What types of bedding have you tried?

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Spoof

Kung Fu Chinny!
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
2,610
Location
San Antonio, TX
What did and didn't work, and why?

Why did you choose to go with what you are using now?

How much of it do you go through vs. your quantity of chins?
 
Aspen, KD pine, fleece.

I am using the pine. It's more economical and easier to use. Tried the aspen, but it stank after a couple days. Tried the fleece - I would have had to change the liners every other day, so I would have had to have around 4 or 500 liners sitting around in case I couldn't wash every 5 minutes. Total pain in the butt.

I usually go through 7 bales of pine every time I do cages and it seems to work out the best for me as far as cleaning goes and money spent.
 
I've used Aspen for my birds when I was breeding, had a horribly experience, so when the chins came along, I used pine, and have stuck with it ever since! I have 22 cages, so fleece is just not an option for me either. I buy mine by the bale at our local hardware store.
 
I tried carefresh when I got my chin the petstore advised me to use it....chin tried to eat it didnt work I switched THAT right away...now I use aspen ....
 
I use pine for most of our cages. One cage currently has liners, and we have three liners that are run-sized (so when a female has babies, they get liners for the first few days/weeks). The chins that are potty trained get carefresh if they don't eat it, otherwise, they get pine in their litterboxes too. I love the pine. Reasonably priced, doesn't stink too quick, and it works well for us.
 
I used care fresh for the first week because like others, that's what was recommended. Never again. Used pine and Aspen for a time. Inconsistency in the bedding, shaving size and dust, made me try fleece. Hated it! I now get big bales of pine that hardly has any dust from my local rescue (Whimsy's). It is the best bedding I've used.
 
We use KD pine and a product similar to carefresh. We get them from a lab supply company so the materials are consistent and very low on dust. The KD pine is so soft, I'd sleep on it, and the Soft-sorb is soft, absorbent and in small little pretty pieces unlike the uglyness that is carefresh. Couldn't be happier with the product and can't say enough positives!

The distributor we get them from has become more of a pain over the years, but we just buy big batches so we only have to deal with them a few times a year.
 
When I got my chin, she was on something like carefresh. It was expensive and I needed almost a whole bag each time I cleaned her cage. Then I switched to aspen, but that made more mess than it was worth and it didn't cover oders well. She didn't like stepping on it and she would try to eat it, so I switched to fleece because it's easy to clean and wash, doesn't make a mess, and she loves it.
 
I have tried aspen, pine, carefresh, fleece, and now pellets. The aspen stank too quick, the pine stuck to the bottom and just got dusty and sucked to clean up, the carefresh was pine but more expensive, fleece got smelly too quick and cost too much to maintain enough liners. I am using just a dish of pellets now. Flea does not eat them and they break down to sawdust. I dump the pan, vacuum strays and poops, and I am done.
 
I cant use fleece, as Rosey tries to eat it. I use aspen now, though it does start to smell a bit by the time it is cleaning day again. I've used KD pine too, and that was fine as well, but then someone told me it could cause respiratory problems in rodents. It's probably just anecdotal evidence, but I changed to aspen just in case. The aspen costs the same as the pine here, so I figured I might as well.
I make a layer around 2 inches deep on the cage floor, so I go through quite a lot! Rosey likes to dig in it!
 
I use fleece for the most part. We use well water for our laundry so it's super cheap to clean the liners. I also line dry the liners, so no cost there either. We only buy fleece when it's 50% off. For us it works well. I have no smell (change liners every 3-4 days), much less mess, and I always get compliments on how nice the cages look.

In case a fleece chewer comes into the rescue I do always keep a bale of pine on hand.
 
I used pine up north but in the south the bales are 4 cubic feet - about half of what I recall the ones up north being. It is chips and not absorbent, they don't even use them for horse stalls here. I remember trying aspen and liking it but at $12 per bale it was too costly. Can't get it here in large quantities.

The main product used is the pelleted pine bedding and cobb bedding. I'm using the pelleted pine, I tried the cobb and it stunk. I also tried fuller's earth but it is very heavy and expensive though it does help with chins that like to sit in their pee.

I go through a bag every two weeks.

One of the ranchers said they used to make a blue cloud bedding in the 70's. You didn't have to dust. I think that would be awesome.
 
I have used pine, aspen, fleece and nothing, the chins I have are all potty treined to use their potty boxes and those are filled with pine shavings, the rest of the cage is solid tile. Sweep daily and wipe accidents as needed.
 
i use fleece liners with a corner potty pan that has kd pine shavings in it. looking at ditching the fleece and going with a tiled cage, as my boys are more prone to pee on fleece than in their potty. when both chins were on a bare cage floor (metal pan) they were much more faithful to their potty pan.
 
I've tried aspen....that stuff makes me itch like crazy :hair: and wasn't as absorbent as pine. I've tried pellets...I just don't like them..they don't look comfortable to stand on and I'm not fond of the crumbled powdery mess they make.

I use pine. I buy it at the local fed store for about $8. It comes in bags that are 3.4 cubic feet of compressed pine shavings (bag says it expands to 9 cubic feet which sounds about right). Pine smells the best, doesn't make me itch :thumbsup:, and is the cheapest (though I think the price has doubled in the past 10-15 years).
 
I have used two different kinds of bedding kd pine and another bedding that looks like torn up cardboard and then I switched to fleece because I can monitor poopies better. I have 3 chins Wakka is potty trained and out of my bonded pair only one uses the litter box but I change my fleece liners every 3 days so I don't really have a problem with it smelling and the cage gets swept out daily.
 
I just recently switched to fleece liners with a potty dish full of carefresh. We change the liner every 2-3 days and the potty dish every day or every other depending on how much they pee in it. I have 2 liners and just hand wash them and hang them on the line between uses. We have saved a ton of money in the last 2 months on bedding. If you want to try the fleece, but don't want to invest in a liner without knowing if you're chin is a chewer, check the remnants at your favorite fabric store for a piece that will be big enough for the bottom of the cage. Lay just the single layer in, with a potty dish, and try it out for a night or 2 and see if you've got chewers. My boys didn't chew at all, they tried pulling up the sides and dumped the potty dish, but no chewing. I actually just have a single layer of fleece on the bottom of the cage now, they don't have accidents anymore, but they do pee on the fleece when they want to come out now. They have me trained well.
 
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