How To Make Guinea Pig Fleece Bedding

I made waterproof fleece cage liners for our republic of guinea pigs at the cease of 2016, and afterward two years, those original cage liners have sadly reached the stop of their lifespan - and so it's fourth dimension to make some more than. (Unfortunately, the waterproof bankroll degrades over fourth dimension - especially in the areas that go more frequently used as a toilet.) I was really pleased with how they turned out - both functionally and aesthetically, so when it came fourth dimension to make more I idea I'd write a tutorial.

If yous are unfamiliar with the concept of using waterproof fleece liners in a republic of guinea pigs' cage, I would compare information technology to using washable nappies instead of disposable ones, only significantly easier! Like washable nappies, there is a polyester fleece surface that wicks the urine away from the republic of guinea pigs' feet, an inner cotton wool toweling core that absorbs the wetness, and a waterproof backing that prevents the urine from transferring onto the bottom of the cage.

I love the look of waterproof fleece liners and I experience they fit in so much meliorate in a living room setting than traditional alternatives. Admittedly, they are probably more work than sawdust, Fitch, Megazorb, Carefresh or other disposable absorptive substrates, but fleecehas to be softer and more than comfortable for them to sleep on. If you expect effectually, you can find fleece to fit in with the colour scheme of your living room and, over the class of a couple of years, information technology saves quite a bit of money too. (Mine would take actually lasted longer if they hadn't been asymmetrical, as I would have been able to rotate them.)

Materials needed to make waterproof fleece guinea sus scrofa cage liners.

These supplies should be enough to make two full-sized liners for my 90cm x 130cm muzzle. I'1000 also hoping that I'll be able to salvage parts of my original muzzle liners to make a few house liners that tin can exist brushed down and removed betwixt full make clean outs.

How to make Waterproof Republic of guinea Hog Bedding

The nigh important step, before you start cutting out your fabrics is to launder everything, at to the lowest degree three times. Wash and dry them at as high a temperature as the fabrics will stand without damaging them. You lot need to do this for two reasons - to remove any oils that might have been added during manufacture, which volition reduce the absorbency of your fleece, but also to encourage your fabrics to compress. If they are going to shrink, information technology is much meliorate that they shrink at present rather than when you've made your cage liners.

Once all of your fabrics are dry, yous demand to trim abroad any edgings that will forbid your materials from laying apartment - making it hard to cutting them out.

Cut off the elasticated brim from effectually the waterproof, cotton toweling mattress protector.

Cutting off the edging from around the towel.

Cutting off the edging from around the fleece blanket.

When I made my muzzle, I also made a template of the base out of Proplex for hereafter utilise. I laid this template on top of the towels and marked 5cm all the way effectually it. This gave me a 2cm seam allowance, plus a piffling extra to allow for possible shrinkage. Making information technology a little larger, also makes information technology a lot easier to fit on make clean out days.

In one case I'd marked on my blueprint, I pinned the two towel pieces together and then cut them out.

I laid i of the towel pieces on top of my waterproof mattress protector and fleece, correct side upwardly. The mattress protector was cut out toweling side upward (shiny side downward) and the fleece was cut out correct side up. My muzzle is asymmetrical and so the arrangement of fabrics is very important. If your cage is a rectangle, then you don't demand to worry almost which way your fabrics are facing when yous cut them out.

Once your 3 fabric pieces are cut out, you need to pivot them together, every bit in the photo to a higher place, with the towel on the lesser, followed by the waterproof mattress protector, facing shiny side upwards and the fleece with the correct side facing down.

With a 2cm seam assart, sew all the style effectually your 3 fabrics, leaving a xxx to the 40cm gap for turning it the right style round. I made certain that the opening was placed on a function of the liners that wouldn't exist seen ie. nether the houses and hay/litter tray.

Cut the corners off at 45 degrees.

Plough the cage liner the right style circular, making certain that the toweling is sandwiched between the fleece top and the waterproof base.

Pivot and and so sew the opening airtight a few mm from the border. At that place you have one finished waterproof guinea hog cage liner!

Making a Large Heavy duty Microfibre House Mat

I love our guinea pigs, merely they do require quite a bit of regular cleaning. Over the last couple of years, I've strived to detect ways of reducing that maintenance equally much as possible, while still giving them a aseptic and clean living environs. 1 of the master methods I use to keep them clean between weekly full clean outs is to put separate waterproof mats at the bases of their main sleeping and resting areas. That way they can be brushed downward, or replaced if necessary, with clean ones without having to empty the whole cage.

