Fleece good or bad?

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enquiringhooman

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Hello.
I am a wannabe pig mum, and I found information on fleece bedding that confuses me. May someone give me their opinion on that, please?
So, the information is that fleece bedding is bad because it makes piggies live not on hay as it is their nature, and also the dash to open areas where the hay tray is may be stressful for piggies, and their time feeding on hay in said hay tray may be cut short because they feel unease at not being in their hidies. And jumping inside a hay tray may be detrimental to their joints in the long run, and leading to arthritys.

I was planning on getting fleece as bedding, but now maybe not? Or maybe you just need plenty of hay in the hidies to avoid those issues?is that something that you do, hay in the tunnels and hidies? How does that work when you clean?

Or maybe just use fleece but partially covered with blankets, or the hay areas well covered and access to those areas through plenty of tunnels and hiding spots? Maybe put hay in bunches on pee pads on the fleece without trays?(I guess that means hay all over the place in no time, but if the pigs need it..) Or just stop thinking in terms of fleece, and go for hay as bedding or some other bedding with hay sprinkled on top?

I do not know if I am making any sense, please excuse my confusion, it just blew up all my planning.
 
I have been using fleece as bedding for my piggies for years. No issues. I put bunches of hay all over it. This is my setup. My piggies run freely in our living room during the day so they have 2 areas to lounge around..well 3 actually coz they have fleece under the brown table as well. Please excuse the mess haha.

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I use fleece. When I transitioned from bedding to fleece my piggy zoomed all over and lounged on it because he loved it so much. Nothing excites him more than when I put a clean fleece in his cage. I do have one that poops under it which is a little annoying but I can't stop him.

I love fleece and so do my boys.
 
Thank you, anyar.dris and ramia, for sharing your experiences. I see that you put hay on pee pads and not on trays, anyar.dris: that seems an idea to avoid the tray issue.
 
It’s such a personal thing and there are pros and cons to both - really you have to come to your own conclusion and find what works for you!

My piggies (and I have rabbits also) live in a shed. Therefore I can’t use fleece outside so I use snowflake soft chip as absorbent bedding and then cover with hay.
I find cleaning so easy - I remove wet areas and poop, mix the dry bedding that remains in the cage (scent marked but unspoiled) around the cage and then top up with some extra bedding and hay.
I love the natural way of them living in amongst hay. They never have to go anywhere specific for hay, it’s just there and available wherever they are.
We still get the exact same excitement when fresh bedding and hay is put in as mentioned above with fresh fleece.

A Pro is that you can just clean out part of the cage at a time easily.
Not having to remove all bedding in one go is beneficial as doing so removes scent which can disrupt the territory and hierarchy. You can of course do part cleans with fleece but it means having multiple smaller fleeces on the cage at a time. There is obviously no worry about that when using shavings/hay.

Con - not all councils will take animal waste/bedding in your garden waste bins so you need to check and may need to arrange disposal of it yourself.

If and when mine have to come inside during summer (due to heat) I do use fleece. As it’s only temporary (a few days to a week at a time mid summer) I don’t have any elaborate set ups.
I have to say even for a short time, I really dislike using fleece. The washing drives me mad!

As I say though there are pros and cons (more than I have listed here) to both types of bedding so it is going to come down to your personal choice!
 
I use fleece too. My boys have two large hay piles at each end of the cage and two hides in between. They have no problems eating in the open or sleeping in the open. They make hay nests sometimes and sometimes not. They choose depending on their mood.

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This is half the cage. The other end is the same.
 
enquiringhooman said:
Thank you, anyar.dris and ramia, for sharing your experiences. I see that you put hay on pee pads and not on trays, anyar.dris: that seems an idea to avoid the tray issue.
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I've never used hay trays because I didn't think my first piggies years ago would be able to get in hay trays (just me and my thinking). I used to put them in hay racks but decided to just put them on piles as they love digging under hays. So it has always been like that for years. Although when they stay in boardings whenever hubby and I go on holiday, my current piggies do well too with hay trays (photos in boarding below).

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I have six cages at the moment. All my cages have fleece with an area of newspaper with hay on, depending on the cage shape and size either in the middle or at one end. I started out with wood shavings but hated the dust and mess. We love fleece, it's a lot of washing (I use pet bedding wash bags in the machine) but makes cleaning easy. I either vacuum the fleece with the nozzle of an old cleaner or pick the fleece up and shake it over the garden which is great for the plants too. The young piggies love fleece they love to zoomie and popcorn, it makes walking for the arthritic oldies easier too, they struggle with their feet sinking into loose bedding and hay gets wrapped round their legs.
 
I have a 160 x 80cm cage and use half hay with shallow hay trays and half fleece. They live in the shed so the fleece has to be cleaned out very often.

