# Zilla Liners



## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

OK,
I got my Zilla Liners. I cut them to size and got them sewn together. Pretty easy stuff. I just used binding, like you would for a quilt, and attached them together. The one for the shelf was correct size. The liners aren't cut "perfectly even" when they arrive. So, you'd want to use the first two sections you cut to be sewn together for the bottom of the cage. The last section will be the right size for the shelf..... It just won't be perfectly straight. I couldn't figure out the best way to keep them in place, so I just laid them in there and hoped they stayed where they needed to....... So far, they have. 

The rats haven't chewed them yet or even tried to chew them. I put in the shelf liners last night and the floor liners this morning. They look great. Now it's just a matter of, "if they keep smell down"..... I'm hoping they will, but it will take a little bit to know for sure. 

Here's a couple of pictures of how they look.


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## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

Looks good! 

I'll be picking up Zilla liners on Tuesday. Just for the bottom pan of my Martins Cage...

How soft are these liners? & what size did you get? Is that a CN cage?

Please update us... 
& once I get mine I'll update here too.


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## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

I got the 125 gallon size. It's roughly 18" X 72". The size isn't exact, but it's pretty close. It's not exactly "soft"... It's got a felt like feel, but it's stiffer than felt. I'm using them in my DCN cage. 

So far, it cleans up well with no smell. I'll have to see how it does over time. The rats still aren't chewing it. So, it might hold up longer than fleece. I still keep a fleece blanket or 3 in with them to hide under. My rats always liked to hide under the fleece liners and they attempted to hide under the zilla liners. After I put extra fleece blankets in with them, they stopped trying to get under the zilla liners.


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

I bought the zilla liners today. Lucky for me the small pet shop nearby actually had them! For now I bought enough just to cover my shelving and their litter area. I'm going to leave a bit of fleece on the bottom in the meantime.

Is it still staying with nothing? I had been using velcro for a bit under my fleece liners but my girls tore into that quickly, so went back to clips. I wonder if the velcro under the zilla would be enough to just sort of keep it in place?


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## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

I kind of wanted to look into these for my critter nation, but only for the bottom pan, because I wanted to put a pee-absorber underneath the fleece, and when I use potty pads on the bottom level they dig under the fleece and make a bunch of noise ripping up the potty pad. (really sorry if this is a repeat question, but I haven't wrapped my mind around how these things work yet as far as the cutting to size): Did you have to buy two of the 125 gallon ones to fit the bottom tray, or did the 125 gal fit it all?
Nervous about looking into them, since my girls are big chewers with everything...would be quite a bit of money for me to spend on something if they were just going to rip it apart. It's awesome that your ratties haven't chewed them so far though; maybe it's the texture that deters them or something.


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## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

I'm still not sure how these will work. They could, over time, retain urine smells. I've only made 1 set for the top and bottom. 

As far as cutting them. I just cut each zilla liner into 3 equal pieces. Each is about 18" X 24". Then I sewed together 2 of them to make one 24" X 36" for the bottom and the remaining piece was the correct size for the shelf. I used a rotary cutter and an Easy Rule.... that's a ruler for quilting. I'm sure a pair of scissors would work just as well.

Mine still haven't chewed it at all yet. I'm going to wait to make the other set for my cage. I'm going to give it a month to see if it smells or if they start to chew it. 

If it doesn't work out. I'll just cut the unused ones for my daughter's hedgehog. The only reason I got them was because I had a back up use if it didn't work out for the rats. If I didn't I would have waited to see if anyone else liked them.


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## mcdougal7 (Mar 3, 2013)

How do you clean these? 
I have a cage with no shelves or anything that I am going to try to make work with all fleece stuff. I'm going to make sewn shelves and ramps along with hammocks and pouches, etc. Has anyone tried anything like this with any luck? I thought if I made 2 or 3 (or 4 or 5) of everything I could change it, wipe down the cage and then toss everything in the washer. Of course if they're chewed faster than I can sew, I'll have to think of something else. Think this might work? If these liners are good I may get some for the bottom. Is there any difference in the green and the brown other than color?


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## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

OK,
I guess I have an update. 

I clean them with water. I just rinse them off and hang them to dry. So, pretty easy to clean and "so far" no smell. The rats still aren't chewing them. Well, they did "start" to chew in on area. It's an area about the size of a pea that they chewed. 

