Cage Cleaning

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Big G

Big G

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Hi everyone

I just wanted to get some advice.
We have 2 male guinea pigs and they both live in one of those double storey wodden cages.
They get along fine etc, however, i wanted to find out the best way to clean them daily.

At the moment, my routine is as follows:-

Morning
1. Replace water in both water bottles
2. Take out their houses and toys, and then lift hay / straw to scoop up their poops (and wee, if there's any puddles)
3. Replace with new hay/straw (if required
4. Add in some sawdust (on the areas where they pee most)
5. Top up feed bowl
6. Put in some fresh veg for them to nibble.

Evening
The same as above except i dont replace water

However, they seem to pooh everywhere, along with some pee, and i always feel better just changing the straw as i dont want them standing or lying in it.
The problem is that i'm going through loads of straw at this rate.

Am i doing anything wrong, or could i change things such as using newspaper or something like that?
Thanks
 
Guinea pigs should not have straw as they can have nasty accidents with it
Hay is always best...
 
Sorry, i meant meadow hay etc
 
I usually put a very fine covering of sawdust, followed by loads of meadow hay etc
 
You may want to try a different bedding, I find now that I changed bedding it's loads easier to maintain. I used to use carefresh which is great with absorbency bit now I use fleece and cloth diapers underneath-it saved me so much time and money and is far less dusty.
 
Hi

I'll look into that, thanks for the advice.
That was the other thing i was going to add, it does take a while to give the cage a clean in the morning, then the same again at night.
Hay everywhere along with the dust.

Will defo check those products out.
 
I use aspen shavings over puppy pads and newspaper. Luckily aspen turns this reddish color when wet, so finding spots to clean is easy. I use a small dust pan to scoop and then I turn over the shavings some and add some fresh ones. They tend to use the bathroom under their house and by their food the most, and the rest of the cage stays pretty clean.
 
Hi Tinka

Thanks for the post.
I'll look into that too, cheers.

ps Our two tend go to the toilet in the same place, but the next day it'll be all over the place.. :mal:
 
I use towels then fleece.Have litter trays with aubiouse in.Majority of girls wee in litter tray, Kyle all over.The hay is in the litter trays.Quick sweep up and litter box change, sorted.
 
Thanks for the advice.
I'll certainly look into that too.!

:nod:
 
I have just switched from newspaper with thick layer of woodshavings on top to fleece as follows: 1) newspaper 2) 1 towel 3) 1 layer of fleece. I had tried it before but was rather fed up with changing it every day, as they never used the litter tray.

Now I have come up with a great solution which has pleased me no end! First, I bought a big laundry bag from amazon to machine wash the fleece and towels without getting hair all over machine. Before, I was hand washing it which took ages. Secondly, I put a privacy shelter made out of a cardboard box over the top of the litter tray. Now they love it and even sleep in it, and do lots of wees and poos in it! I line the litter tray with newspaper, followed by recycled paper pellets with a light topping of hay (this tempts them in!). Done a similar thing with the cosy nest ( but just paper and hay) .

I seem to be changing the litter tray and nest lining daily but the main fleece/towels combo is lasting about 3-4 days now. I also cut up some more fleece and towels to make a mini liner for bed area, which I change daily. Changing the small items is very quick, avoiding all the leaning and stretching of a full cage change. Here are some pics to show what I mean.

After trying lots of different bedding types, I have noticed that hay-lined areas get soaked very quickly, the absorbency of hay is not great.

image.webp

image.webp
 
That's great and thanks for the photos too!
I'll look into that too as anything would be better than replacing hay every day (or twice a day)

Thanks again
 
Forgot to say that I do also sweep up poos on the main fleece with a dustpan and brush a couple of times a day or whenever I'm passing the cage, but it takes seconds. Lily looks huge compared to George in the top pic!
 
