Cage Fleece Experiment

I've been composting the guinea pig shavings for several months.  Not that I have a garden, but I figure better to let it rot in the back yard in the chance of using it rather than throwing it out.  It just seemed wrong to bag it in plastic to go in a landfill.  But I'm getting tired of throwing out a lot of clean, dry shavings, just because I happened to clean out the whole cage.  Too much waste!

I have never wanted to go over to a fleece-only cage:  too much laundry, day-to-day sweeping and more frequent cage cleanings.   The upper levels of the cage are fleeced and they stay fairly dry and clean.   They can last two to four weeks before the fleece needs to be switched out.

I noticed that there were portions in both of the cages that tended to stay clean and dry... so I decided to experiment with a partial fleece area on the ground floor of the cages.  I cut a length of 1/2" pvc pipe to help hold down the fleece against the shavings edge.  This was to both keep the girls from burrowing under it and to help keep the shavings on the shavings side of things.  I made some modifications this week when I cleaned the cage, but overall its been working pretty well. 

I thought the pink and brown would do nicely to hide shavings and poo.  However, I wasn't really thinking of the upper levels' fleece colors when I bought it.  I'm rather amused by how it clashes.  Luckily, its really noticeable only if you're standing directly over the cage.