Our rubbish bins are only collected every three weeks so I need to have less to put in them.

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I wash the fleece in zipped horse blanket wash bags. I brush it first with a hair brush.

They love both the hay area and the fleece area. The hay area is covered with a fleece blanket and I tend to mainly feed in the hay area so they get to forage.
 
Thank you to all who replied with their experiences of fleece and other bedding: it is very helpful to understand what works in what situation.

Our idea was for an indoor cage on stand in our living room in our flat, so we will have it very much under our eyes and can probably do more strategic spot cleaning than in an outside shed, but of course on the other hand we will be less keen on bad smells, so keeping that aspect under control will be important to us, along with having less mess outside of the cage and on the living room floor.

I can see that a lot of you have hay scattered or in little piles all around, and that seems to work well to make your pigs eat well, I am noting it down, regardless of the final choice for bedding.
 
Bedding insulates and absorbs. Then there is the frequency of cleaning and the cleaning method. I share a washing machine so large items smelling of piggy wee are not suitable, but if your washing machine can handle fleece liners in laundry bags (horse bags) this is very convenient. Fleece is more fun to run on than woodshavings and you spend less time vacuuming. Running across the cage and jumping into a fairly low hay tray are good for most piggies and help to keep them fit and to keep their muscles supportive, but obviously piggies with stiff, sore joints might not like jumping into a tray. Absorption by woodshavings is excellent, as long as they are spot cleaned every day, piggies won't end up lying on damp bedding. Fleece can vary enormously and like all beddings needs to be checked for damp spots as piggies can produce quite a lot of wee, often using one area alot. Creating a series of short tunnels is quite nice for piggies and they seem to like running through tunnels. They love building nests in hay and it is a useful form of enrichment to exercise them mentally and physically, so give them a pile deep enough to burrow in if possible. Long strand meadow hay is good for this. Peed on damp hay is smelly so should be removed and replaced with fresh.
 
I use fleece and pads in an indoor c&c cage and have for about 5 1/2 years
I change half of the cage one day and half the next day - that means the cage always has their scent - I have 2 boars and there is never any smell from them. I use puppy washable pads under the fleece. Several hideys , soft and rigid , 2 hay trays, 2 water bottles - there is a large space that they can run about in which they do and this is useful for enrichment items -
I scatter their veggies and pellets over the hay to encourage foraging
I used to have fleece kavee liners IMG_8417.webpIMG_8012.webpthat fitted my 5x2 cage but my washing machine struggled to spin such a large item so having lots of sizes means you can be flexible.
I do use hay trays but they are shallow and my piggies love jumping in them, burrowing in them and just lying and sleeping in them .
I put the used hay and poops in a compost bin …it makes wonderful compost for the garden.
 
I've used both,disposable bedding and fleece bedding. I'm with disposable bedding at present and hay all over.I find with 3 cages the washing is all too time consuming.
Also difficult to get it all dry.piggies seem to like fleece or disposable bedding. The main thing is whatever bedding you use,ensure it's dry and cleaned regularly.
 
I'm glad we are helping. You will find your own way by trial and error. What suits one doesn't suit another and what suits some piggies doesn't suit others. I have slight variations amongst my cages to suit the occupants. I would say spend as little as possible on bedding to start with in case you don't like it. A cheap fleece blanket folded to fit the cage and placed over newspaper or puppy pads as an absorbent layer will give you an idea of what using fleece would be like before buying fleece liners.
 
enquiringhooman said:
Thank you to all the latest contributors to this thread. I am reading all the posts and each one has some good insight for us, thank you.
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Good luck
As @piggieminder said we all find our own best way - it is thru trial and error - so don’t spend a lot of money til you’re sure
Let us know how you get on 😁
 
I started with disposable bedding and the boys were fine with it. I suffered though as it really irritated the skin on my hands. When I switched to fleece the boys were delighted, even rolled around on it like puppies! I realised after the change that Dignified Sir George wasn't sneezing anymore. I hadn't noticed the sneezing until it stopped.
I have used hay trays in the past but Mischievous Master Boris wees so much that I find it easier to put piles of hay on pee pads. They have some in hides and a shared pile by the divider as they are neighbours.20250120_193909.webp Spot the guinea pig!IMG-20251114-WA0021.webp
 
I've used both paper bedding and fleece over the years. I currently use fleece... the pigs like it fine and it is SO MUCH CHEAPER. I still have to buy paper bedding and other substrate because I have hamsters too and they need to burrow, no way am I spending more on bedding for pigs who don't need depth for burrowing and are equally happy on fleece bedding that I have been washing and reusing for years!

Like many others here, I just pile hay on the fleece in piles and they are perfectly happy with it that way!
 
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