Fleece in litter pan?

[Spodumena]

I wanted to get some opinions on this before I attempt to try it because there are likely some pitfalls I am overlooking:

People seem to use fleece liners in place of bedding, and then put aspen or KD pine shavings in a litter dish. I was wondering if anyone had ever tried using fleece pee pads in the litter dish instead of pine/aspen shavings?

I have almost entirely tiled (mix of marble and ceramic) the wire bottom of the chins' house. There are two small bits exposed in 2 corners that they back up into to pee. This works out great because it all (usually) goes down to the newspaper and makes the cage easy to tidy and clean (I can just sweep the poos and hay down there as well). But because I eventually want to cover up all the wire (just to be safe), I was thinking about putting in a litter dish in one of the corners and then gradually eliminating the other pee corner.

Do you think it would work to put in fleece pads (a few layers sewn together that fit well into the pan) to absorb the pee instead of shavings? I was thinking about making a few of them (a week's worth or so), and then changing them every morning. Does this seem plausible, or do you think it would train the chins to associate fleece with pee (I don't want them peeing in their hammocks...!). There's probably a good reason everyone uses shavings, but I'm just exploring options... Any opinions/thoughts would be very welcome!

 

[Godofgods]

I actually tried fleece in my metal litter pans before with my last chin. I had two in there, one with just the fleece, and one with the fleece and shavings on top of that. But he has some injuries and doesnt like walking on litter at all. He also never had anything like this before he came to me. So he never used either.

But i have started with fleece pads across the cage trays. The one issue with fleece is that the urine often has a habit of sitting on top of the fleece rather then soaking right in fast. In a small area like a litter pan, that could be more of an issue. - Probably ways to make it more absorbent, but its worth noting.

 

[Spodumena]

Thanks for the tip, Godofgods. I did notice that when one of them has the occasional accident on a corner hammock, it does tend to bead on top instead of absorbing (I don't wash with fabric softener, just some white vinegar). Good for cleaning up if spotted quickly, but you're right. Maybe wouldn't work so well in a small litter dish... How are your fleece pads working out? Are you going to stick with them, or switch back to litter?

 

[Godofgods]

well initally i was using corner litter pans with shavings. And my girls used them perfectly. Then one day one of my girls decided she no longer wanted to, and kept peeing on the metal pan. The acidity of the urine started discoloring and eating into it a bit. So i got fleece liners for them.

Now they have the fleece liners and the corner litter pans with shavings. And they are using both. However the liners i got ended up only being a two layer fleece. No absorbent materiel in the middle. So while some rests on top for a bit, some kinda seeps through to the metal. So if you get, i would check and make sure you have a third layer.