Now, I have a bit of information of what could possibly be "bad" about the liners. 

My rats are scratching. Not the usual scratching either. They're scratching like something is bothering them. Since the only thing that's "new" is the liners. It "could" be that the material the liners is made from is irritating their skin and making them scratch. There's no redness and they haven't been scratching to the point they cut themselves, but they are scratching quite a bit. So, the liners may not be a good idea for rats. I removed to liners to see if they stop scratching. If they continue to scratch, I'll check for other possibilities. 

BTW if the liners are irritating their skin, that could also explain why they're not chewing them. My rats will destroy fleece and a couple of weeks. So, I was glad they didn't chew the liners, but....... If there's a problem with the liners.. it defeats the purpose of using them.

I'll update later as I have more info. 

So, has anyone else tried the Zilla liners and noticed any problems??


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

Could they be allergic to polyester? The zilla liners say that they are made out of 100% recycled polyester. Could they be allergic to the dyes used?


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## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

I'm not sure yet. It could be that they're not scratching anymore than normal. Maybe I'm just watching them more closely. That's why I removed the liners to see if that's the problem. I'm probably checking them about 50 times a day. I'm always looking to see if they're chewing the liners. I'm looking to see if they move them around or just crawled under them. Lately I'm also just watching them play. I also watch to see how absorbent the liners. I know with fleece the urine can stay on top of the fleece for quiet a while before it soaks in... At least, it does with the fleece liners I made. LOL. It just seems like I'm constantly looking at them to see how the new liners are working out. There's no sign of an allergic reaction, so not sure if that's the problem. 

How many times a day does a rat normally scratch themselves??? I see them do it about 15 times a day since I put the liners in. Before I'd only see them do it 4 or 5 times a day.

I know with people..... some just don't like wool. For instance some people find a wool blanket itchy and other don't. So, it could be something like that with the Zilla liners. I did check the package and the liners are made basically for "reptiles". Reptiles have a much different type of skin. They wouldn't be subject to feeling "itchy". At least, not from liners in the cage. My daughter's hedgehog isn't having any problem with the liners that I've noticed. Of course, I don't check on her throughout the day. She mostly get her attention in the evening. 

Anyway.....

Normally, before I put the new liners in, I'd check them about 4 times a day and talk to them or give treats. I also have the free roam play time. I'll always see them scratch from time to time. So, I still have to check the liners out more to see if there's a problem.


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

I put mine in a couple of nights ago and although they seem unsure, my girls have been great with it. The lack of smell has been nice and I haven't noticed any extra scratching, but I'll definitely keep an eye out now that you mentioned it. It might just be that I haven't had them in long enough to notice anything.

Though one thing I did notice is that my oldest, who has always had chronic sneezing and URI issues, is sneezing about a thousand times less. I don't know if it's the liners that made a difference or something else, but since that's the only big change recently i'm thinking so. It's been nice not to hear the crazy sneezing 

Also the velcro did awesome at keeping the liners down; just the rough side of the velcro on my levels and it holds it enough that my girlies can't even try to get under it. (Though they do still have plenty of warm places to hide and nap.)


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## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

I recently bought liners like this, although I couldn't find the Zilla brand. I found another one, which is pretty much the same. I believe the brand i called Zoo Med. So far, I really do like it. The cage is a lot neater, & the liners stay very flat to the floor, & my rats have no urges to chew on it. I haven't had it in long enough to give a proper review. I'll do so in a couple days on my cage cleaning day. I'll post pictures then too. 

I'll keep an eye out for any excessive itchiness, or anything of the sort.


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## Maltey (Jun 26, 2011)

Fleece is polyester too though. It might just be a coincidence but lie you say see how they go without the liners in.


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

Just finished my first week of them, changing them out now

The smell was cut WAY low, and I didn't notice any extra itching. They didn't chew it and everything stayed in place. Hooray! I left fleece in the bottom and only covered the shelving with the liners, but it still cut the smell way low. I'm totally into this stuff! I'm about to clean off the old ones and set them up to dry, and I'll give it another good week of use before I confirm how they're doing entirely, but I'm digging them so far.


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## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

I've put the liners back in with my rats. I had thought they were scratching more than normal, but they weren't. They have a day here and there where they scratch more. Most times they don't scratch much at all. They've never scratched to the point where they leave marks/cut themselves. 

I like the liners, but I change them daily. It's a bit more work, but they don't smell. 

