Best air purifier? Best way to get rid of pig/hay smells?

[Fluffbabies]

I'm buying an air purifier. I'm thinking I need a bigger one than a desktop one to cover a small two bed flat with five indoor piggies. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I need one that will get rid of piggy and hay smells. No amount of cleaning and opening windows seems to get rid of the smells. Will an air purifier achieve this or are there other ways? We're trying to avoid scented products due to the piggies and my partner all having respiratory issues. I'm hoping the purifier will help them all by reducing the dust and hair?

 

[Jenni85]

No idea if am air purifier works to eliviate smells.

This might sound silly but what is the piggy smell? I don't get any smell from mine apart from the hay smell

 

[Elephonty]

I'm buying an air purifier. I'm thinking I need a bigger one than a desktop one to cover a small two bed flat with five indoor piggies. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I need one that will get rid of piggy and hay smells. No amount of cleaning and opening windows seems to get rid of the smells. Will an air purifier achieve this or are there other ways? We're trying to avoid scented products due to the piggies and my partner all having respiratory issues. I'm hoping the purifier will help them all by reducing the dust and hair?

I use a levoit air purifier and I can't smell any smells in my room although I'm not sure if I'm just noseblind I use it more to get rid of the dust and such that comes from the hay.

Do you do a poo pick everyday? My boy poops a lot and some smell as he has issues with his bladder so I take them out morning and evening which seems to stop the smells also

 

[Fluffbabies]

We've got 5 ladies in a 5x3 C&C on fleece. We do a whole fresh cage every 24-36 hours where we wash all the bedding, including some white vinegar, and air dry it. We wipe down the correx with cage cleaner. In between full cage cleans we sweep all the poops and wet hay out and swap out all the pee pads/beds and wash those.

So I'm hoping there's not much poop/wee smell... but our family and visitors say there's a strong smell as soon as they enter our flat and it's obvious we have them. I think we're nose blind to it most the time. Sometimes I get home and smell it though. Not ideal because of neighbours and wanting visitors to have a nice experience when they come round. There is definitely a hay smell. I'm not sure if that's all it is.

 

[Elephonty]

We've got 5 ladies in a 5x3 C&C on fleece. We do a whole fresh cage every 24-36 hours where we wash all the bedding, including some white vinegar, and air dry it. We wipe down the correx with cage cleaner. In between full cage cleans we sweep all the poops and wet hay out and swap out all the pee pads/beds and wash those.

So I'm hoping there's not much poop/wee smell... but our family and visitors say there's a strong smell as soon as they enter our flat and it's obvious we have them. I think we're nose blind to it most the time. Sometimes I get home and smell it though. Not ideal because of neighbours and wanting visitors to have a nice experience when they come round. There is definitely a hay smell. I'm not sure if that's all it is.

Sounds like you're doing everything you can! Sorry if I came across as rude, my boy just has a exceptional ability to stink anything out in seconds so needs extra clean out care!

The smell is most likely scent marking and hay.

Definitely try an air purifier and see if it helps, mine is disgusting (full of dust and debris) after about 2/3 weeks and I have it on the silent nightime mode most of the time!

 

[Fluffbabies]

Sounds like you're doing everything you can! Sorry if I came across as rude, my boy just has a exceptional ability to stink anything out in seconds so needs extra clean out care!

The smell is most likely scent marking and hay.

Definitely try an air purifier and see if it helps, mine is disgusting (full of dust and debris) after about 2/3 weeks and I have it on the silent nightime mode most of the time!

You didn't come across rude at all! I just thought I'd give more background about our situation. I expect you're right about the scent marking and hay smells. I will get an air purifier and see how we go!

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

This may sound counter-intuitive, but possibly you are cleaning  too often. Sows scent mark as boars do, even if not so much, so when they are put in an all-clean cage environment, they get the urge to scent mark everywhere again, to make it smell like home. Perhaps try reducing the frequency of complete cleans, and leave them a couple of used hidies each time?

 

[Fluffbabies]

This may sound counter-intuitive, but possibly you are cleaning  too often. Sows scent mark as boars do, even if not so much, so when they are put in an all-clean cage environment, they get the urge to scent mark everywhere again, to make it smell like home. Perhaps try reducing the frequency of complete cleans, and leave them a couple of used hidies each time?

Ooh I didn't think of that. We'll give that a go and see. I thought we were having to clean a lot more often than other people seem to.

