kscanuck785
Well-Known Member
after reading much misinformation about fleece, I think this post will be very helpful to understand how fleece works...
if you don't feel like reading the whole post, here's the short version:
Fleece does NOT, I repeat does NOT absorb any liquids....it WICKS away liquids, therefore needing an extra layer UNDER the layer of fleece to absorb liquids.
the following is from here:
http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/bed ... study.html
this was written for guinea pigs owners but it works/applies just as well for ratties.
Fleece is not a bedding commonly associated with guinea pigs, but once you learn the ins-and-outs of using the fabric you will understand why so many people are learning the benefits of this unusual option. First of all, you want to know the basics about fleece - what exactly it is, where you can buy it from, and how much it costs.
Before You Buy
The dictionary definition of fleece is stated as:
âFleece: n. Any fabric with a soft deep pile.â
This might be a pretty vague explanation to the average guinea pig carer who has never heard of using fleece as bedding, so you need to know what type of fleece is recommended. The fleece you want is not the type of material you would often associate with wool. You are looking for 100% polyester. While there are a few different types of fleece, polar or anti-pill are usually the ones to opt for. Polar is the most common fleece you will find, and anti-pill encourages the prevention of the fabric bunching up when washed, encouraging it to look newer for longer. Anti-pill is also a softer fleece, almost like velour in texture.
Sherpa fleece is thicker and has slightly different feels to the sides of the blanket, but is also suitable to try if you are unable to find polar or anti-pill.
You can purchase fleece for a good price from various places. You probably wonât find any fleece in pet stores as itâs not a common animal bedding, so aim to search through homeware and fabric stores.
Iâve Got My Fleece!
So, you have now arrived home with your new fleece. You want to throw out all your traditional bedding and fit the lovely new, soft fleece right away. Stop right there. Itâs simple getting started, but having a bit of patience and commitment to the project comes right at the beginning. Before you fit your fleece or begin cutting it to size, wash it. Washing your fleece a few times before you begin even think about snipping and sizing serves two purposes:
1) Encouraging the fleece to begin working with moisture;
2) Allowing it to shrink - which it does not do much of (even after 100+ washes) - before you fit everything to the millimetre.
Aim to do two 40 - 60 degree spin cycles with your regular detergent to achieve these objectives.
This is what Marsha, a knowledgeable and long-term fleece user who lives in the US, says:
âI ideally like to wash and dry the fleece three times before using, four is even better. You are trying to slightly break down the water barer that fleece tends to have when it is brand-new. Once washed and dried several times it will wick the moisture away, instead of repelling the moisture (leaving the urine to stay on top of the fleece).
While drying your fleece you do not want to use any fabric softener as that will put a barer back onto the fleece and not allow the moisture to penetrate through the fleece properly, keeping your fleece feeling wet after your piggy urinates.â
Marsha suggests you do the following, in the order shown, to get the most out of your fleece before you start using it:
*Wash and dry fleece at least three times;
*Wash on warm water / dry on a med-low setting;
*Do not add fabric softener of any kind in washer or dryer.
Working with Fleece
One of the first things people who have started using fleece ask is:
âDoes it absorb urine?â
The answer is no.
âWhy do you say fleece is so good then, if it doesnât absorb all the pee that pigs eliminate? Surely good absorption is a key consideration when it comes to all beddings!â
Fleece wicks liquid away from the surface to the underneath, meaning the surface remains dry and the urine is absorbed by the underbedding.
Quite a few people find fleece to be very poor at doing this job, but this tends to be only because they have got a number of factors wrong:
1) Skipping the first step of washing the fleece 2-4 times before the first use can be one cause of the fleece not wicking pee through;
2) You have too many - or not enough - layers of fleece;
3) You have no - or poor - underbedding which is not doing itâs job
4) You are using fabric softener in the wash, which can prevent fleece from wicking moisture through.
For the fleece to wick urine properly, you should ideally aim to have 1-2 layers of fleece and 1-2 layers of towel. You can use fleece without towel, but there are problems with choosing to go this way as is explained shortly.
The underbedding is a key factor in just how well your fleece is working. There are a number of beddings you can use under the fleece, each with their own pros and cons:
Newspaper
Pros: Easily available, cheap, quick to fit.
Cons: Doesnât absorb very much urine at all, smells very quickly, needs replacing at between fleece washes, non-reusable.
Puppy training pads
Pros: Easily available, quick to fit, good absorbency.
Cons: Expensive, needs replacing between fleece washes, plastic edges can be dangerous if ingested, non-reusable.
