Fleece liners and litter training

[Eldritch]

Hello, I've just got my first chins (a pair of two females) and after finding shavings EVERYWHERE, I was thinking about changing to a fleece liner? I have a solid bottom cage with multiple levels, but are there any down sides to using fleece? I'm also based in the UK so if anyone has any good places to buy them from that would be appreciated!

I've also read several threads that mention training your chins to pee in a particular area, as I've only just got my chins, I don't really know where they're peeing at the minute but I would like to know how to train them to do this? They're 8 months old, is this too late or a good age to train them to do it?

Any help anyone can offer would be great! Thank you in advance

 

[Amethyst]

There are pros and cons with using fleece, if you look up fleece pros and cons you should get threads about it. However some of the downsides are, you have to change it more frequently (normally a couple times a week), some people find is smells more since fleece is absorbent but not odor masking, you will need a couple set so you can change it out through out the week and sets can be expensive, hay sticks to it like crazy so you have to remove the hay before throwing it in the washer. Also if the chin chew the fleece you will have to remove it and go back to bedding of some sort. The liners wont help with having poo everywhere, unless you get some sort of poo guards around the cage. I can't help with there to buy liners in the UK, but if you are crafty/into sewing liners aren't that hard to make depending on your cage and how you want the liners.

As for training them to pee in a spot it is more that most chins pick a spot to pee and you go with it. Most pee only in a corner of the cage, so if you are lucky all you need to do is put a pan of litter in that corner and the chin will use it. However if your chins are like my boys, they pee a step or two from wherever they are standing, so you'll need to gradually lessen the litter in the cage over time (it can take days to months) to train them just to pee on the shavings until you get them just peeing in one area, then put a pan with shavings there. Not all chins get the hang of it though, and some will just out of the blue decide they don't want to be litter trained anymore. I'm not sure age really has much to do with litter training, unless your chin is older (like 10-15+ years old), then it would probably be set in it's ways, but at 8 months they are still young.

 

[IceMaiden]

I have one chin and I use fleece as its so convenient and easy. I have a piece of towel in the base pan and a fleece liner over it like a pillow case, which works like a charm, and and they dry a lot quicker. I found towel sewn to fleece took much longer to dry especially at this time of year!

I sweep the fleece out with a dustpan and brush every morning which takes about five minutes, and once a week take them out completely along with the hammocks, give them a shake to clear any hay and throw them in the washing machine for half an hour on a 30 degree wash. My girl is not litter trained but there is no smell whatsoever form the fleece, not even by the end of the week.

These places make custom liners if your after somewhere that makes them but I haven't personally tried them as I make my own.

http://www.cavycouture.co.uk/cageliners.html
http://www.hammockyhammocks.co.uk/store_liners.htm
http://www.cosycavies.co.uk/products/waterproof-lap-blanketsss/
http://ziggyspiggies.webs.com/cage-liners
http://www.pawsup4cosypets.co.uk/products/4569233394

.

 

[Kokorobosoi]

What I would suggest is one of those cheap handheld vacuums. I use one to get the debris off the fleece. Some of my cages smell worse than others, with the same regime. One doesn't have any odor, one can be smelled from a little bit away from the cage but that one I just clean more often now and there's no problem.

 

[Eldritch]

Thank you everyone for your answers

Icemaiden, do you just use one towel and one layer of fleece? I might give that a go, especially as I don't know if they'll chew the fleece or anything so don't want to buy loads!

Kokorobosoi, that sounds like a good shout. So far there hasn't really been any noticeable smells, hopefully it will stay that way with the fleece.

 

[hmccoll13]

I just switched to fleece for my boy and what I did was put the fleece in and then purchased a small glass baking pan and filled that with shavings and put that in the corner. Turns out Mojo got the hang of peeing where the shavings are instantly as his fleece liner is free from pee and I saw him start to use that area instead. It could just be him but it seems that he's more naturally inclined to pee on shavings over bare bottoms/fleece so maybe your girls are too! Worth a shot if you switch as the pan is only about $4-5 and worst comes to worst if they don't use it you can always deep clean it and use it for baking!