Stumped on bedding options

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shieldmaidenjen

shieldmaidenjen

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 25, 2013
Messages
57
Location
Texas Panhandle
Hi everyone!

Thank you for all of your help in the cage setup thread I made - I now have my babies in a Ferret Nation and am planning to buy two more FNs for the older chinnies (and get rid of the Chin Mansions) when I get a little more pocket change.

I love the FN cage... but there's that darn question on bedding again. I'd been using Carefresh for quite a while but I do know my chins will nibble at it and now that I've read more on it, I don't want to risk any digestive problems.

So I switched to aspen bedding, and that's even messier than the Carefresh. AND it makes me sneeze on top of that. :(

The biggest factor in question here: I have a chronic illness that keeps my energy level very, very low.

My chins are in a spare bedroom with carpet so having to bend over with the shop-vac and vacuum up every little piece of bedding stuck in the carpet that was kicked out of three large chinchilla cages is extremely tiring - literally. Add in the facts that I don't like Carefresh and that aspen bedding makes me sneeze and get watery-eyed, and options are rough and limited.

In YOUR opinion, what would be the best option for me? Here are my options as I see them:

A. Use fleece liners
B. Tile the cage floors
C. Either of the above and attempted to potty train six chinchillas as well.
D. Construct some sort of very high guard for the sides and back of the cage... but since the chins jump around, bedding will still fly.
E. Something else???

The idea of fleece liners is completely new to me. I do like the idea... but how often would I have to wash and change the liners if my chins are not potty trained?

Tiling the cage would be great but, again, if the chins are not potty trained, they very well might sit around in their own pee all day long. (Some of my chins have corners they pee in but others just go anywhere)

With my chronic fatigue in mind, could you make some suggestions for me? I want to keep everyone clean and healthy and happy - including me.

Thank you!
Jenn and The Colony
 
Hey Jenn- I personally think doing fleece is a really nice option and here's why:

1. Your chins are not potty trained and it may take a couple tries for them to become so, if they ever do. Tile leaves puddles and your chins could get wet and have all sorts of fur issues. Also, fleece is a nice way to potty train. It's not such a big deal if they per on the fleece because you can wash it, but you can try potty training with their old aspen shavings without fear of messing up their fur :)

2. Fleece is easily vacuumed And washed. If you can potty train, you're looking at changing fleece every week, if not, every two to three days.

3. You don't have to worry about bedding on the floor, just poop ha ha!

4. So. Many. Vendors. So many people customize for ferret nation cages :) or you can do it yourself!!

There are many pros and cons to each choice. Some people think that if you can't potty train that fleece is too much work. It's really a matter of personal preference.

Good luck to you and the colony!
 
I'd opt for fleece, especially with un-potty trained chins. I have two chins who refuse to be potty trained and I find with fleece, versus shavings, I don't notice the pee smell as much. Plus to wash them, I just shake off the hay bits and throw them in the wash and voila, clean! Having a couple of extra sets makes the process a lot less time consuming as well because you can do the swap and then do the laundry, without having to worry about watching and making sure they aren't chewing plastic shelves or getting up to other mischief while the liners are in the washer/dryer.

One important thing to note is that some chins will eat the fleece. If they do this, then fleece liners won't be your best option. But, if your chins have had some fleece exposure in other toys/hammocks/etc. and they don't eat it then you're good to go :)
 
I am reeeeaally leaning towards the fleece too. Thank you for the replies - you both have me convinced. My chins don't eat fleece either so that works! ;)
 
You would need to potty train the chins to tile the cage, or else you would have puddles of pee and soaked chinchillas.

I honestly think you could put up poop guards to hold in the bedding. I honestly doubt there would be much bedding flying out like you think. You would still have poops flying out from other higher up ledges, but to keep the bedding in, 5/6 inch high poop guards would probably do you just fine.

Fleece is quite a bit of work in my opinion, compared to bedding. You will need to vacuum it everyday and depending on the amount of chin per cage, you would need to completely switch it out every few days. With bedding, you can just clean the pee spot every few days and do a full cleaning once a week.
 
Out of curiosity, where would I get 5 or 6 inch poo guards for the FN (and what materials would they have to be for chin safety)? I've searched the Internet and haven't found any but I might well be missing something.
 
