Fleece and Litter trays

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dancegal

dancegal

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I have now got george a new bigger cage, i just need to give a good clean and a bit of TLC, if anyone knows how to get rust off the bars.

I am hoping to put him in it, in a couple of weeks when i have fully stocked on woodshavings, I am tempted to do most of it woodshavings but have a little section for the bed, he does have a hideout but what do i use as bedding- Hay or straw, as i am thinking to put this in the section of the cage.

What are peoples opion on fleece and how easy it it to swtich and to toilet train them, as i would like to change to fleece as think it will be cheaper in the long run, as am getting through a lot of woodshavings, i am planning to do it once i have got all the supplies and he is toilet trained.

what do i put under the fleece to protect the cage?
does anyone know of a good priced corner litter tray- he always goes in one corner so should not be too hard to littertrain

what do i put in the littertray, i was thinking cat wood pellets
 
Fleece and wood-shavings dont go together !

From experience having fleecey beds anywhere near wood-shavings is just hell ! they stick to it badly making it a pain to wash as you have to really scrub to brush them all off.

Guinea pigs can never be full toilet trained as they're not that sort of animal, although they can be slightly trained to go in one area it is likely you'll still have poop's and pee's in other area's of the cage, and so it can be seen as a bit of a waste of time in my opinion. If you want to have a litter tray, the best thing would just be a cat litter tray filled with a recycled paper bedding such as "back to nature" as this is basically cat litter but it's completely safe and made from paper.

Fleece is great i use it in one of my cages as my piggie has a dust allergy that is difficult to work with any other bedding.
I use just towels on the bottom, i'll lay a towel out and then just put fleece on top, i used to use newspaper but i stopped and didn't notice any smell difference or ease in cleaning etc. so just stopped using it. Poop scoop it daily with either a hand held vacuum or dust pan and brush, and then change the fleece completely every 3 days and your away. (:
 
twiams said:
Fleece and wood-shavings dont go together !

From experience having fleecey beds anywhere near wood-shavings is just hell ! they stick to it badly making it a pain to wash as you have to really scrub to brush them all off.

Guinea pigs can never be full toilet trained as they're not that sort of animal, although they can be slightly trained to go in one area it is likely you'll still have poop's and pee's in other area's of the cage, and so it can be seen as a bit of a waste of time in my opinion. If you want to have a litter tray, the best thing would just be a cat litter tray filled with a recycled paper bedding such as "back to nature" as this is basically cat litter but it's completely safe and made from paper.

Fleece is great i use it in one of my cages as my piggie has a dust allergy that is difficult to work with any other bedding.
I use just towels on the bottom, i'll lay a towel out and then just put fleece on top, i used to use newspaper but i stopped and didn't notice any smell difference or ease in cleaning etc. so just stopped using it. Poop scoop it daily with either a hand held vacuum or dust pan and brush, and then change the fleece completely every 3 days and your away. (:
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I wont be having both at the same time lol. I am currently on woodhavings, and am asking about fleece as would like to switch to it when are toilet trained
 
I am going to try toilet training and see how it goes, he does tend to poo everywhere but he is very good and only pees in one corner
 
I did fleece in 2/3 of the cage and paper bedding in 1/3 of the cage. The paper bedding is the kitchen. Do not use shredded newspaper! It smells bad after a couple of days and sticks to coroplast when wet! I don't use wood shavings. The good thing about having a big kitchen, is putting a hiddie filled with hay in the kitchen. Hay sticks to fleece, especially if you buy hay in bags, as bags tend to have smaller strands of hay at the bottom, with some brands it was dust. Fleece also looks nicer, you can change the color and pattern to match the room. With the litter for the litter box, try really soft paper bedding, because they like to sit in it and will use the toilet there more often.
 
I have fleece in my cages with a litter tray in one corner for my sows. This has carefresh in. My girls do wee and poo in their litter tray, but they also do it in other areas. I tried a litter tray with Charlie and he wouldn't even go in it!
 
I would not use cat wood pellets as they could hurt his little feet.
 
If you are going to try and litter train - I wouldn't get a corner litter tray, I'd get a much bigger low sided cat litter tray so they have to jump in to get the hay. If you just have a small one and fill it with hay then they will just tend to sit around it rather than in it!

I have a gardening potting tray for my lot, I line it with newspaper and replace everyday. There is a hay rack in there - they aren't 100% trained but when I roll up the old newspaper on a morning it is soaked through with pee (and I use two full newspapers so v thick!) so I dread to think what the state of the cage would be like if there wasn't the tray there! :)>>>

IMG_05751.jpg
 
My arrangement is much like catherine's above. I use carefresh or finacard or recycled paper pellets (very soft and super absorbent) instead of the newspaper as I just didn't find it very absorbent.

The trick is definitely to put their hay and even their pellets bowl above/on top as then you catch most of the poops as they sit there more often :). It's not so much they are litter trained as happy coincidence that they poop more where they eat.

I also clean out once a day as we do get a lot of poop in there and hand scoop the fleece which usually has very few. I find it all a lot easier than wood shavings where I seemed to be shovelling a bin full every day. Now I just have to dispose of less than eg a supermarket shopping bag every day.
 
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