Towels
Pros: Easily available, cheap, can be cut to size, excellent absorbency, reusable.
Cons: Gets heavy when very wet, can smell a little after 3-4 days if lots of urine is absorbed.
Itâs recommended you use a combination of underbeddings to achieve top results. The most successful combination is towels with one - or both - of the others. The problem you may have if you donât use the towel is sticking. The most common âstickersâ are Newspaper to Fleece and sometimes Puppy Pads to Fleece. Notice how towel doesnât come into either of those instances. Towel absorbs so well that, unless it is left in the cage for more than a week, it does not get wet enough to stick to anything. Newspaper is a real sticky bedding and it can be very tough to get off fleece, yet with a setup of newspaper, towel then fleece these issues are eliminated - and you have the added bonus of the great absorbency thus reduced smell too.
Talking of smell, so many fleece enquirers are determined that the smell must be bad, but this is not true. If you use fleece correctly, with the underbeddings and the pre-washing, the risks of smell are low already. To keep it that way, you should aim to vacuum (or sweep) the poops out of the cage on a daily basis. Some users vacuum twice daily, but unless you have more than 3 or 4 pigs and the cage does not meet the minimum recommend sizes (http://www.guineapigcages.com) this may not be necessary.
If you can train your guinea pig to urinate in a litter tray, the fleece can last days longer. Just clean the litter tray out 1-2 times a day and fill with a good absorbent bedding (non-material is best in trays) and you shouldnât be able to smell any ammonia. Perform a full cage clean at least once weekly to ensure good hygiene and to ensure the fleece is nice and fresh.
What else is there to smell now that we have taken away the poops and (in some cases) removed the slight ammonia odour?
How soon stains and marks are visible on the fleece is different for every user. It depends on the colour and pattern of fleece, how often the fleece is washed, the number of pigs and the health of the animals. Just about all stains come out in the wash, including veggie and urine stains. Extreme white deposits (a result of too much calcium-rich foods in the diet) may not wash out, as the calcium may be too set to get rid of. These will cause no problems though individuals may consider them unsightly. (You just need to alter that pigsâ diet PDQ!)
Small marks, for example from crushed poop (sorry!) or veggie dribble, can be visible after a day or two, but these donât matter to the pigs - again, it the carers tastes which determine how these are handled! Often these marks will fade as the days pass by, and when it comes to washing the fleece you may not see those marks there at all.
Cleaning Fleece & Related Matters
Preparing the fleece for the wash is sometimes the most laborious part of using fleece, and is often where may fleece-testers back out. Fleece is a high maintenance bedding so does take some getting used to, and the highest maintenance part is getting it ready to be washed.
The easiest way is to use a washing machine.
You can use your regular detergent (unless it is very strongly scented), but softener isnât advised as it can reduce the performance of the fleece. If you do wish to use softener, set a low limit on how much you use. The most recommended temperatures for fleece can be anything from 30* - 60*. The higher of the figures can make fleece shrink a little.
You can put in a full load of fleece, but if you have particularly dirty blankets itâs better to put in less with each cycle so that each fleece washes and rinses more thoroughly.
A lot of non-fleece users ask whether the machine clogs up as a result of washing piggie blankets. The reality is, itâs unlikely. If you Vacuum-Shake-Brush-Beat before washing, there shouldnât be enough matter to build up and block the machine. If you are concerned about how washing piggie blankets will affect the machine, perform a Rinse & Spin Cycle once all the blankets have been removed. It helps to flush out the machine and clean it up a little ready for normal use again. Even without the extra Rinse & Spin, itâs unlikely there will be any piggie smells, hairs or hay affecting any later loads.
Hand washing is also possible, but be prepared for the weight of soaking fleece. Itâs hard work but, as with the general maintenance of fleece, you can get used to it when you start doing it regularly.
Line-drying and tumble-drying are both suitable options for drying your clean fleece. Line-drying does not make the blankets stiff, but it can make towels stiff. Drying the blankets naturally outdoors allows them to really be freshened up; for any warm smells to be blown away and replaced by a cleaner, fresher, cooler scent.
Tumble-drying fleece doesnât usually take more than 20 minutes; if you are drying towels it can take over 30 minutes. There can be a warm âpiggieâ smell âsealedâ in the blankets as the heat has dried them. This is fine and isnât so strong when the fleece has cooled down.