Our republic of guinea pigs take a litter and hay tray, which they generally employ as a toilet, but they too like to use the lower house, right next to the litter tray as a toilet, so this firm needs a much heavier duty base.

These microfibre bath mats from Wilkos are ideal as they are very thick and comfortable for the guinea pigs to lie on, and if you cut them in half and trim off the edging, they are wide enough to fit under a good sized republic of guinea pig house, leaving a cozy expanse that extends in front of the business firm for them to sleep on.

Making the house mats is pretty much the same as the bedding, but on a smaller scale. The main difference is that the bathmats are much thicker, and so they tin can be quite difficult to sew through. You definitely need a heavy duty sewing machine needle for this. I used a 120/xx needle for the house mats, merely in that location's no impairment in using this same needle throughout this whole projection.

It'southward at this betoken that I realised that I didn't have plenty of the new waterproof mattress protector and toweling left to make the house mats, simply I was able cut sections of towel and mattress protector from my original bedding from the big areas that hadn't degraded. I was glad to be able to reuse part of the sometime bedding, rather than throw the whole lot away.

Sew together all the manner around the house mat, leaving an opening to plough it the right way circular.

Prune the corners shut to the stitches at 45 degrees.

Turn it the correct style around and pivot it closed. I plant that I had to manus stitch the opening closed this fourth dimension as my sewing auto simply couldn't cope with that amount of fabric.

Making smaller business firm mat liners.

I use two of these Ferplast pet houses with ane side removed (to give them easier access to the hay corner) in my guinea squealer muzzle. They are actually sold equally rabbit houses, but I'm sure they are much besides small for fifty-fifty a dwarf rabbit. They do however fit two adult guinea pigs quite comfortably.

Hither's the template I use to make my house mats. I haven't made a photo tutorial for the house mats as the process is exactly the aforementioned as for the previous two but on a smaller scale. These smaller house mats are perfect for resting areas that don't get used quite so heavily as a toilet. I have three of these in my guinea squealer muzzle, one in the upper firm and two in the minor hidey areas to the side of the tiered houses.

These can be easily brushed downwards every mean solar day and inverse if they get wet. I rarely find that they go saturated though every bit our republic of guinea pigs don't often like to wee where they sleep...

Hither is a complete fix of waterproof republic of guinea pig fleece bedding that I use every week in my guinea pig cage. I made two sets - one to utilise and i to wash.

Do you lot save money using washable guinea pig bedding?

I was intrigued to work out if I really do save money in using washable fleece bedding as opposed to dispensable substrate so I decided to do the maths. Here is a breakdown of everything information technology costs me to maintain a clean guinea sus scrofa cage, assuming that the bedding will last me 2 years ...

one large Primark throw - £11
1 Wilko's bath mat - £half dozen
three x Haren bath sheets - £15
ii x Gokart mattress protectors - £28
2 years' worth of Fitch to fill a 53cm 10 34cm litter tray - £82
Very approximate guestimate of the cost of washing fleece bedding over 2 years - £45

Therefore using and washing guinea pig bedding and Fitch over 2 years costs me £187, which equates to £93.50 a yr. (This doesn't include the savings I made by repurposing sections of my one-time bedding to make pocket-sized house mats.)

At the moment, I use Fitch, which is a paper-based bedding, simply in the hay/litter tray. If I decided to use a disposable substrate instead of washable bedding, I would keep to use Fitch every bit it is absorbant and very low odour. My current litter tray is 0.18m², just my full muzzle is 0.9m². At the moment I apply 20kg of paper-based bedding a year, which costs me £41. If I were to make full my 0.9m²muzzle with Fitch it would cost me £205 a twelvemonth.

And so that'due south an almanac saving of £111.50, plus the savings I fabricated past repurposing usable parts of my cage liners the 2d fourth dimension around. I'm pretty pleased with that!

If you lot enjoyed this postal service, you may enjoy my other guinea pig craft posts -

This blog postal service contains Amazon affiliate links to like products that I purchased myself to make the guinea pig bedding. If you lot click through and purchase annihilation, I may receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.