Cage Smell

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emilovely1

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hey friends! Been a while since I posted! I just came here to say that I think I have finally figured a solution to stop my piggy cage from smelling! I have tried so many different things to stop the smell and it wasn’t working! Change the hay daily, tried new pee pads (not really effective and expensive), etc! I finally got some litter deodorizer, glorified baking soda, and honestly it seems to be working so much better. I have googled it and it’s not harmful for piggies, and I’ve used it a few times already and they are perfectly fine! In fact I think it’s calmed them down as well! I sprinkle it on the bottom of the cage before I put the pee pads in there, normally it would be stinky by the end of the day but it’s not! It’s definitely a game changer and now my sister in law can stop yelling at me for the stink and I can also tolerate being in my room! I will definitely still keep an eye out on the boys and make sure their health is still good, but they are eating, pooing, and peeing like normal!
 
Piggies&buns said:
This has come up before - baking soda should not be used in or around guinea pig cages

How to make my room smell better?
Anyone Heard Of This Before?
Baking Soda
Piggies&buns said:
This has come up before - baking soda should not be used in or around guinea pig cages

How to make my room smell better?
Anyone Heard Of This Before?
Baking Soda?
Click to expand...
Google tells me different things and I see so many different responses by piggy owners that I don’t know what to believe
Click to expand...
 
I can only advise you that I personally would not use it with any of my animals.

My piggies live in my shed so it’s not the same as inside my home but the shed is still a closed space. I do not have any bad smells from my cages (certainly not anything more than a bit of young boar testosterone every now and then).
Mine are bedded on shavings and hay. Wet hay and the majority of poops are removed twice a day. All bedding is removed once a week (although with my relatively newly bonded pair I do it in two half rounds so as to keep their new-ish bond harmonious)
 
I've got 6 piggy's in my living room. Pee pads and hay are changed daily. Poo removed twice daily. Main fleece changed every 4-5 days. They probably do smell slightly but like owners of dogs who live with the smell all the time we don't notice it. I do notice a smell when I come home from a week away but my partner only changes pads and hay daily so the main fleece has been in the cage a week. My motto is love me love the piggy smell or don't bother to visit!
 
I’m not sure how none of you have smells from your pigs. Mine smell terrible even the same day I clean the cage. And the smell goes throughout the house and it’s awful. People tell me not to clean the cage daily because it makes it worse, I can’t go a day without cleaning it. I use the baking powder and they are perfectly fine and the smell is so much better! If I start seeing health issues I will change it and stop using the powder. But they eat, pee, and poop as per usual with no changes in health.
 
To clarify, it is literally used as rodent poison. Do not use baking soda near your guinea pigs under any circumstances.

You might just have to put up with any smells?

What is your current cleaning routine? How often do you do full cage cleans, and how often do you do smaller cleans?

What are the dimensions of your cage?
 
If you are changing the whole cage daily and you have boars it will stink as they will scent mark especially if they are teenagers. You need to poop pick at least once a day, preferably twice. When you do a complete cage clean do it over two days, some people do half and half, some do pee pads one day, liners the next. It depends on your set up and size of liners, it's better to have smaller liners rather than a large one that fits the whole cage.
 
Baking soda is a lung irritant. Just because they seem fine now doesn’t mean it isn’t causing issues which could build up and come out in the future. It’s too late to stop using it when any issues come to the light.
The choice to continue using it is yours, the warnings about it are available online and on the forum for your consideration.

Boars scent mark - a musty smell. It’s very normal for teen boars and cleaning every day won’t stop it, it will just make it worse! If it is scent marking rather than pee, you do need to just accept that that is life with boars!
Air the room out each day, remove wet hay and poops. Use smaller pee pads in high traffic areas such as under hides so they can be removed each day without changing the main fleece - this can help reduce their need to scent mark as the cage generally still smells of them - it won’t stop it totally though.
My boys were in their runs yesterday, wasnt a cage clean day so all bedding remained largely as was, they went back in and two of them went on a territory scent marking rampage. The smell cleared after around ten minutes with the shed door open. No other action or cage cleaning is needed.
 
The only time my boars stank was when i put them side by side for the first time and during the bonding. It was indeed a very bad smell. Lasted only a couple of days,thankfully. I didn't change the whole cage during that time, only spot cleaned as usual. The smell was gone in a couple of days, without me doing anything.

As other members said baking soda is harmful for them, so please consider trying something different. It is not worth it to endanger their health when there are other alternatives. As mentioned above air the room out often. Maybe look into air purifier. Also think about the fleeces that you are using. I have red bad reviews on some, complaining about bad smells.

Were they always smelling bad, since you got them?
 
I hadn't had my boys very long and on the first wet day where they couldn't have grass time I put them out in my home office (supervised) with fleece on the floor, toys etc. I could NOT believe the smell - as a new pig Mum I had never smelt anything like it before. Once I put them back in their indoor enclosure and washed the fleece etc it was gone and thankfully I have not had the smell since. Generally my piggies don't smell at all. I have two boxes with paper in and hay that they do their wees in and most of their poo and I pick up poo every time I see it and change out the fleece pads if they do wee on them. My boys were older when I adopted them so through their adolescence so maybe that helped - they are nearly 3 and nearly 2. It was a very potent smell so if you are experiencing that all the time it must be pretty awful but hopefully they will smell better when they get older... I don't know I am very new to this. The dry forage smells really nice and maybe MnJ's suggestion of an air purifier would work.
 
Is there anything wooden in the cage, a house or tunnel? The only time I've had a smell issue was due to one of them constantly gnawing at the same piece of wood then weeing on it so it was rotting and that did smell.
Are you ensuring that any hides, especially fleece ones have pee pads in the bottom that can get changed daily ?
Otherwise I can only echo what everyone else says as I have boars and apart from an occasional "eau de boar" day the only smell is hay.
 
MnJ said:
The only time my boars stank was when i put them side by side for the first time and during the bonding. It was indeed a very bad smell. Lasted only a couple of days,thankfully. I didn't change the whole cage during that time, only spot cleaned as usual. The smell was gone in a couple of days, without me doing anything.

As other members said baking soda is harmful for them, so please consider trying something different. It is not worth it to endanger their health when there are other alternatives. As mentioned above air the room out often. Maybe look into air purifier. Also think about the fleeces that you are using. I have red bad reviews on some, complaining about bad smells.

Were they always smelling bad, since you got them?
Click to expand...
Yes, IKEA has reasonably priced air purifiers with replacement filters only costing £3. They work well and are very quiet. You can run them all day and they are not heavy on electricity. Mine is neatly made and easy to store. It is quite refreshing to have it on.
 
It could be a sign that their boar pockets need to be cleaned. There's a section on boar bits on the forum. On You Tube, Saskia from Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue makes doing boar pockets look quite quick and even a bit glamorous 🐖🐗😄
 
I change the main fleece every 3 days and I put two pee pads in high traffic areas and put them on top of the clean fleece for scent transfer so they don't territory mark. Then the next day after they have peed elsewhere as well I change the washable pee pads.

I don't really have an issue with smell as I spot clean daily. I can smell hay, but that's about it and it's not offensive.
 
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