If you didn't want to use fleece, the recycled paper pellets are brilliant for absorbency & smell - only need full cleaning out once a week, but they are expensive. I use them if we're away and a friend is looking after them to reduce hassle. My second favourite for cost & ease was the wood shavings on top of newspaper as so cheap. Piggies enjoyed running around on it! Needed changing every 5-7 days, depending on how much time outside they had, plus a bit of daily spot cleaning for wettest/poopiest areas. I stopped them as can't find "kiln dried" here and was worried about health risks.

Maybe try out a few different things to see what suits you, to cut down on all that cleaning!
 
Yeah, i'll look into all of the above and will keep you posted.
I need to do something to reduce some of the time spent sorting the cage out.

Thanks for all the advice.
Cheers

ps I know i should really put this in a different thread, but since i've been getting great advice i just thought i'd quickly ask etc.
Are you guys ok about leaving your guinea pigs overnight if you're away etc?
Any special things you do before going?
 
I use fleece liners, I put off using sawdust, I read it's not very good for their respiratory system? (I don't know because I'm not an expert). I did try wood shavings but the guinea's kept sneezing, I then tried megazorb but it triggered my allergies so then after all that I went to using fleece with mattress pads underneath and then when I got fed up of all the washing, I went to liners lol, some people use part liner and part substrate in their cage.

It sounds like you're doing a really good job.

I can't answer your last question, I never go anywhere!
 
Hi Kerrie

I did use fleece before, but only really because it was winter and to make sure that he was warm enough.
Will look into this though, so thanks for the help.
 
Kerrie74 said:
I use fleece liners, I put off using sawdust, I read it's not very good for their respiratory system? (I don't know because I'm not an expert). I did try wood shavings but the guinea's kept sneezing, I then tried megazorb but it triggered my allergies so then after all that I went to using fleece with mattress pads underneath and then when I got fed up of all the washing, I went to liners lol, some people use part liner and part substrate in their cage.

It sounds like you're doing a really good job.

I can't answer your last question, I never go anywhere!
Click to expand...

I'm going to get some all in one absorbent fleece liners made. Does that mean I don't need additional layers underneath?
 
I would still throw some newspaper underneath if I were you. My family is notorious for keeping newspapers for fire starter in the cold winters (I'm in Canada) so I always have a supply and use that under my fleece. Also most of my friends don't mind me stealing some of there old papers as they don't use them!
 
Keiko The Pig said:
I would still throw some newspaper underneath if I were you. My family is notorious for keeping newspapers for fire starter in the cold winters (I'm in Canada) so I always have a supply and use that under my fleece. Also most of my friends don't mind me stealing some of there old papers as they don't use them!
Click to expand...

Thank you, we don't have newspapers but I can probably find someone to donate some
 
Kerrie74 said:
I don't put anything underneath fleece liners @Lilpalf if the cage needs a wipe when they are taken out then that's easy done.
Click to expand...

That's what I was hoping, I might try without and see how it goes. How often do you wash them Kerrie74?
 
My pigs are so much easier to clean than the rabbits, my piggies are on towels and fleece and each evening I take all the blankets out and shake them off then pop them back down, full towel and fleece change every 4 days, straight in the washing machine... job done! The rabbits are in a hutch... I cant use sawdust or wood chippings as the dust affects my husband asthma so I use equinola which is actually horse bedding, its incredibly absorbent but dust free which is great, I change their litter pans every day and do a full hutch clean around 4 or 5 days but the piggies take around 30 minutes to do a full change, rabbits around 1.5 hours!
 
I'm thinking along the right tracks then, that's good. Ordering my liners on Tuesday . I'm getting closer to getting my piggies
 
Well people say to wash them on 60 degrees, that's ok if the person your buying the liners from someone has made them a little bit bigger to allow for shrinkage, others wash their with dettol laundry cleanser. I personally wash mine at normal tempretures about 40 degrees, I use a product called Surcare which is fragrance free, all my guinea's have their own liners anyway (4 cages) and I only wash on high if I know one is ill. I do use dettol occasionally.
 
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