Cages, Bedding and all things nice.

I've been taking advantage of the wonderful post-Christmas/half-yearly-clearance/summer-sale bargains. Mainly of course for the pigs.

I've been reviewing the bedding situation and although the compressed newspaper pellets are like the absolute perfect bedding, the price tag means that it's not economically viable to use it in all the cages. Now, I know there's a lot of controversy about fleece but I have to come down on the side of the 'fluffies'. I love fleece. I love that it's so cheap, that it last forever that it looks neat and clean. However I'm also the daughter of a textile artist. I quite literally learned to sew before I could walk and own three sewing machines and an overlocker. So sewing bedding just comes naturally for me.

I took advantage of Lincraft's 30% off sale and bought 3.5m of hot pink homespun ($17.12) and 3.35m of Fuchsia polar fleece ($23.42). I also saved a fortune on new curtains for my bedroom but that's another story.

Anyway up until now I've always made fleece cage liners with cotton wadding. Which to be honest worked amazingly. However cotton wadding ordinarily costs a fortune but my Mother and I bought a bulk amount of 100m a while ago. That's unfortunately almost gone now so I'm looking at alternatives.

Americans are inordinately fond of using mattress pads (what we call mattress protectors) in cavy bedding. So I figured I'd give it a try. I bought a king size dry touch waterproof mattress protector. It has an 80% cotton 20% polyester toweling center with a waterproof PU backing ($39.99). The king size is just large enough to make two changes of bedding for the wire cage and the pet store cages. Once I've finished washing the fleece to death I'll be able to sew the pads with fleece on top, mattress protector in the middle and a cotton base. Hopefully this will work and be lighter and dryer then the cotton.

In other news I've been shopping at Bunnings. I finally bought the enamel for the banks. I gave in and bought a soft pink called 'soft satin'. I thought it was the perfect calming colour for a maternity cage and should help keep boars calm. Yeah right, the only thought behind the colour choice was 'oooooh pretty!'.

I also bought a set of magnetic catches to test out which are perfect. So I'll head back again soon and buy three more sets as well as four handles. Since the doors are hinge din the center I'll use a magnetic catch on either half so I can open just one half to throw food in.

Oh and I've been working on designs for a travel cage/show box/carry cage, so more on this and pricing later.