Fleece Liners, the good/bad and the ugly!!

I house my guy on fleece and change the liners about twice a week. I really don't notice any smell coming from him, but maybe that's just because of the overwhelming smell of guinea pig pee about half a room from him! :hammer:

I actually sat down the other day and figured out that it would be a LOT cheaper for me to just use shavings vs liners. I don't have a washer or dryer in my apt, so I'd have to pay to wash the liners and that would get expensive- I have three cages and if I only had 2 liners for each cage I would have an additional $30 in laundry costs a month if I washed them every other day. I could get more liners so I wouldn't have to wash them as often, but then I'd have stinky, dirty liners laying around somewhere and ewwww. No thanks. I'll stick to my $8 bag of shavings that lasts me about 5 weeks.

I actually just started fleece liners. I must have the most litter box trained chins ever, because I can't smell my guys. It's been a week and a half. I think they think their fleece is too nice to pee on... LOL

Although I think they might have gone on the fleece like 1-2x's total, I just realized that it might be because I have baking soda puppy pads under the fleece. So, they might be soaking up the pee and making it not smelly. I prefer the fleece hands down to bedding though.

I'm thinking about making a third set of liners so that I can save up and do a larger load of laundry at once. Three cages, three male chins, six liners, changed every 1-2 weeks, no shavings pan. I tend to get some odor at about 2 weeks when I'm being lazy, so I make an effort to do it weekly. The biggest problem is getting rid of the hay that sticks to the liners - I have a balcony (currently full of stuff) but no yard to shake it out in. Still trying to figure out the best way to deal with that, I hope I figure it out before my washing machine gives up on me...

I HATED dealing with shavings. Messy. Chins would throw them out of cage (so hay, poop, AND shavings on the floor). Needed big garbage bags. Took more time to clean cages. etc. Fleece has its disadvantages, but thus far, I prefer it. I've been using fleece for almost a year now, I think.

equus_peduus said:

The biggest problem is getting rid of the hay that sticks to the liners - I have a balcony (currently full of stuff) but no yard to shake it out in. Still trying to figure out the best way to deal with that, I hope I figure it out before my washing machine gives up on me...

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I had that problem, which is why I got rid of the liners. I could take it out to the desert and shake off the hay for the bunnies and critters around, but there would still be a ton stuck to it. I ended up attempting to take the vacuum to it, but that didn't work either.

I'm now to bare bottoms and pee pans and it's working out pretty well for me.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the liners, but they got gross within an hour of cleaning them.

Hey guys, I have been toying with the idea of switching to fleece because im sick of bedding because of the mess. I have a QC Chinchilla Mansion, and I was going to buy the Ferret Nation Liners for it. You guys use litter pans, what ones do you you use? I have A Cat litter pan for dust baths, but its plastic and I don't want to use plastic? Any suggestions?

~Nick

I only do liner laundry twice a week. I have 6 cages and 12 liners. I change out the liners twice a week. All the liners fit into the one load.

I also use this pyrex dish for my shavings. I got mine from Walmart. It's glass so it's easily cleanable, and it's fairly deep so the shavings stay in.

Tangloa said:

Hey guys, I have been toying with the idea of switching to fleece because im sick of bedding because of the mess. I have a QC Chinchilla Mansion, and I was going to buy the Ferret Nation Liners for it. You guys use litter pans, what ones do you you use? I have A Cat litter pan for dust baths, but its plastic and I don't want to use plastic? Any suggestions?

~Nick

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Ferret Nation liners won't fit the QC Mansion. The FN liners are 24 x 36" and QC Mansions are 24 x 30".

i use metal tins from the dollar store for litter pans. i use the brownie and the cake ones.

threewingedfury said:

Ferret Nation liners won't fit the QC Mansion. The FN liners are 24 x 36" and QC Mansions are 24 x 30".

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I was going to cut them to size, since we don't have any fleece here so I can make my own. Can anyone point me in the right direction for ordering some custom ones?

~Nick

Tangloa said:

I was going to cut them to size, since we don't have any fleece here so I can make my own. Can anyone point me in the right direction for ordering some custom ones?

~Nick

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I can make them for you, for $15 each.

I really like the fleece liners. Phoenix has a litter pan in her cage that she uses once in a while, sometimes more one week than the next. On the second night with the liners, I can smell a slight pee odor from her but with Sedona I can smell a stronger odor because she drinks more and tends to be more spunky compared to Phoenix. I think the liners are easier and it is really simple to grab the vacuum and clean them before I throw them in the wash. As of right now I have 2 pairs and I lay two old towels in the cage while they are washing. I usually vacuum around the cage a couple times a week but I straighten the cages every night when they are enjoying their separate play times. I hated my shavings and it seems to take longer to clean them once a week then doing it twice a week with the fleece.

I have a question for the experienced fleece makers on here. I wanted to make my own and they aren't the best but I think I make them fairly nice but after I wash them I notice some spots where the fleece has separated displaying the towel inside. Is there a technique that I'm not doing when I sew them? It's not a big deal but I'm proud of how nice they come out until I wash them for the first time after being constructed. :hair:

I actually don't use anything in the middle of my liners for that reason - I had a lot of trouble getting the liners to stay together.

I use four liners, and I have three or four sets of them (when I find fleece on sale, I buy it). I don't have an odor problem, and I'm incredibly sensitive to animal odors. I also have five girls in one room. I wash my liners by themselves after shaking them out, and I use cold water and detergent on a heavy cycle. Each cage has a litter pan, but only a couple of chins actually use the pan (the rest just like to perch in it). My liners have no residual smell after they have been washed. I think where you get a lot of problems is when you put in an absorbent core. My liners are two layers of thick fleece (it's not particularly snuggly, but it works for the liners), and they absorb everything just fine.

If you have odor problems, try liners without a towel or other absorbant material. It works for me.

How often do you change them? I was going to do two layers of fleece but was told that it's horrible but then I was told by someone that the towel in the middle was bad and they didn't like it but then I had someone else tell me to put a towel in the middle. :wacko:

I think I have some extra fleece that I can put together and sew up tonight. The only place in town with fleece is Wal-mart so I try to buy some that I like when its $4.44/yard.

I change my liners once a week, and I do spot treatments with my shop vac when the poos start to get out of control. If for some reason the liners get stinky before that, I have enough liners in stock to change them.

I buy the $4.44 fleece at Wal-mart as well, and I don't have an odor problem. I even stick my head in the cages and smell (even though the cages are FNs) just to make sure I'm not missing something. I think sometimes it's just hard to get the towels in the middle completely clean and dried, so I don't bother with them.

Wow and you have 7 chins compared to my 2 so I guess I will take your word for it.

Do you air dry them?