sawdust or fleece?

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guineapigs213

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the guinea pigs were originally on fleece but sooner into the year I gave up on it. the reasons for this are LOADS of washing every day, it smells so bad all the time no matter how many times I spot cleaned the cage , their pee wasn't evaporating into the fleece it was there to stink . any advice anyone feel free to email or comment, many thanks x
 
When fleece is wicking and working properly it doesn't smell. The urine needs to wick through the fleece into the absorbent layer underneath. if it was just pooling on top, then the fleece isn't wicking properly. What absorbent layer were you using? Did you wash it multiple times before using it in the piggy cage? Did you use fabric softener - if you did, then this will cause it to not wick properly.
You only need change their fleece out twice a week if it is wicking properly.

This is our bedding guide Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview

you can use safe wood shavings, but some piggies struggle with them due to dust. Particularly as your piggy seems to have a respiratory issue, I would not consider changing her to shavings right now.
 
Piggies&buns said:
When fleece is wicking and working properly it doesn't smell. The urine needs to wick through the fleece into the absorbent layer underneath. if it was just pooling on top, then the fleece isn't wicking properly. What absorbent layer were you using? Did you wash it multiple times before using it in the piggy cage? Did you use fabric softener - if you did, then this will cause it to not wick properly.
You only need change their fleece out twice a week if it is wicking properly.

This is our bedding guide Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview

you can use safe wood shavings, but some piggies struggle with them due to dust. Particularly as your piggy seems to have a respiratory issue, I would not consider changing her to shavings right now.
Click to expand...
i use guineadad fleece for my three pigs . it does have an absorbent layer but seems to not work. i washed it once when we first used it and I have recently been having to wash it four times a weak for it to not smell , however, it still does.
 
Are you sure it’s the fleece and not the hay that smells? It shouldn’t smell that bad so quickly. I’ve no experience with guineadad so can’t help.
 
I have not personal experience of guineadad, but if you’re having to wash it that much and, as siikibam has said it isn’t wet hay that is smelling, it isn’t wicking and pee is just pooling on top, then its a problem with the fleece liners themselves.
My piggies live in a hutch in my shed - in summer their shed bedding is puppy pads with a Dunelm fleece blanket layered on top. I have two boars (who love nothing more than scent marking) but I still only have to change their fleece every five days.
 
I use and rotate a variety of fleeces. Some homemade sets, two are Guineadad and loose fleece over incontinence liners. I haven’t had any problems with odour and non-wicking and highly rate the guineadads. I change them every 2-5 days and wash everything at 50 with non scented detergent and a good glug of white vinegar. Hoping your situation improves.
 
I find that when I purchased expensive guinea pig fleece, it was smelly as you'd have to wash the pee soaked fleece and it was heavy with urine. Now I use cheap polar fleeces which I love, they're £2.99 each and I put puppy pads underneath and only change the puppy pads when I need to. The fleece dried 99% of the time. I also put a few puppy pads on top of high pee areas so I can do a full week without changing the fleece! Sometimes for example, I'll notice they've picked a spot to wee and poo so I'll just put the puppy bad on top. I've never really trained mine to wee on there but they almost always use the puppy pads. My boyfriend had a problem with me using puppy pads as he thought it wasn't really nice for them to sit on as I had a large area initially where they'd snuggle under a fleece blanket as a hidey and that's where the puppy pads were so they'd hardly ever wee or poo on the fleece and they'd be touching the puppy pads directly. So I got rid of that area and I've noticed the guinea pigs have digged up a small part of the fleece to expose one half a puppy pad and are using that as their loo! So that's why I've recently started putting an odd puppy pad on top of a high wee area and it's been working. (Half in the corner and half under a popular hidey) They've never chewed on them atall or I wouldn't be using them but every guinea pig is different! Best of luck!
 
I just couldn't get on with fleece. I found it a bit smelly (indoor pigs) and a lot hairy! I use bedding in the cages but my pigs also go outside the cages and on that tiled floor I use flatwoven cotton mats like you can get from ikea for a few quid each. A few smaller ones fit into the machine better than one massive one. They soak up pee but don't wick so you see the wet patches - however they don't smell like fleece can because it's a natural fibre. It's the same reason a the armpits of a polycotton shirt or a 'sports' tee-shirt stink up faster/worse than a cotton shirt... the man-made fibre doesn't absorb the water (which evaporates away) but the odour particles cling to the man-made fibre and this can 'concentrate' the odour. I use a dustpan and brush on the mats morn/eve for the poopage - I find them easy to sweep and the hair doesn't hang on when you shake them outside BUT I don't use them inside the cages where the pigs spend most of their time because they don't dry fast enough. Outside the cage the pee spots dry off so I only wash them once a week.

I ordered some vet-bed thinking it would be fleece that didn't cling to hair for some reason, but it's so thick and dense it's like the shag-pile carpet of fleece so I've just put it under George's tray-cage as a sort of insulating mat. If poops got into that they'd be lost forever!
 
I find fleece and other fabrics more smelly than quality wood shavings and need changing more often. During first lockdown I had to switch half my pigs over to fleece due to the shortage of shavings and the recycling centres (for gardening/piggy waste) all being shut. I persevered for a long time but have recently switched back to shavings.
The shavings I use are kiln dried and dust extracted.

Sawdust is a different product. It is, as the name suggests, dust from sawn timber and should never be used for guinea pigs.
 
I have a 21 sq ft cage for 3 lady piggies that is part fleece with puppy pads underneath and part Guinea Dad. I find that using smaller pieces of fleece liner or the Guinea Dad “pee pads” in high traffic pee areas (I change these out every 3-4 days) is the key to only having to change the large liners only once a week. My cage doesn’t really get smelly at all if I do this!

Edit: I also sweep up poos and replace the hay pile 1-2 times per day. I find that the soiled pee pee hay smells way worse than the fleece liners.
 
I'm using fleece and bath mats with a kitchen area where there is a kitten litter tray in one enclosure and the end section of the plaza 200 cage in the other where I use kiln dried wood shavings (looking into Aspen or hemp bedding at the moment as my rats seem to be particularly sensitive to wood shavings) with hay over the top. I'm using the fleece and bath mats as I'm trying to save money but poop cleaning is turning into a full time job it seems, I had hoped doing the kitchen areas would help keep most of it contained there but it seems they hardly go there and use everywhere else instead! I'm only cleaning the trays out every other day for the thought of it as theres no wet patches and hardly any poo in there as well so I'm really confused 🤷‍♀️
 
I don't really worry about the poops - I mean, I clean 'them up but they dry out so fast that they 'blend in' with the Back-2-nature bedding I use in the bedroom areas!
I sometimes wonder if they're laying themselves a 'cushion'!
 
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