 

[RedLoredAmazon]

I sweep out all the cages once a day and wash potty pads daily. The bigger fleece gets washed twice a week with a nice dye and scent free laundry detergent. It really helps out with the smell if I remove the peed on hay. I normally open the piggies' window for a few minutes after I clean out their cage to just freshen up the room too.

 

[Fluffbabies]

I sweep out all the cages once a day and wash potty pads daily. The bigger fleece gets washed twice a week with a nice dye and scent free laundry detergent. It really helps out with the smell if I remove the peed on hay. I normally open the piggies' window for a few minutes after I clean out their cage to just freshen up the room too.

Definitely agree about removing the peed on hay. I haven't found a scent free laundry detergent yet but the latest one I am trying is more subtle. (I'm sensitive to scents.)

 

[Piggies&buns]

I agree with @Qualcast&Flymo. You should not need to be doing full cleans every day and cleaning that often is much is likely to be making things worse.

Slightly different in my situation as my piggies are outdoors so are on disposable bedding and their delightful boarly smells drift away more easily but I have four boys who are in adjoined c&c’s rather than hutches (just for the summer, back to hutches in autumn) in the shed. They are spot cleaned daily (removing wet hay - which can be the thing which smells worst - daily) and full cleaned once a week. Being boys their smells are quite, ahem, fragrant and of course cleaning out causes them to scent mark. It’s combatted by only fully cleaning out half each cage at a time - half one day, half the next. The two teenagers (8 month olds, separated due to a fall out), of course, the worst for the scent marking in a very smelly fashion!

Definitely agree about removing the peed on hay. I haven't found a scent free laundry detergent yet but the latest one I am trying is more subtle. (I'm sensitive to scents.)

Many are scent free. Any non-bio which would be suitable for babies is absolutely fine for the piggies.

 

[Princess Dustmop]

I'll add my agreement with those saying you're cleaning too often. I find that if in the cases where I've had any wafting piggy smell, it's worst the day after cage cleaning and then improves.

 

[Fluffbabies]

Do you not find that the liners will have damp areas where you didn't put a pee pad? The majority of our liners have a pee pad or bed on top but that doesn't mean they don't pee on an open space of liner and there's a random damp area. Would you just pop a pee pad on top?

 

[Princess Dustmop]

If the fleece is wicking properly, it shouldn't be damp on top. I use fleece on top of towels. Lexa's towels are sometimes damp when I change, but her fleece is always dry to the touch.

If you've been cleaning the cage that often, though, it should have been washed enough to remove any sizing, etc., so it should be wicking ... Do your liners have a waterproof layer somewhere in them that could be affecting how they function?


Latte is a special case. She ... well, this is Latte's cage:

Fortunately, she doesn't drink as much, so her towels are dry, just messy. She also prefers to piddle in the corner ... specifically the back left ... she'll use other spots, but she prefers the back left corner. She has mini mats, but they're for her entertainment and coziness ...


As I said: special case.

 

[Fluffbabies]

If the fleece is wicking properly, it shouldn't be damp on top. I use fleece on top of towels. Lexa's towels are sometimes damp when I change, but her fleece is always dry to the touch.

If you've been cleaning the cage that often, though, it should have been washed enough to remove any sizing, etc., so it should be wicking ... Do your liners have a waterproof layer somewhere in them that could be affecting how they function?


Latte is a special case. She ... well, this is Latte's cage:
View attachment 225219
Fortunately, she doesn't drink as much, so her towels are dry, just messy. She also prefers to piddle in the corner ... specifically the back left ... she'll use other spots, but she prefers the back left corner. She has mini mats, but they're for her entertainment and coziness ...
View attachment 225220

As I said: special case.

Aww! Ours like going under pee pads and beds. We had to put things on top of where the liners over lap so they wouldn’t all go under the fleeces

These are what our liners are made of… we don’t put anything under them.. we put them directly on the correx.. I don’t know if that makes a difference

 

[Princess Dustmop]

I have towels under my fleece because they are my absorbant layer and the liners are just fleece. You just have the one piece version.

Since they're reversible, there shouldn't be any water resistant layer in there.

Are the damp areas only damp on top or damp all the way through? If you flick a little water on the liners, does it bead up or soak in? If the latter, how does the surface feel after that? Do both side react the same way?