# Critter Nation bedding / fleece ?



## Mr.Ratatouille (Dec 31, 2016)

Hi everyone ! 

I just bought a new double critter nation. I used to have one of those very deep pan cages, so I was just putting a thick layer of bedding at the bottom, but now, it seems kinda impossible seeing how thin are the pans.

I saw that like, 99% of critter nation owners are using fleece, but I'm wondering how they do that.

First of all, what's the absorbent layer you put under ? I heard about the U-Haul thing, and I'll see if it's available where I live, but if not, what are some alternatives ?

After that, I was wondering if it requires sewing ? I don't have a sewing machine, but my mom has a friend that does, so maybe I could ask her if it's really worth it.

From what I saw, you either sew a cover that fits the pan OR put a fleece layer and fix it with binder clips. Are the two ways efficient ?

Washing it in the machine seems convenient for the pee, but what about the poo if my rats are not litter trained ?

Also, how much fleece do you think is required to cover every pan + shelf ? (Also, where do you get it ? There is a sewing store here with a lot of choice for fleece, but you decide of the lenght and stuff, so I was wondering if there wasn't a place where you could just buy a big basket of mixed fleece patterns)

Thank you !


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## nriii (Jun 28, 2017)

If you want to use paper/pellet bedding, you can buy guards for Critter Nation pans or use a cement tub like Shadow does if you don't want to use fleece. I use U-Haul pads (about $8 iirc and you can buy them online, and one $8 pad makes two full sets for my DCN), but I've seen people use old towels and flannel, too (I make the investment of a U-Haul pad because they don't fray when chewed).

These absolutely require sewing, though, and if you don't have a machine it might not be worth it to you to use this method. I change my liners weekly and have three sets to rotate out, and they need repairing every few times I use them at least. You can definitely do that by hand, but the extra effort wouldn't be worth it imo, especially since you need to sew crossings on them to keep your ratties from chewing through to burrow between liner layers. There's a lot of information on how to make them for a DCN here: http://ratropolis.blogspot.com/2013/10/liner-instructions-for-critter-nations.html

I don't bother with binder clips because my girls liner dive like crazy and just chew through to get under if I do, but if you have boys or older girls or any rats that don't liner dive, binder clipping works fine! I wipe my levels down daily though.

I also want to point out that fleece liners work best for litter box trained rats -- if your rats poop everywhere, keeping fleece clean will be horrifically hard compared to just scooping litter. Any degree of wet poop will stick to them like crazy. I always shake my liners out outside before I wash them, but that's still occasionally an issue for me, even with rats as well trained as my girls are.


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

I have about zero sewing skills and I use fleece liners for my rats. I went to the fabric store with not much of an idea how much I would need, I hadn't bought fabric by myself before. I got like 6 yards which ended up being more than I needed, which is good because I had extra to replace the old liners with later on or just to make some easy DIY hammocks. All I did was I put the pans down on top of the fabric and cut in so that there was 3 inches of extra fabric around the pans, then pinned the corners with some sturdy safety pins. My rats don't really chew a whole lot but eventually they will chew it enough that it needs replacing, usually takes a few months. There are some liners you can buy on etsy that are already pre-made with absorbant layers, but if you have chewers I would not recommend it since those pre-made liners can be very expensive. If you have big chewers I'd recommend either buying deep replacement pans and just using bedding, or trying some other liners. Zilla liners work wonderfully (aka terrarium/reptile carpet) and often aren't chewed by many fleece-chewers, and are also absorbant and easy to clean. Some people have also used linoleum or slate/marble slabs to line the floor of the cage.


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Like nriii said, I use a large plastic cement pan that I bought from my local Home Depot. This pan fits perfectly in the base, and it lets me put in ~3 inches of bedding while stopping any of the bedding from scattering as the rats walk on it.

I find that my plastic cement tub needed about half an inch cut off on either side, but now that I've done so, it fits snugly into the cage.

If you want an already customized base pan (or a customized shelf pan), this site has customized ferret nation pans with 3 inch edges (which fit CN's as well): 

Link to regular pans: https://www.bassequipment.com/Store/ShopDetail/FP1-00/FERRET_NATION_PANS

Link to pans with cut out: https://www.bassequipment.com/Store/ShopDetail/FP2-00/FERRET_NATION_PANS_WITH_CUT_OUT

Link to shelf pans: https://www.bassequipment.com/Store/ShopDetail/FP4-00/FERRET_NATION_SHELF_PANS

They also have urine guards that you can attach to the age bars, further increasing the "base edges" to over 6 inches high.

This is a picture of my cement tub in my CN (as you have a DCN, the bass site may be more suitable to buying pans from, as they have pans for the base, the shelf, and for the second level):


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