# Defining 'strips' and 'squares' of fleece.



## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

Getting my hedgie gear together. It feels a whole lot like getting a nursery ready for a new baby. I've found lots and lots of mentions of 'strips' and 'squares' of fleece in the cage and in the hedgie house. What is the size range of a strip; length and width? The size range of a square?

How full of fleece should the igloo be? I got the "Super Pet, Big Igloo" from PetSmart. I'm pretty sure that it's the same size as what everybody seems to be using. The next size down was way small, and the next size up was enormous. (I thought that their selection was awful. Does everybody use the same thing because that is all there is?)

I've got a 4" PVC tunnel; a 2' tube with 90 degree sweep bend. Should I leave it empty or run some strips of fleece through it? How much? Should it be empty or mostly wide open? Or made to be an inviting hideout?
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I went to get the 'unscented' laundry soap couldn't find, even with practically an entire aisle devoted to just laundry soaps. Their appears to be an endless variety of scents available and I had to come back find out EXACTLY what to get. Finding numerous references to Tide Free and Gentle and All Free and Clear, I was then able to find both needles in the haystack. The giant jugs of All Free and Clear were on sale, so I guess I'll just start using it to wash everything now. That way I won't have to wash little loads of hedgie stuff by itself.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

My fleece strips were around an inch to an inch and a half wide, and usually around 6-9 inches long. The squares or blankies that I put in her igloo with the strips, for snuggling under (or on) were somewhere between 5-7 inches wide and 9-11 inches long. I usually just put a handful of fleece strips in and one blankey, so that the fleece filled about half of her igloo up (though my igloo was a bit different than everyone else's - it's a Lixit guinea pig igloo) so she could burrow into it a bit before settling in. I know a friend of mine stuffs the igloos full though, so they really get to burrow into it. It all depends on yours and your hedgie's preference, I think. Your igloo size sounds like the right one, I know the size differences is kind of ridiculous. :roll: 

With PVC tunnels, most people will leave them empty, but I know there's been some recent threads about people making covers for them or for oatmeal cans that have been turned into tunnels, so if you want to look for those, you could always do that. I think I remember one person saying their hedgie loved it after they put a cover on it, and snuggled right into it.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

The strips I use in Ares' dig box are about an inch wide and 6-8 inches long. Doubtlessly there are other sizes that people use, but that's worked for me great so far. Ares has a hedgie bag inside his "igloo" (which isn't actually an igloo at all; we got creative with it) so he doesn't have any other fleece with him in there, just a shirt sometimes. The dig box is pretty much full with it. Fleece tends to shrink a little and lose its fluffiness after going through the wash, so the more the better. I periodically was cutting more strips in the first week or two; we now have two 'batches' of fleece strips, which get switched out now and then to get washed. Generally they like to be surrounded by some sort of bedding when they sleep, whether it's a hedgie bag or fleece strips or something else, so starting off with a lot is probably a good way to go.

For the PVC, it depends on the hedgehog. Some will only use it if the bottom is covered in fleece because they don't like feeling of it. Fleece makes it easier to clean, though with an elbow (which is what I have also) it's pretty easy to get a damp paper towel in there or whatever. Ares gets a blanket inside of it which lays along the bottom. That can be done with fleece cut to the right size, or the whole thing can have fleece strips inside it, or whatever else. I would suggest just trying different ways to see what your hedgehog prefers.

For both of these (and everything else), you'll probably find pretty soon that the way you start out doing things isn't necessarily the way your hedgehog will want them to be, haha.


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## Emiry (Nov 24, 2011)

http://ca-en.hagen.com/Small-Animal/Acc ... stic/61392

This is the one I have. What is cool about it is if you have the room you can expand to as big as you want(of course after spending the money for extra pieces)


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