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Twinkle

Twinkle

Junior Guinea Pig
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So in the nearish future the garage where my piggies currently live is being converted to another room and so their cage will be moved to my bedroom.

I really need advice on the best ways to keep the cage (and more importantly my bedroom!) as clean, mess and odour free as possible. I've changed over to fleece from sawdust at the weekend. This has obviously taken care of a lot of the mess but I still have the issue of the hay and poop clearing technicalities. I'm going to order a hand held Vaccume cleaner which I'm hoping will be the answer to a lot of it and make the poop scooping easier?

I just changed the fleece over for the first time and it was much messier than I'd hoped. The hay still went everywhere (I'm using it for the litter tray as well as food) and all needed to be swept up.

I'm hoping you more experienced piggie parents might be able to give me some advice on keeping things as clean and tidy as possible.

Finally, re the litter tray - I have a garden tray lined with puppy pads and topped with hay - is this the cleanest/least smelly way to do it?
 
I have my two on fleece and found that if the hay is confined to one area of the cage in a hay/litter tray then there is minimal hay and poops to sweep and Hoover off the fleece when cleaning. Also piggies tend to poo a lot when eating so having hay in the litter tray helps reduce mess on fleece.
One more thing I find it easier to sweep up the hay off the fleece than trying to Hoover. :D
 
i have my 2 piggies in my bedroom in the little friends 140 cage it works out really well for them :) for bedding i use easibed i find with fleece you got to keep ontop of it alot more than bedding as it soon smells x
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its got a huge base tray its a good cage for that I'm not saying i dont make a bit of a mess around the cage tho :) but i keep it at the other end of my bedroom so it stays in one area :)
 
Twinkle said:
Thanks. :) what do you have in your litter tray? Just hay?
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I line their litter tray with newspaper and put their hay on top. Sometimes they like to sleep in there as well! I change their litter tray and spot clean the poops daily to keep smell and mess to a minimum. Also if you notice that your piggies pee on the fleece more in one spot you could put a fleece pee pad there and change it regularly between full cage cleans.
Fleece is quite a high maintenance bedding but it is worth it to see happy cosy pigs:D
 
Mine are not indoors, however I've notice much less mess when cleaning them out by having a litter tray filled with hay. Most poops go in there and because they have to jump in and out the hay tends to stay in there too :)
 
I used to have a hay "tray" litter box and even though I cleaned it out everyday i found that Poe started to get urine scalds on his feet so had to stop that. I now use hay bags and they just poop at one end.
 
I just changed to fleece yesterday.. Bottom of the hutch just has their tubes and a hanging ball with hay in it.. The top has their house filled with hay and today when I went to poo pick, fine on the bottom but in the house it was over run with poo and quite wet with wee.... I cleaned it all and flipped the bit they would sleep on .. Wondering what to do cos don't want them sleeping in there if that's where they r going to be doing most of their wee & poo.... Should I just use a hay ball and not fill their house ?
 
artcasper said:
I just changed to fleece yesterday.. Bottom of the hutch just has their tubes and a hanging ball with hay in it.. The top has their house filled with hay and today when I went to poo pick, fine on the bottom but in the house it was over run with poo and quite wet with wee.... I cleaned it all and flipped the bit they would sleep on .. Wondering what to do cos don't want them sleeping in there if that's where they r going to be doing most of their wee & poo.... Should I just use a hay ball and not fill their house ?
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I find ours wee wherever the hay is! We have 3 floors each with a large hay box, since we changed to fleece and vet bed recently. I am experimenting with a layer of shavings under their hay in 2 boxes , which is what they were bedded on originally, and newspaper in another box. When I changed to fleece I tried a litter box but they just sat in it and munched the dirty hay I put in! Could you put their hay somewhere else so their house would be clean? And a separate hay tray? They have minds of their own these piggies!
 
Florrieberry said:
I find ours wee wherever the hay is! We have 3 floors each with a large hay box, since we changed to fleece and vet bed recently. I am experimenting with a layer of shavings under their hay in 2 boxes , which is what they were bedded on originally, and newspaper in another box. When I changed to fleece I tried a litter box but they just sat in it and munched the dirty hay I put in! Could you put their hay somewhere else so their house would be clean? And a separate hay tray? They have minds of their own these piggies!
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I have since got them a tray for hay downstairs, it has newspaper, a layer of care fresh and lots of hay.. they love it and do most of their poo in there now. they have clean hay twice day and i wash it out each time... they have a little hay ball too .. their house just has some little bits of fleece in it now.. seems to be working.. will all change again when i get a C&C cage indoors lol ! Was thinking of using cat litter under the hay as you get lots for the money - i like care fresh as it has never smelt but its pricey at £6 a bag..
 
I started off with Carefresh as it's a great product. I had used it with my hamsters and it was fairly affordable with them. However with piggies I have to scoop much of it out and replenish each day. I therefore now use Fitch. It is paper-based but performs as well as Carefresh, plus the pieces are about the same size, making it easy to brush off the fleece when bits stray from the tray onto the fleece :)
:) x
 
artcasper said:
I have since got them a tray for hay downstairs, it has newspaper, a layer of care fresh and lots of hay.. they love it and do most of their poo in there now. they have clean hay twice day and i wash it out each time... they have a little hay ball too .. their house just has some little bits of fleece in it now.. seems to be working.. will all change again when i get a C&C cage indoors lol ! Was thinking of using cat litter under the hay as you get lots for the money - i like care fresh as it has never smelt but its pricey at £6 a bag..
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That sounds like it's working! I'm waiting for an extra large cat litter tray to arrive, to try instead of correx box. I find the correx box is getting hard to clean in the corners and creases, so hoping to get something to wash out properly. However as we have 6 piggies despite having 3 hay boxes, sometimes 4 want to jump in and munch together so need a big litter tray!
Next problem... How to keep the smell down., seems stronger in hot weather?
 
I don't know with regards the smell. In time I hope that your piggies will do most of their wee's in the tray, as mine do. I have had six piggies (only four at any one time)and every single one of them have favoured the tray with the litter (Carefresh/Megazorb/Fitch - what ever I experimented with) for weeing.. Spot-cleaning the litter each day keeps the smell at bay :) Hopefullyb yours will do the same for you :)
 
Critter said:
I don't know with regards the smell. In time I hope that your piggies will do most of their wee's in the tray, as mine do. I have had six piggies (only four at any one time)and every single one of them have favoured the tray with the litter (Carefresh/Megazorb/Fitch - what ever I experimented with) for weeing.. Spot-cleaning the litter each day keeps the smell at bay :) Hopefullyb yours will do the same for you :)
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Oh they do def wee in the hay trays! They get cleaned out every night but when I get in from work... Pooeee .. Strong smell of urine! Don't know if its warmer weather.... Maybe smells more or maybe drink more so wee more, not sure. I sniffed all the bedding as I changed it tonight (half vet bed and half fleece over towels, just got two of those absorbent pads to try under vet bad as well) and nothing smelled too bad, was only slightly damp in odd patches... So maybe they need deeper shavings in hay box? (currently maybe 2 cm) or change to newspaper.. Trying that in one box... Befuddled!
 
Hmmmmmmmm. I don't know what to suggest, chuck! No fishy smell is there? Just normal wee?
 
Critter said:
Hmmmmmmmm. I don't know what to suggest, chuck! No fishy smell is there? Just normal wee?
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No think it's just wee, messy beggars!
Wonder is it linked to hormones in the girls? Tho didn't notice in winter. Possibly just warm days, drink more wee more... Soon tell when it's a cold day.. Lol
 
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