Fleece liners

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ktschopp

Active member
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
40
So I am thinking about transitioning to fleece liners as a way to save money/produce less waste. I’m just worried about if they smell/how absorbent they are. I’ve seen some people use small baking dishes with some bedding as the area for their chinchilla to pee in. I’ve also heard of people putting an old towel under the fleece liner so the pee gets absorbed. I was just wondering what the best option is. I only have one chinchilla and I would change our the liner every week so I don’t think it should smell.
 
If you go with fleece liners and your chin is not pee trained you do need some sort of absorbent layer. Some people use quilt batting, others use a towel, personally I just use more cheap fleece, so my chins are sitting on 3 layers of fleece. That way if the chins decided they want to chew through the fleece one day it's just more fleece inside, so nothing dangerous. Fleece is the only safe fabric, but only safe if you chin doesn't chew it, it doesn't unravel like other fabric so you can generally remove it before they chew and swallow too much to cause a problem. Since it doesn't unravel or shred most chins just do test nibbles, find it boring, and leave it alone.

Make sure you wash the fleece before using it, and only use vinegar in the wash, no detergent or fabric softener (they can coat the fleece and make it water repellent). It's not bad in terms of absorbancy if you go 3 layers thick, but you do need to change it a couple times a week if your chin is not pee trained. Fleece doesn't mask odor at all like shavings do so for some people they find it can stink after just one day. If pee trained you'll need to change the litter box everyday, but changing the fleece once a week is fine.

Pee training for some is as simple as putting a dish with shavings in the cage where they pee. For others you need to train them by slowly remove the shavings over the course of weeks until they are peeing in just one spot. Not all chins can be pee trained though, and it can take time. You could have one like my guys who just pee where ever they feel like it (often over the edge of a shelf). Also some chins can be pee trained for awhile and just decide one day they don't feel like peeing in the box anymore for no reason.
 
Great, thanks for the advice! I’m still using pine shavings for my chinchilla, but definitely looking into the fleece option and trying to pan train her. I am also looking to purchase a critter nation for my chinchilla and since the pans are plastic, I know I will need to replace or cover them. Does covering them with fleece work? Or are there metal or wood replacement pan options out there? I found some bass pans online so those were interesting.
 
I just cover the plastic pans in mine with fleece. The biggest downfall with that is the pans are very shallow, only about .5" deep, so they don't really hold much in the cage, poop and hay is always ending up on the floor. If you get the metal replacement pans from Bass Equipment, they are much deeper, 2.5" or 3" and you can even get the guards to go with them that increase the sides of the pans another few inches.

If you have the money I would go with the metal pans, I just haven't personally gotten metal pans yet due to price (I'm in Canada).
 
Back
Top