Cage Smells Quite Quickly But Not Sure What Other Bedding/cage Conditions Would Be Best For Me

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cirilo

cirilo

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We bought a second pig and got a bigger cage for them both but this second pig seems to be constantly drinking water and peeing. The first pig we have hardly touched the bottle but now he is being influenced by the new one and also drinking more, which I suppose is good for him but it is becoming slightly overwhelming in terms of smell and cleaning. When we had just one pig we could go 5, perhaps 6, days before it got really in need of a clean but with this second one after 3 days it is really smelly.

Right now we have cardboard at the bottom, then a layer of plastic (to protect the cardboard so we don't have to change that every week), then newspaper and then something called 'Chipsi green apple', scented wood shavings I think (I just collect everything in the newspaper and throw that away). This stuff worked well when we had one pig as the smell was pleasant, was quite absorbent and the pig liked it. Now I am wondering if there is a better set up than this though, of course I don't mind cleaning them out but it feels like as soon as I have cleaned them out they need it again.

We do have one fleece blanket which we have folded up so it covers the entrance area and they seem to like it a lot so I am wondering if fleece might be better than the newspaper/woodshavings. The problem is that we wash everything by hand so although fleece is quite easy and quick to wash and dry, anything heavier would be problematic. I'm not sure how much the fleece would change the smelliness problem anyway. I also live in a country where guinea pigs are not that popular so resources can be hard to come by and amazon expensive with shipping costs and import taxes.
 
Even if the bedding doesn't smell it should, be washed every three to four days. :) seeing as your piggies seem to enjoy fleece, I think it would be a better option. We do not find it smells. ;)
Bit of info for you.
The fleece you would be looking for is called anti pill fleece, or invest in a slightly more expensive anti pill micro fleece. These can be found in stores like Primark, eBay, the range, asda and other supermarkets.

Fleece needs to be changed every three to four days, without a fabric softener, but with non bio detergent and white vinegar(optional) at 60 degrees. Before first use you have to wash the fleece without any detergent at least three times to allow it to remove the water barrier. You can check this has been done successfully if a drop of water on the fleece sinks through, not stays on the top. If it stays, you need to wash it again.

Fleece also needs an absorbent layer underneath to hold the urine. This can be towels, which I find great. Or puppy pads. You can also buy cage liners which are fleece, but built in absorbent layer. You can buy these from:
http://ziggyspiggies.webs.com

Fleece needs to be spot cleaned (remove poop) at least once a day.

To avoid clogging up washing machine you will need to brush down the fleece and shake it to remove loose hay and hairs. And optional would be to have a horse wash bag, found on amazon/ebay which allows fleece to be washed well, but all hay and hairs keep contained in the bag.
 
Do you find they wee in one or two particular spots in their cage. I have a cat litter tray in each cage where they wee the most filled with care fresh and hay. I tend to clean this every other day and it keeps the smells at bay. They still have the odd wee in random spots but it means I can use fleece :)
 
If you'd be washing it by hand, I wouldn't recommend using fleece as you probably wouldn't get rid of all the smells and germs this way! Can you get recycled paper bedding easily where you are? That could be a good option :)
 
i think you were very lucky to get five days between cleans originally! :))

you could try fleece blankets over an absorbent layer, like disposable bed pads/puppy pads. the fleece shouldn't be too difficult to wash by hand, although may not clean as well as you want. more traditional bedding is probably the best option. you will still need to do daily spot cleans and change twice a week though. you could try adding litter trays full of bedding and hay and this will encourage them to do alot of their toileting in there. garden potting trays are good because they have one low edge but higher sides and back. :)

avoid scented bedding as this isn't the best for piggies delicate respiratory tracts and sensitive skin. same goes for shavings, although some people use the snowflake brand with no issues. :)
 
Can you get horse bedding where you are? As others have said, you should stick to unscented ones so choose with care but you might find a hemp based one will lock smells in better than wood shavings. I use Aubiose and others on here have also used Easibed. Easibed, particularly, is not that expensive.
 
Wow, thanks for all the useful replies.


Harry&lloyd said:
Do you find they wee in one or two particular spots in their cage.
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No, not really, they pee all over the place and not only in their cage!

katie-elizabeth said:
If you'd be washing it by hand, I wouldn't recommend using fleece as you probably wouldn't get rid of all the smells and germs this way! Can you get recycled paper bedding easily where you are? That could be a good option :)
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That's the main problem, if we had a washing machine I wouldn't hesitate to get fleece with some towels underneath but I don't think we'll have one in the near future. Not sure about the recycled paper bedding, I can have a look but I've not come across it so far.

biscandmatt said:
i think you were very lucky to get five days between cleans originally! :))
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haha yeah I'm starting think so too! To be fair they generally run around the house most of the time and only really go in to the cage to eat and at night.

biscandmatt said:
avoid scented bedding as this isn't the best for piggies delicate respiratory tracts and sensitive skin. same goes for shavings, although some people use the snowflake brand with no issues. :)
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I do wonder if the smell is mainly due to the scented shavings actually, they pee and poo in other places and it doesn't tend to smell like the cage does so perhaps I'll try with some unscented stuff.
 