In some cases you may find that the fleece has shrunk, but it is rarely by more than a few centimetres. The cooler the wash and the cooler the drying, the less likely they are to shrink. Washing before the first use allows the material to shrink a little so you can fit it a little better, but also be sure to have some excess around the edges so that if it does shrink, it wonât affect how it fits the cage.
if you don't feel like reading the whole post, here's the short version:
Fleece does NOT, I repeat does NOT absorb any liquids....it WICKS away liquids, therefore needing an extra layer UNDER the layer of fleece to absorb liquids.
the following is from here:
http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/bed ... study.html
this was written for guinea pigs owners but it works/applies just as well for ratties.
Fleece is not a bedding commonly associated with guinea pigs, but once you learn the ins-and-outs of using the fabric you will understand why so many people are learning the benefits of this unusual option. First of all, you want to know the basics about fleece - what exactly it is, where you can buy it from, and how much it costs.
Before You Buy
The dictionary definition of fleece is stated as:
âFleece: n. Any fabric with a soft deep pile.â
This might be a pretty vague explanation to the average guinea pig carer who has never heard of using fleece as bedding, so you need to know what type of fleece is recommended. The fleece you want is not the type of material you would often associate with wool. You are looking for 100% polyester. While there are a few different types of fleece, polar or anti-pill are usually the ones to opt for. Polar is the most common fleece you will find, and anti-pill encourages the prevention of the fabric bunching up when washed, encouraging it to look newer for longer. Anti-pill is also a softer fleece, almost like velour in texture.
Sherpa fleece is thicker and has slightly different feels to the sides of the blanket, but is also suitable to try if you are unable to find polar or anti-pill.
You can purchase fleece for a good price from various places. You probably wonât find any fleece in pet stores as itâs not a common animal bedding, so aim to search through homeware and fabric stores.
Iâve Got My Fleece!
So, you have now arrived home with your new fleece. You want to throw out all your traditional bedding and fit the lovely new, soft fleece right away. Stop right there. Itâs simple getting started, but having a bit of patience and commitment to the project comes right at the beginning. Before you fit your fleece or begin cutting it to size, wash it. Washing your fleece a few times before you begin even think about snipping and sizing serves two purposes:
1) Encouraging the fleece to begin working with moisture;
2) Allowing it to shrink - which it does not do much of (even after 100+ washes) - before you fit everything to the millimetre.
Aim to do two 40 - 60 degree spin cycles with your regular detergent to achieve these objectives.
This is what Marsha, a knowledgeable and long-term fleece user who lives in the US, says:
âI ideally like to wash and dry the fleece three times before using, four is even better. You are trying to slightly break down the water barer that fleece tends to have when it is brand-new. Once washed and dried several times it will wick the moisture away, instead of repelling the moisture (leaving the urine to stay on top of the fleece).
While drying your fleece you do not want to use any fabric softener as that will put a barer back onto the fleece and not allow the moisture to penetrate through the fleece properly, keeping your fleece feeling wet after your piggy urinates.â
Marsha suggests you do the following, in the order shown, to get the most out of your fleece before you start using it:
*Wash and dry fleece at least three times;
*Wash on warm water / dry on a med-low setting;
*Do not add fabric softener of any kind in washer or dryer.
Working with Fleece
One of the first things people who have started using fleece ask is:
âDoes it absorb urine?â
The answer is no.
âWhy do you say fleece is so good then, if it doesnât absorb all the pee that pigs eliminate? Surely good absorption is a key consideration when it comes to all beddings!â
Fleece wicks liquid away from the surface to the underneath, meaning the surface remains dry and the urine is absorbed by the underbedding.
Quite a few people find fleece to be very poor at doing this job, but this tends to be only because they have got a number of factors wrong:
1) Skipping the first step of washing the fleece 2-4 times before the first use can be one cause of the fleece not wicking pee through;
2) You have too many - or not enough - layers of fleece;
3) You have no - or poor - underbedding which is not doing itâs job
4) You are using fabric softener in the wash, which can prevent fleece from wicking moisture through.
For the fleece to wick urine properly, you should ideally aim to have 1-2 layers of fleece and 1-2 layers of towel. You can use fleece without towel, but there are problems with choosing to go this way as is explained shortly.
The underbedding is a key factor in just how well your fleece is working. There are a number of beddings you can use under the fleece, each with their own pros and cons:
Newspaper
Pros: Easily available, cheap, quick to fit.
Cons: Doesnât absorb very much urine at all, smells very quickly, needs replacing at between fleece washes, non-reusable.
Puppy training pads
Pros: Easily available, quick to fit, good absorbency.
Cons: Expensive, needs replacing between fleece washes, plastic edges can be dangerous if ingested, non-reusable.
Towels
Pros: Easily available, cheap, can be cut to size, excellent absorbency, reusable.