You could easily make them yourself if you wanted too, all you'd really need would be a tall enough KD wood board and cut to the dimensions of your cage, then just lay them on there side and attach them to the bars somehow.
You could also probably find people on the forum willing to cut custom sized pieces if you didn't want to do it yourself :)

Or you could buy some bass pans that are meant for FN's, they are completely medal but only go up 2/3 inches I think.
Here's the link to the site-
http://www.bassequipment.com/cages/ferret+pans/default.aspx

The wood poo guards I'm talking about would just boarder the inside (or outside, if you prefered that) of your cage, without a bottom.

Or you could even make poo guards out of fleece. I've seen pictures of people using a long enough piece of fleece and weaving it between the bars of there FN to help keep the poops and hay in. It seems easy enough
:)
 
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I recently tiled my cages because I was getting tired of the fleece. IMO the fleece is actually a lot of work. I had to wash them every few days because they quickly got smelly. Getting all of the poo/hay/bedding off the fleece before putting them in the washer was a real task as well...fleece is like a magnet to those things. I would vacuum them off, take them outside and shake them, and even then I would have to pick pieces off so that I didn't kill my washer. Cleaning cages with the fleece liners took me about 45 minutes to an hour if I was just doing a "quick" clean.

Since switching to tile my life has been so much easier. I just go in and do a quick vacuum, wipe the tile down with Nature's Miracle cage wipes, and I'm done. Cleaning 2 sectioned off Ferret Nations (4 cages in all) takes me maybe 10 minutes tops.

I have litter pans in my cages. Even my chins that weren't very good at going in their litter pans with fleece now seem to prefer the litter over the tile. I do have the occasional chin still pee on the tile, but it isn't a problem as they don't pee all that much and usually quickly go back up into a tube/hammock/etc. It's usually when they've knocked bedding or hay onto the tile anyway, and then just pee on top of that. They don't really spend much time on the cage floors. If they do happen to get some pee on them, a quick dust bath cleans them right up.
 
Don't be put of the idea of potty training. Your chins that go in a specific spot will be really easy to train. The others may follow suit on this too.

My chin trained in 1 day. Scoop some of the peed on litter into the litter pan and they do the rest. I only use litter in the litter box and was able to get a high sided metal corner litter pan from Chinchillathings.com.

I made my own scatter guards and they have worked out well. I have wood floors with some tiles in areas that she has occassional pee accidents. The tiles also serve as cooling blocks. I love having the solid surface floor because it's really easy to keep clean. I'm eventually switching out the wood for granite.

You could even make scatter guards out of fleece and attach them to the outside of the cage.

Would love to see pictures when you get set up.
 
I've used fleece for over a year now and I have no complaints. I just replaced my first set of liners with new ones, so the cost is relatively low. They're easy to clean too, which I love. Plus they can add a lot of personality to the cage.
 
I used to use fleece for my pet chins, but I have to agree with Stacie. It got annoying really quickly, especially if you have more than one. Tiling may be a good route though I haven't tried it. Chins actually take very well to being potty trained and what Stacie is doing sounds like a good idea I'd try if I were back to just a couple chins.
 
i keep reading about fleece, but i dont see to much on shavings i have used dust free pine shavings. is there a health concern with the pine shavings? also i want to replace the plastic shelves with wood any recommendations on what type of wood? is plywood ok to use?
 
Pine shavings are fine as long as they have been kiln dried. Stay away from cedar. It can cause respiratory problems. As far as wood shelves go, kiln dried pine is cheap and safe. Do not use plywood. The glues that hold it together are toxic to chinchillas.
 
I use newspaper in my wire bottomed cages and pine shavings in my solid bottom cages. FNs that are tiled and have guards are the easiest to clean and maintain. I use maple or pine boards for ledges. Plywood is bad cause of the glue in it.
 
 
I have fleece liners now (several of them) and I am considering changing it to something different because with just my 2 chins in their FN, I notice the urine smell after just 2 days. I will wash the liners, and then the next day, I can smell pee. I think it gets a little tidious to have to change them out every other day. I live in a basement, so that might be part of the problem, because it's not super ventilated I guess, but still, I'm pregnant and due in July so I'm afraid of having to change them out so often when I'll be busy with the new baby.
 
I couldn't live without fleece liners. I have the original plastic shelves and the metal bass pans and without the fleece liners, the sound of my two chins running around would drive me insane (I have the ferret nation cage in my room). They are easy to clean with a vacuum that has a hose attachment and I just throw them in the wash once a week. If you don't have chins that are litter box trained, the cage WILL smell after one or two days, but training chins isn't difficult.
 
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