Cage Changing...

[Chukkin]

Hi everyone,

I use fleece with puppy pads underneath. I changed the cage on Friday, and it is now Sunday and they stink. I was hoping that they would only wee in one place, but they wee EVERYWHERE! There is a corner-shaped litter box in one corner and they have pooped in it, but tend to just push it into the middle of the cage so they can get behind it. I bought a large-sized cavy cozy and a cuddle cup for them to sleep in and now they're wet too. I don't mind them pooping everywhere as I can just sweep that up, but surely there is a better way than having to change and wash EVERYTHING in the cage every two days? Is it just because I have only had them for 9 days and they haven't developed a routine yet, or because they are 12 weeks old and not old enough to control where they go?
Is there a better way to be doing things? I was hoping to only have to clean the cage twice a week - is that just a fantasy?

 

[twiams]

Guinea pigs aren’t really good at being trained to use a litter tray, they aren’t like rabbits or cats, they tend to just go wherever they are wether there is a tray available or not. Most people do change fleece every 3-4 days. I use fleece liners with mattress protectors that i’ve made to fit my cage and i tend to change them every 5 days, but i’ve never found my pigs to be particularly smelly.
At first it can sometimes be a case of getting used to the smell of pigs, but if you are worried you could always try using some other sort of bedding, i used to use fitch bedding for one of my pigs and i’d only change that every week, but obviously it cost a bit more as i was having to buy bedding regularly.
Fleece doesn’t suit everyone

 

[Chukkin]

Hi twiams, I know litter-training can be impossible in some piggies, and I wasn't expecting my two to catch on, but I was hoping that they would at least use just one end of the cage or a couple of corners. Surely they wouldn't like to be weeing in their beds, but they have... I have had pets in the past (rats, hamsters, mice etc) and know that all things have a smell, but this is a pure urine smell...

 

[Maddykins]

Hi Chukkin, I don't know if anyone has told you before but they tend to like weeing in areas that are covered. This would explain why they frequently wee in their cosies, do they have any other parts of the cage that are covered? We have a loft part, and they therefore do most of their wees underneath there so the rest of our puppy pads can often last a few weeks if they don't wee on them in the rest of the cage area. They also have a rabbit litter tray that we use as a big hay tray that they spend a lot of time sitting in to eat hay so they wee loads there so we line that with newspaper and clean that out every night, so I would recommend lining the cosies with something and cleaning them every night but if you could create some kind of covered area of the cage the likelihood is that they would wee mostly there rather than all over the cage.

We change the fleece and do a big cage clean every five days and bin any wet puppy pad.