Not sure if this is helpful, but I used to use easibed, a horse bedding kinda thing, and it didn't smell too much with my pigs. You can get it at some gardening stores and maybe a farm, so if you would like to experiment with that, it might be good to look around for it. I also used woodshavings and found it didn't absorb much and stank after a few days quickly, but it depends I guess.

@BossHogg I think you use snowflake woodshavings with multiple animals?
 
That I do, I have two rabbits in one hutch, and 3 piggies in the other. Snowflake is pretty good at cutting down on odours. Especially as my hutches are outdoors in a shed, even with the door open, it can get quite warm. ;)
 
When using the fleece don't the towels underneath stay wet? I'm really tempted to try it out but I can imagine Barry drinking a gallon of water and peeing everywhere and the towels staying wet as soon as I've changed them.
 
cirilo said:
When using the fleece don't the towels underneath stay wet? I'm really tempted to try it out but I can imagine Barry drinking a gallon of water and peeing everywhere and the towels staying wet as soon as I've changed them.
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I find my towel doesn't get wet hardly at all even with three piggies, and one's a messy boy who goes everywhere. The puppy pads were under the towel as well (pads, towel, fleece), but the towel barely got wet. Maybe a few stains that I get out, but other than that, it seems fine. I don't usually have to change the pads or towel (might start changing the pads on the right side where they go more, but they barely get ruined to be honest) in between cleans, but if you do change to fleece it might feel worth checking under the fleece often at the start to see how much is absorbed. When I wash the fleece after it's been used, I find I only need to wash the towel with it once and maybe change only four or three pads and leave the clean ones that haven't been weed on.

You can make or buy piggy lap pads and put them in the cage in the places they go most. Right now, I've been using a thick blanket where the houses go, and find I don't need to wash it in between changes even then, maybe once. I have more problems with the hay than anything else. My fleece I'm using right now is easy to gather stray pieces of hay, but when there isn't enough hay in the racks while I'm asleep or out, they push the trays aside and let all the hay fall on the fleece. The hay gets weed on so its a pain to clean up! You probably won't have this problem ;)

I also had a large problem with poo being trampled and smeared on so it gets squashed on the fleece, but I'm sure it was just the fleece I was using (baby blue fleece thing from Tesco I think it was, don't recommend it). As soon as I changed to a different fleece, I've had no trouble with it. I can't find the link to it right now, but I'll have a look later on. Sorry if it got too long!
Thick blanket below with houses below:
image.webp
 
I'm 80% sure it was this fleece, but I'll check later on. Where are you in the world? It's incredibly handy for users to know what places you can go to and/or get things from. Go to personal details, then add your location (which is under the date of birth thing and above the about you) and save changes to do it :)

Edit: also forgot to say, it can depend in how large the cage is as small cages generally seem smellier as the piggies are more closed in than a larger cage, so their poo is more together and the wee is as well.
 
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Thank you for the detailed reply CarnivalPiggy. I've updated my profile. A common problem is finding out what either the translation or the local version of a product is here.

So you place just one towel underneath the fleece? The more I think about it the more I like the idea of using fleece, looking through the member gallery it struck me how clean and tidy it looks.

Also, regarding the correx (another one I have a feeling might be a challenge to find out exactly what it is called here) do you have that underneath everything as a bottom layer, and are the walls attached to the floor part (just folded up)? This is another aspect I need to upgrade, we had a perfectly sized cardboard box and we're using that right now as floor and walls with plastic bags on top so they don't get wet but it's obviously not ideal and probably won't last too long with these little pee-bags. A big problem with the shavings approach is stopping them from coming out the sides but this is another aspect of the fleece which looks appealing, a small gap between the walls and the floor isn't going to be a problem at all.
 
Hi @cirilo,

I suffered the same problem with my 2 boys. I changed them from wood shavings to fleece and the smell within 24 hours was foul. It was so bad I ended up changing back to the wood shavings.

I recently changed their cage to a c&c and tried fleece again. This time I put down puppy pads, a layer of towels then finally the fleece. I couldn't believe the difference! 4 days and no smell. I'm now sticking to this and changing the layers every 3 to 4 days.

As to the correx, you're correct. It's a base which is cut to size and the sides folded up to give to a nice secure box shape. The sides are roughly 16 centimetres tall. It cleans very easily.

As to the pictures of nice clean cages, most people take pictures when the cage has just been cleaned out and layers replaced. A few hours later and I'm sure they'll be messy! My 2 little guys certainly seem to enjoy watching my reaction when they start throwing hay, wood shavings and poops at each other! Lol

Good luck!
 
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Correx is used in the UK for "for sale" signs when you sell your house - that might help you work out what it is in your country!

But anything waterproof and that you can cut or fold to the size you need will be fine - you could use a plastic paddling pool for example.

If your cage is on the floor and you use something like puppy pads (that have a waterproof backing) under your fleece and towels you don't even need to have a correx (or something else) base unless you want to.
 
Last night I decided to try the fleece. This afternoon I checked the towel underneath and it is damp in places. Should I use more than one towel underneath? More newspaper under the towel? I'm a bit concerned if it is wet already.

I may try to find some puppy pads but I'm not sure if I will be able to, they didn't have them in my local supermarket.
 
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