So I went to IKEA yesterday and got about 30 of these mats. Sprayed them with some vinegar/water to get rid of that rubber smell and put in a set last night. I'll probably update this as I go about figuring out the best configuration I find for these mats... Testing stage here we go. Here is the experience so far (as from cleaning cage last night and putting in the mats to this morning). There's a summary at the end if you find this is too long.
As far as appearances, they are a very dark blue - almost black in color. They have rounded corners, which is a little annoying as these leaves small parts of the pan bare, but no matter. For 99¢ a mat it's a small price to pay and you can always cover the patches with something (tile, food bowl, toy, etc). They have stripes of differing "textures", not really sure how to describe it... but the stripes alternate between what seems to be thicker and thinner sections. They're flexible and seem flimsy, but they stay down in the cage much better than the fleece.
+1 Borris mats for staying down easily
+0 Fleece for needing more work to stay put
They fit well (in the Bass Pans for FN/CN cages). The length of the mat is a perfect fit for the width of the Bass Pans for the Ferret Nation cages. One mat is a little long for the half shelf trays that come with the cage, but it's not too much of a big deal; you can always trim it down if it really bothers you. I assume the mat length would also be a tad too long for the width of the plastic full level trays that come with the FN/CN cages as well. 2 mats covers most of the full levels. For the bottom full level, it leaves about 4 inches of the pan bare. You can buy extra mats to trim down for this space or you can cover it in tile. I had some 12x12 tiles that Home Depot cut in half for me and the 6x12 fit OK. One is against its length and the other is against its width; then I have a small granite sample in between the two of them. For the full middle level with the cut out in the FN/CN cages, you do need to trim a 1x9 inch cut out to accommodate the cut out (that measurement is for the Bass Pans. Add ~0.5-1in inches to the dimensions if you use the provided trays). If you don't want to trim, you can just let the mats overlap. They have smaller striped sections that make it easy to follow a straight line for a cut. For the bare corner next to the cut out, you can either trim down an extra mat or cover the pan with a litter tray (that's what I did) or tile or both. I've noticed that it is easier to spot clean the mats than it is to clean fleece as litter and poop doesn't seem to cling as much. This was nice as someone decided to not be litter trained anymore (I'm looking at you, Devi). I found the trimming of the mat MUCH easier and more convenient than the cutting/sewing/making of fleece liners (whichever way you do it, I've tried 3 methods). However, the fleece liners can be make especially to size/shape in a single piece.
+1 Borris mats for convenience of size despite trimming requirement
+1 Fleece for aesthitics of being in a single piece
Also, I had to weigh down my fleece with lots of tile as well as the litter boxes; using these mats, I've gone from 9-12 tiles (4 12x12", 5 6x12", and some granite samples) down to 3 (2 6x12" and 1 granite sample). This set up was great and all, but one of my girls likes to pull up the fleece from under the litter box and this results in tears in the fleece. The more tears there were, the more they wanted to tear it - it's a vicious cycle from there. In addition, my rats seemed to take pleasure in making enormous puddles of urine on all of the tiles while I am away at work. They refuse to pee IN the litter boxes and instead prefer to pee AROUND them or along the sides so that the urine runs down to the fleece. Plus, with the half levels of the FN/CN cages, I had to clip the fleece down with binder clips... and seeing as my rats think that peeing in the litter box will cause their universe to implode, the binder clips get pretty nasty. Cleaning them is a hassle since they have tiny nooks and crannies... However, with the IKEA Borris mats, they sit will enough in the tray that I don't need a clip and the rats don't bother them as much as they did the fleece.
+1 Borris mats for no clips
+1 Borris mats for low tile count
-1 Fleece for binder clips
-1 Fleece for high tile requirement
As for the smell, I do notice that it's down, but then I did just clean the cage and put in the new mats as liners. I don't know what happened this last week, but everyone decided to pee everywhere... including the sides of the Bass Pans; I don't even know how that happened given that the pan walls are flush against the cage. I may sprinkle baking soda on the mats and rub it in to help with urine smells, I don't know it depends on the results on the end of this week. Though, I do realize that putting baking soda UNDER the mats would do nothing since the latex backing would prevent interaction between the urine and the baking soda. There is still a smell, but I do need to take out the trash from cleaning the cage (yesterday was hectic and I forgot, but usually taking out the clean-out-trash makes for a much better smelling shed).
+1 BAKING SODA for smell reduction
+0 Fleece for smell control
N/A Borris mats for smell control
I do still need to find a way to provide a dig box that isn't going to end up with substrate everywhere in the cage. I'm currently planning on a storage box with a hole cut out as an entrance/exit. Hopefully, this will curb the "let's throw all of this paper pellet-y stuff ALL OVER THE CAGE" behavior and I won't have to spot clean/vacuum so much. They act like the vacuum is the end of the world or something.
+1 Borris mats for easy spot cleaning
+0 Fleece for neutral spot cleaning
So far, after a day, I find that I like the mats more. They're easy to store under the cage and they look tidy. They definitely take up less space than the fleece. When I get home, I will probably test to see how they hold up to vacuuming as one rat has decided that the litter box is no longer for going to the bathroom but for flinging Yesterday's News everywhere. I'll have to get a grated litter box to fix that. Hopefully that behavior will stop when I figure out the dig box situation.
*****SUMMARY*****
In comparison, with other alternatives. Scores are relatively arbitrary and are more based on first impressions of the Borris mats... meaning, I'm comparing everything to the Borris mats.
I hated shavings since they got EVERYWHERE. Even in my house... which didn't make sense since my rats are housed in a nifty rat shed in my backyard. While it was fun to see them dig and burrow in the aspen, it didn't do much by way of smell and the 2.5" Bass Pans just couldn't contain. Let's just say for me, shavings have a score of something way negative.
SCORE: -10
Fleece was just a hassle. There was always newspaper with baking soda carefully placed in strategic pee spots underneath them. I tried 3 layer liners (fleece-flannel-fleece), which seem to do OK... but they were a pain to make. 2 layer liner (fleece-fleece) and 1 layer (fleece cut to size) were OK. But again, they were a pain to make (I'm lazy and my least favorite part is just cutting the stuff to size). The 3 fleece set ups all seemed to do well in regards to smell, but I attribute that more to the baking soda than design. In addition, the 1 layer liners were a pain to just get into position since they are so flimsy. Also, fleece just seems to invite my rats to make a hole and borrow in... and then stasht he newspapers everywhere.
SCORE: -1
The Borris mats easily slide into place. They do require some trimming, but that's minimal since only one mat/set needs to be trimmed. But if that's too much work, you can also just let the mats overlap. I don't have to carefully arrange newspapers with baking soda underneath.
SCORE: +5
When I get home, I'll try to post a picture or a video to show how it goes and this poorly worded explanation will hopefully make more sense.
TL;DR - shavings<fleece<IKEA Borris mats
I'll do a more coherent scoring system. This one is more for first impressions of the Borris mat vs what I already know of fleece and shavings. I may make a new post that's just a comparison of shavings vs fleece vs mats, or I may just post the comparison here.
Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to score. So far, my list is: smell control, convenience, clean-ability, aesthetics, and preparation (ie making of fleece liners).
