Carefresh

[MurE]

Originally Posted by Konakuer

I'm using fleece now but I find it a little bit annoying to wash it everyday, because my hedgehog poops everywhere

You don't have to wash it every day. I only wash mine once per week or less because I have a set of maybe 5-6 liners. I let them accumulate until I have a full load and then wash them all together.

I was at the local Value Village yesterday and noticed that there's a lot of fleece available there. The best designs/quality/colours are in the baby blankets section, but you can find actual sheets of fleece in the fabric section. In the blankets section you can find some pretty hideous fleece blankets, but they are technically very good value for the amount of fleece available. Oh, and apparently people don't always love their fleece snuggies. You could cut those up!

At the fabric store, check their clearance and remnants sections. You can often find fleece there for really cheap.

I personally love using fleece for Poggles because of how clean I can keep his cage. He must love fleece too. He's buried himself in my pile of clothes on the bed right now and coincidentally is snuggled into one of my old fleece pyjamas...

[tali_luvs_hedgies]

I just use it in Prims litter pan. She likes to anoint with it when its a clean pile.

[SquiggyTheHedgie]

My rescue girl Thalia came to me on Carefresh, and I immediately threw it out the day I brought her home (literally, threw all the Carefresh in her cage into the dumpster on the way inside my apartment) and switched her to fleece. She had a nasty URI from all the dust, and her skin was ridiculously dry to where you could see it flaking and brittle. After a few days on her liner and meds, URI was gone.

[DesertHedgehogs]

If you want to stick with a loose bedding we use Kaytee with our nesting females. It's much less expensive than carefresh, it's fluffier and less dusty, still some dust, but less. We started with carefresh and then one day wondered why we hadn't tried this kaytee stuff. It does get everywhere! It's still a paper bedding and so very absorbent and can dry out the poops. It is white, so blood is easy to spot or off colored urine. It comes in a scented version and a non scented. Stick with the non scented, it's better for them.

[Kelcey]

Information overload on these forums. I've been using carefresh as litter. I thought I read that it was recommended for litter or bedding. (I use fleece liners).Shamus has terrible dry skin and doesn't use the litter pan anyway. That stuff is coming out of his cage ASAP. He has terrible dry skin.

[Seamus]

Originally Posted by Virtual_Rachel

Where do you get these liners from? With fleece, do you just buy it from a fabric shop?

I currently use soft wood chips or care fresh. I haven't had any problems with it getting in her food bowl, which is up a level and she's pretty tidy in this regard, but the talk of mites concerns me a bit...

I'm in the UK.

Hi Rachel - We live in London, bought 3 blankets from Wilkos at £3.75 each, its enough for ample cage and litter tray liners. We had some left to build him a loft conversion and a dig box. There's something of a dearth of fleece in our local fabric shops so that was the best bet.

[sonichedghehogbreyer]

I used carefresh on my hedgehog. It did not seem to affect him, for he lived 4 1/2 years which is the long end of a hedgehog's lifespan. So, why use blankets?

[Stellara]

Originally Posted by sonichedghehogbreyer

I used carefresh on my hedgehog. It did not seem to affect him, for he lived 4 1/2 years which is the long end of a hedgehog's lifespan. So, why use blankets?

Unfortunately just because one hedgehog lived a life unaffected by something does not mean that other hedgies will. I think it is always best to look at the facts and how other hedgehogs over the years have done with certain things.
On this forum we are lucky to have some very hedgehog knowledgeable people who have owned hedgehogs for decades and have seen many, many hedgehogs. I personally trust their opinions, in addition to doing my own research on cases of illness/injury caused by whatever it may be in question (here, care fresh bedding).
Even though in the long ago past I used carefresh and didn't personally have a problem, I now know that there is potential for one of my hedgehogs to have a problem and so use what I know to be the safest bedding- fleece liners.

[ShelbyRay]

A good loose bedding is kaytee clean & cozy small animal bedding. It's never given me any allergy problems, when everything else seems to nowadays. I'm allergic to quite a few fabrics, and fleece is one of them, so I steer away from them. Even picking them up to wash them would make me break out. So I asked my vet which bedding would be the best, carefresh or kaytee, and he said carefresh has dust in it, and gives them URIs, but he's never had a patient have any problems with kaytee, and he always switches them from carefresh to kaytee. He does say that if you use carefresh because you can buy it in bulk, as long as you clean it at least once a week or even more, you shouldn't have a problem with dust or urine buildup leading to URIs.

[Hedgieguru]

I used to use care fresh when I first got my hedgehog but soon realized that it was horrible because it got stuck in his quills and in his food dishes and water bowl. So after two cage cleanings I switched to fleece liners and it was A LOT better if you spill your water in the cage it dosent get all soggy and you have to clean the whole cage.