Cons: Gets heavy when very wet, can smell a little after 3-4 days if lots of urine is absorbed.
Itâs recommended you use a combination of underbeddings to achieve top results. The most successful combination is towels with one - or both - of the others. The problem you may have if you donât use the towel is sticking. The most common âstickersâ are Newspaper to Fleece and sometimes Puppy Pads to Fleece. Notice how towel doesnât come into either of those instances. Towel absorbs so well that, unless it is left in the cage for more than a week, it does not get wet enough to stick to anything. Newspaper is a real sticky bedding and it can be very tough to get off fleece, yet with a setup of newspaper, towel then fleece these issues are eliminated - and you have the added bonus of the great absorbency thus reduced smell too.
Talking of smell, so many fleece enquirers are determined that the smell must be bad, but this is not true. If you use fleece correctly, with the underbeddings and the pre-washing, the risks of smell are low already. To keep it that way, you should aim to vacuum (or sweep) the poops out of the cage on a daily basis. Some users vacuum twice daily, but unless you have more than 3 or 4 pigs and the cage does not meet the minimum recommend sizes (http://www.guineapigcages.com) this may not be necessary.
If you can train your guinea pig to urinate in a litter tray, the fleece can last days longer. Just clean the litter tray out 1-2 times a day and fill with a good absorbent bedding (non-material is best in trays) and you shouldnât be able to smell any ammonia. Perform a full cage clean at least once weekly to ensure good hygiene and to ensure the fleece is nice and fresh.
What else is there to smell now that we have taken away the poops and (in some cases) removed the slight ammonia odour?
How soon stains and marks are visible on the fleece is different for every user. It depends on the colour and pattern of fleece, how often the fleece is washed, the number of pigs and the health of the animals. Just about all stains come out in the wash, including veggie and urine stains. Extreme white deposits (a result of too much calcium-rich foods in the diet) may not wash out, as the calcium may be too set to get rid of. These will cause no problems though individuals may consider them unsightly. (You just need to alter that pigsâ diet PDQ!)
Small marks, for example from crushed poop (sorry!) or veggie dribble, can be visible after a day or two, but these donât matter to the pigs - again, it the carers tastes which determine how these are handled! Often these marks will fade as the days pass by, and when it comes to washing the fleece you may not see those marks there at all.
Cleaning Fleece & Related Matters
Preparing the fleece for the wash is sometimes the most laborious part of using fleece, and is often where may fleece-testers back out. Fleece is a high maintenance bedding so does take some getting used to, and the highest maintenance part is getting it ready to be washed.
The easiest way is to use a washing machine.
You can use your regular detergent (unless it is very strongly scented), but softener isnât advised as it can reduce the performance of the fleece. If you do wish to use softener, set a low limit on how much you use. The most recommended temperatures for fleece can be anything from 30* - 60*. The higher of the figures can make fleece shrink a little.
You can put in a full load of fleece, but if you have particularly dirty blankets itâs better to put in less with each cycle so that each fleece washes and rinses more thoroughly.
A lot of non-fleece users ask whether the machine clogs up as a result of washing piggie blankets. The reality is, itâs unlikely. If you Vacuum-Shake-Brush-Beat before washing, there shouldnât be enough matter to build up and block the machine. If you are concerned about how washing piggie blankets will affect the machine, perform a Rinse & Spin Cycle once all the blankets have been removed. It helps to flush out the machine and clean it up a little ready for normal use again. Even without the extra Rinse & Spin, itâs unlikely there will be any piggie smells, hairs or hay affecting any later loads.
Hand washing is also possible, but be prepared for the weight of soaking fleece. Itâs hard work but, as with the general maintenance of fleece, you can get used to it when you start doing it regularly.
Line-drying and tumble-drying are both suitable options for drying your clean fleece. Line-drying does not make the blankets stiff, but it can make towels stiff. Drying the blankets naturally outdoors allows them to really be freshened up; for any warm smells to be blown away and replaced by a cleaner, fresher, cooler scent.
Tumble-drying fleece doesnât usually take more than 20 minutes; if you are drying towels it can take over 30 minutes. There can be a warm âpiggieâ smell âsealedâ in the blankets as the heat has dried them. This is fine and isnât so strong when the fleece has cooled down.
In some cases you may find that the fleece has shrunk, but it is rarely by more than a few centimetres. The cooler the wash and the cooler the drying, the less likely they are to shrink. Washing before the first use allows the material to shrink a little so you can fit it a little better, but also be sure to have some excess around the edges so that if it does shrink, it wonât affect how it fits the cage.
