Fleece Liners and the Smell

[xelay]

So I recently (a couple of months ago) bought a couple of ferret nation cages and switched to fleece liners after 6 years of using carefresh for my 3 chinchillas (and currently one foster chinchilla). I have a pair of boys in one of these cages and they smell so freaking awful. They are partially litter trained so I clean that every day but the fleece liners just smell freaking awful after about 24-48 hours. I used to clean cages once a week which was totally fine with carefresh, but apparently isn't with fleece. Also, honestly cleaning is not happening more often than that because my life is already absurdly busy and since I am very badly allergic to the hay and dust cleaning cages is not a small ordeal.

So, any solution to this? Do I scrap the fleece liners and just go back to carefresh? Any suggestions (that don't cost $$$) for making litter work with ferret nation cages? Aspen/pine litter is not an option since I am badly allergic to that also (allergies are really not fun and they don't make keeping chinchillas easy but after 6 years it's not like I'm going to give my babies up now).

 

[javachin]

It sounds like they're not using their litter pans at all if it starts to smell in that period of time. You might be better off going back to Carefresh or switching out the liners everyday/every other day.

 

[xelay]

Yeah, I can't change fleece liners every day/every other day because the dust and hay set off an allergy attack that knocks me out for the rest of the day and night, and I can't afford that right now for so many reasons. So I guess I will probably have to go back to carefresh for the boys anyway. My one girl is so perfectly litter trained, if only these darn boys could be like her.

Anyone have any suggestions for making carefresh work in ferret nations? Suggestions that don't cost $$$ would be appreciated as money is tight given several veterinary emergencies in recent months combined with some other unexpected expenses.

 

[xelay]

And cleaned those cages and I am now officially an itchy laboured breathing mess who is already overloaded on allergy meds. Zyrtec, claratin and benadryl daily. *sigh*

 

[akane]

Putting cotton under the fleece will prolong it as well as having more layers of fleece. When we did fleece for guinea pigs which drink and pee like crazy we laid down towels then 2 layers of fleece. Every couple days we just peeled back the fleece, pulled out the towels, and put them in a plastic container. When the container got full we threw them in the washer with vinegar to remove the smell. The fleece only needed changed once a week that way and we were not exposed much to hay or anything by rolling the fleece off the towels and rolling it back on to new towels. Chins pee a lot less than guinea pigs so I haven't been using cotton under my fleece but I have no problem changing it multiple times a week. We have 2 sets of fleece for each cage so I can throw one in the laundry and lay down a new one without waiting for it to get clean.

 

[xelay]

Well since the only answer anyone seems to have is change the fleece every couple of days or go back to carefresh. So, I guess I already knew my options.