Despite what the above photo would have you believe, they spend their days on a bed of fleece -- it wicks moisture right through to an absorbent layer beneath, which heretofore has been a towel, but as of today they sleep and play on a mama-made Guinea Pig Mattress. Cuddly fleece on top, absorbent diaper soaker fabric inside and waterproof barrier on the bottom. Nothing but the best for my boys!
I had seen instructions for making this sort of thing in other places online, but none of them seemed to fit my style -- either too much sewing was involved or the directions were too complicated or something -- so I set out to make a fleece mattress that was simpler in design and even simpler to construct. The result pleased me so much that I made another one and wrote a tutorial for it, and here it is for you to use:
Guinea Pig Fleece Mattress Tutorial (PDF)
I invite you to try it out, let me know what worked and what didn't work and what needs improvement, what changes you made and how your piggies liked it. I hope you're as happy with your results as I was with mine!
(For those of you who are not cavy-crazy, if you'd care to read the tutorial and offer constructive criticism, I'd be grateful for that, too.)
Your piggies look very pleased and satisfied with their new mattress. I wish I had done this when I had pigs at school -- much tidier and easier to clean.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the detailed instructions. I am using cloth diapers as my aborbent layer. I seem to be cleaning my cage every 3-4 days. Maybe if I use Zorb it will be better for my nose.
ReplyDeleteDo you think you might be able to make a couple for a 3x6 and chip to Canada if I payed? I LOVE the matress and it would make life so much easyer, but have CP and am useless in the sewing department. :)
ReplyDeleteI would certainly consider it -- why don't you email me and we'll talk about it?
ReplyDeleteI am doing something wrong. Can't get the PDF to open. Got my fleece today, it's washing and was going to come up with my own patterns, but would rather follow a tutorial of someone who's been there done that. Where did you get your Zorb? Did you have to do anything to prepare it before sewing?
ReplyDeleteHm. I can't seem to get it to work either. Let me fiddle around a bit and get back to you.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Zorb, I got it at http://www.wazoodle.com/cgi-bin/catstore.cgi?user_action=list&category=Fabrics;Zorb. Sometimes they are out of it and you have to wait a week or so for them to get it back in stock, and I find that it takes them a while to get it to me after I place my order, so be patient and do follow up with them if you think it's taking too long for your order to arrive!
Addressing the PDF problem -- I will post this in my main blog, but -- according to my husband, who is a software engineer at Google, this seems to be a glitch in the latest version of the Adobe software. What you can do is click on the PDF link, let it load, and then *resize* your browser window a little bit -- this should allow the PDF to appear. Don't ask me why, but it works. Needless to say, I will be contacting Adobe!
ReplyDeleteI am also having issues with this. I make cuddle cups (and sell them) I've had lots of people begging for cage liners so I am looking into it. If your PDF works later on for me I might use the idea with a few others I found to make a line but for right now I would just like to make my pigs a liner or two.
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