Cage odors?

[rabitgrl]

I will start by saying I am very new to guinea pigs, so any insight is greatly appreciated.

Just curious what others do to keep the poo and pee smell to a minimum.
I have a single boar, about a year old. His cage is in the living room, where we spend a lot of time. I really like him being in this location, but the smell bothers me. I clean his cage every two days, and am using fleece with a towel underneath for bedding. I also sweep up poops about three times a day with a handheld broom. He seems to poop A LOT. About 5 hours after cleaning and changing bedding it is very smelly again. Is this normal?

His previous owner used a layer of newspaper with hay on top as bedding. This did seem to help a little with the smell, but I was not able to sweep up the poo. I just don't want him to have to walk around and lay in so much poop all the time.

When I take him out to cuddle, he smells just fine to me, so I feel this is mostly his waists that I am smelling. Although perhaps boars have smellier waist?

So, what do you do to keep your piggies cage from smelling so strong all the time?

Should I just change the fleece daily? Use something other than fleece?

I would prefer not to use wood chips due the expense and potential mess.

Thanks for reading and any advice!

 

[piggyfan]

That is strange as you are doing all the right things. That is how I deal with my piggies and there is no smell. If you say your piggy is not the one smelling then I am lost!

 

[klee]

How big is the area he is living in? I found that when I had my girls in over winter they were initially on fleece with newspaper underneath. I did find that the fleece did start to smell quite quickly, but I do have 4 girls and they pee and poo a fair amount. I then changed to using recycled cardboard with puppy pads underneath and I found that it lasted a lot longer than the fleece before it started to smell.

 

[rabitgrl]

Thanks for the replys!
klee - He is in a fairly small cage that he came with. Kind of a standard pet store small animal cage. I am working on something larger, but it will probably take me another week or two.

I decided to go ahead and clean his cage today, even though I had just done it yesterday. Now I am wondering if it is the white vinegar smell that I don't like.
Is there some other cleaner I could use, or is white vinegar the standard?

I asked my husband if he smelled vinegar, or smelly piggie cage, and he said he couldn't smell anything. So, maybe I have an overly sensitive nose.

 

[suzyhenke]

I personally use incontinence pads, you know the ones that old people use or for kids potty training. It is washable too. Here is a link to give you an idea:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AXK9E0O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You could go smaller though if you have a smaller cage.

Anyway so I put 2 of these down to cover all of the correx / bottom. I then put the fleece on top and I assure you that there is no smell. I hand vac the poops morning and evening, I change the fleece every 2 days. I completely clean the cage (everything in the wash) every 5 days. My hubby hasn't complained at all. There has been no leakage either onto the correx because for the first few weeks I put puppy pee pads under the layer of bed pads and they were bone dry. So far it's working a treat and my boys don't smell. All I smell is fresh hay and grass!

From experience, newspaper and towels do get rather smelly after a few hours which is why I switched to the bed pads. Good luck.

 

[rabitgrl]

Thanks for the tip! I will see if I can find incontinence pads locally.

I have continued with the cleaning and changing of fleece and towels every other day. I recently noticed that upon entering the clean cage Nibble sort of rubs his bottom around, and sprays out a very milky looking pee. Sorry if that is too much gross information :/ I am sure this is the cause of some of the immediate smelly.

Also, I have not used the vinegar the last few times. I have just used some Dr. Bronner's soap and/or a little tea tree oil diluted in water, then dried it all up with a towel. By the time Nibble gets in it smells of nothing. I think I dislike the smell of white vinegar almost more then the smell of pee, but maybe I will go back to it if it seems necessary in the future.

 

[suzyhenke]

I use vinegar with the guinea pig cleaning cage spray, mixed into a spray bottle to clean my correx, even though it doesn't get wet. I dry it with kitchen towel before adding the incontinence sheets, followed by the fleece. Both my boys do the same thing with their bottoms. They do it every time I clean the cage or fleece.