I prefer fleece.
- You can clean it/it's reusable.
- There are no particles that will cling to hedgie/me and spread all over the house.
- There are no particles that will get stuck in/to a male hedgie's genitals.
- There are no tiny particles that can be inhaled and cause irritation to hedgie's tiny lungs.
- Health issues like messy poops, no poops, bloody poops, off-colored urine, bloody feet, uterine bleeding, other bleeding will show up quickly on light-colored fleece and not get lost/buried.
I've tried Carefresh, Yesterday's News, and shavings in litter boxes... Just too messy. Gets tracked all over the cage, in the water dish, in the food dish, ends up on my sleeves, then spread around the house... Then there's the dustiness issue. And some hedgies will eat the stuff... which is dangerous to them.
So fleece liners with smaller fleece wheel-mats (smaller scrap pieces that go near the wheel to catch run-off) is what I've found works best. And for my messy eaters, I put down small fleece place-settings under the dishes so I can just grab up the crumbs and shake them into the trash. If they use a litter box, then a paper towel works just fine.