't have to walk over their poos. By the end of the day it is like a newspaper and poo 7 layer compost cake :p

the rest of my fleece and towels don't really get very wet because they do most of their business on the newspaper tray. I notice the wettest parts are right behind the tray...I have little towels there so I could change them out after a few days if I need to, but so far I really haven't needed to.

I do sprinkle a little baking soda on the towel layer, under the fleece to control odors and I think that really works pretty well.

I go between 5 and 7 days changing out the fleece and towels. I know this sounds like a long time, but really, my girls almost completely use the newspaper tray area. It is a plastic serving tray with very short sides that is easy to just take out every day and dump in the compost. I do poop sweeps of the fleece once a day.

I have noticed that the cage smells more when one of the girls is having her 'season'...a little musky or something...but I don't have very much urine smell at all, except after about 4 or 5 days I can notice a little if I am standing by their cage.

Also, I switched from Timothey Hay (which I found out I am allergic to) too Orchard Grass Hay and Oat Hay, and the cage really lost about all of it's 'horse' smell...I guess it was the Timothy Hay.
 
I have tried wood pellets under fleece. It works well, except it's so time consuming to prepare it for washing. There's hay sticking to the top part of fleece, and wood dust sticking to the under side of the fleece.

Now I only use the wood pellets for the litter tray and use fleece for the rest of the cage.
 
Can you get the litter that is paper pellets...?
Basically the same as the wood litter except no real risk to the health of the pigs...
The wood cat litter still has the same 'risks' as far as respiratory problems are concerned and are very bad for them if they were to eat them..
x
 
piggyfan said:
There is a risk of your piggies eating them which could cause blockages. It would also be uncomfortable for their little feet.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your thoughts, and it did cross my mind about their feet, but then thought if it had fleece over the top it might not have been an issue, but I do see where you are coming from, certainly somthing to take into concideration.
 
Bekki2308 said:
I think the wood pellets would be fine as they are similar to shavings and bunny rescues say they can be used in bunny litter trays. I use wood cat litter in my piggies litter tray underneath some newspaper and a pile of straw.

but clumping litter, or crystals is a definite no!
Click to expand...

Thank you for your thoughts, and I agree with you about the clumping, and crystals, but just putting it out there to see if anyone had ever used it!
 
Salt n Peppers mum said:
Wood pellets can be used IF there is no added 'ingredient' Oz-Pet Pellets has Eucalypus oil added

Guinea pigs do enjoy chewing their bedding and as eucalyptus oil in particular is known to be poisonous to guinea pigs, any bedding containing this oil must never be used for bedding guinea pigs on. On the same note, it's not preferable to use bedding treated with citronella oil as this may cause harm to your pets if consumed.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for that, I had no clue about the Eucalypus oil being poisonous, after reading just thought its a natural oil and probably fine! and what is even more shocking is that they are recommending it as safe for guinea pigs, when they obviously havent reserched there own product properly.mallethead I certainly wont be using them now, I would never use anything that was potentialy harmful to my girls. Thank you again, for making me aware?/
 
I wouldn't see the point in the fleece on top?
Why not just use it as main bedding, i had a paper based cat litter bedding for a while and it worked quite well and is quite soft, paper based is much safer and all recycled,
Also i use fleece to cut down on the cost of having to buy extra bedding every week/month so I'm happier with towels.
I think it would just make the fleece all lumpy and then you could get your piggy into fleece digging if they find a way in !
But thats just my opinion (:
 
Strawberries said:
I use a tray with newspaper in the area that they eat (and they do 90% of their business right there as well) So I change this every day. I also put new newspaper down on the tray (a new layer over their business) about every hour when I am home...just so they don't have to walk over their poos. By the end of the day it is like a newspaper and poo 7 layer compost cake :p

the rest of my fleece and towels don't really get very wet because they do most of their business on the newspaper tray. I notice the wettest parts are right behind the tray...I have little towels there so I could change them out after a few days if I need to, but so far I really haven't needed to.

I do sprinkle a little baking soda on the towel layer, under the fleece to control odors and I think that really works pretty well.

I go between 5 and 7 days changing out the fleece and towels. I know this sounds like a long time, but really, my girls almost completely use the newspaper tray area. It is a plastic serving tray with very short sides that is easy to just take out every day and dump in the compost. I do poop sweeps of the fleece once a day.

I have noticed that the cage smells more when one of the girls is having her 'season'...a little musky or something...but I don't have very much urine smell at all, except after about 4 or 5 days I can notice a little if I am standing by their cage.

Also, I switched from Timothey Hay (which I found out I am allergic to) too Orchard Grass Hay and Oat Hay, and the cage really lost about all of it's 'horse' smell...I guess it was the Timothy Hay.
Click to expand...

Thank you for all your advise, I have been looking at the corner litter trays you can buy in the pet stores, but they all seem to be massive, and my cage isnt massive, it was the biggest I could actually buy, but I know I will need to build a C&C cage when they get bigger, luckily my piggies are still small, and unfortunately I didnt discover the C&C cages until after I had my girls so as much as I would like to buy a litter tray, I think it would be a bit space consumming.

I will certainly try the baking powder option, if I could just get it down to changing the whole thing out every couple of days without any smell, I would be happy, with the fleece and towels there really isnt too much mess in doing a complete clean, you literally can fold the whole thing and cary through to the garden without dropping any of the mess on top, lol.

My girls are fussy with their hay and seem to love the botanical oxbow hay, I have to say I like that one too. it smells so nice. unfortunately I cant buy that one in big bags:(
 
lissie said:
I have tried wood pellets under fleece. It works well, except it's so time consuming to prepare it for washing. There's hay sticking to the top part of fleece, and wood dust sticking to the under side of the fleece.

Now I only use the wood pellets for the litter tray and use fleece for the rest of the cage.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your thoughts, after thinking on it a little more, I did think that the wood pellets might also be heavey once wet! and like you say brake down and be messy
 
claremw92 said:
Can you get the litter that is paper pellets...?
Basically the same as the wood litter except no real risk to the health of the pigs...
The wood cat litter still has the same 'risks' as far as respiratory problems are concerned and are very bad for them if they were to eat them..
x
Click to expand...

Yes we can get paper pellets, but have used these in our cats litter trays and have found they dont really work in terms of helping to eliminate odour!
 
twiams said:
I wouldn't see the point in the fleece on top?
Why not just use it as main bedding, i had a paper based cat litter bedding for a while and it worked quite well and is quite soft, paper based is much safer and all recycled,
Also i use fleece to cut down on the cost of having to buy extra bedding every week/month so I'm happier with towels.
I think it would just make the fleece all lumpy and then you could get your piggy into fleece digging if they find a way in !
But thats just my opinion (:
Click to expand...

My thinking for fleece ontop was that with my experience with wood pellets in my cats litter trays, once wet it does break down to a wet clumpy dust, plus it would be hard to remove the poops, so by thinking of using fleece on top not only would it be more comfortable for my piggies but would stay dry for them as the pellets would be damp, and I could easily remove poops. The only issue I have with towels is that I am noticing a slight odour! But i have had a few tips so fingers crossed those will work:)
 
Thank you everone for your thoughts, and all comments have been taken on board. I have come to the conclusion that the wood pellets are not going to be suitable, and with other advise that has been kindly given I have some more options to try.:))
 
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