I just have to find a good place to hang them while they dry. I really like the idea of using the velcro too. I use that for the floor liners. For the shelves I just lay them in there and they don't bother them. Without the velcro they crawl under the floor liners. 

I keep making new hammocks and other accessories to keep them happy and exploring. My rats love new things. So far, they don't pee or poo in their cubes or hammocks. They're not chewing them either. It was only fleece liners that they'd chew up. I give them colorful blankets and they like to carry those around. So, I make a variety of sizes on the blankets. 

With all the stuff I make them..... They still love the empty toilet paper rolls the best. They'll carry them around and take them into their houses. I can only guess as to why they do that. Maybe they are playing hide and seek or something. LOL.


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## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

Here are the Zoo Med liners at the bottom of my cage. I didn't want to buy enough to fill the whole cage just yet, because I want to test them out before I go out & buy more. So far so good! I quite like them.


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

How is everyone liking these so far? Any of them been destroyed by rats yet?


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

Mine are still rocking along  Smell has been cut down significantly, and they haven't been destroyed yet. I'm loving them way more than my fleece. (Though I am still lining the bottom of the cage with the fleece rather than the liners. Mostly for the sake of my daredevil who insists on falling everywhere.)

All in all I really am enjoying them.


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

With how much my rats chew Im afraid to get these. They murder their fleece. I can only use the bottom liner once and then it gets thrown into the scrap bin because they make massive holes in it. Were your rats chewers before this? 

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## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

zurfaces said:


> With how much my rats chew Im afraid to get these. They murder their fleece. I can only use the bottom liner once and then it gets thrown into the scrap bin because they make massive holes in it. Were your rats chewers before this?
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I only have the zilla liners on the shelves now. I don't have any liners on the floor trays. Instead, I have "blankets" on the floors. They act as "area rugs". Sometimes my rats will carry them to the shelves or into their houses. They never chew them now.

In the beginning, my rats chewed fleece like crazy. I was having to replace the liners a couple of times a month. Since the fleece blankets aren't attached to anything. They just carry them to where they want. Most times they leave them where they are, since they already have plenty of blankets. For the floor blankets, I just use a few pieces of fleece for each floor. I replace them daily and wash them all at the end of the week. I have floor blankets that range from 6x8 inches to 10x16 inches. 

They've never chewed the zilla liners... yet. I'm sure it's coming someday. It just hasn't happened yet. 

My rats don't chew much of anything these days, except for toys that are meant to be chewed.


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## Hamsterific (Jan 14, 2013)

Glad to hear that you guys are having good experiences with them. My rats will be getting the Petco Rat Manor soon and I'll be trying the liners out with that. I'm reeeally hoping it will cut down on the smell


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

Kaliloca said:


> I only have the zilla liners on the shelves now. I don't have any liners on the floor trays. Instead, I have "blankets" on the floors. They act as "area rugs". Sometimes my rats will carry them to the shelves or into their houses. They never chew them now.
> 
> In the beginning, my rats chewed fleece like crazy. I was having to replace the liners a couple of times a month. Since the fleece blankets aren't attached to anything. They just carry them to where they want. Most times they leave them where they are, since they already have plenty of blankets. For the floor blankets, I just use a few pieces of fleece for each floor. I replace them daily and wash them all at the end of the week. I have floor blankets that range from 6x8 inches to 10x16 inches.
> 
> ...


I think maybe part of their problem is the clips... they seem to chew around the binder clips but sometimes they chew huge chunks out of each corner. I'm going to start repairing the ones I have that have holes in them because I probably have 20 liners for the bottom of my cage. I don't know what their problem is. I have two girls on top who don't chew except for what they're allowed to chew and then the bottom two girls murder their fleece. Well I lied it's just the one who murders it. I don't want to just lay blankets down because the bottom of the cage is metal bars and the pan that goes underneath the bars to catch any droppings is currently in the top half of the cage so the top girls don't get their toes chewed off. So if I don't secure the fleece I'll have doodie and lab block and dried fruit all over my floor. >.<


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## PrissyKrissy (Apr 27, 2013)

I just cleaned my cage and i'm about to go to petsmart to get these zilla liners. hope it works out! and i'm gonna start litter training and i'm going to find a pee rock. i hope they don't hate me for this. they seem so upset when i clean their cage, and now i'm also taking their bedding from them. wish me luck lol


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