changed to fleece very smelly

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piggieboys

piggieboys

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Hi don't know if I've posted in the right thread but just needed some advice.

I've always been use to sawdust, but one of my guinea pigs has had mites and now seems to be having a reaction to the sawdust, when ever hes on the floor on in his carrier when I clean him out hes fine then when he goes on the sawdust he goes crazy.

Ive decided to put fleece in the cage instead with a towel underneath, hes doing so much better on the fleece seems very chilled out on it, its just that after 2 days theres an awful smell, smells like his pellets and wee, now i havent put fabric softer on the fleece cause I know it will hold the liquid. I also remove there poops on a daily basis.

Is there anything I can do as they are downstairs and I dont want my house smelling as it was about every 4 days I changed them in the sawdust,
 
We are trying fleece for the first time at the moment and have to agree it smells. Would love to go back to woodshavings but is just not an option with our new girl.

We are poop scooping 3 - 4 times a day, changing every 3/4 days and turning the fleece over every other day. Sorry no practical suggestions but you are not alone!
 
I manage to get away with cleaning my 2 girls out every 4-5 days on fleece, i have it double over a couple of times, with 2 towels underneath then a layer of newspaper underneath that. i have to poop scoop everyday also, but i dont seem to smell them,it just starts to smell on cleaning out day, but nothing strong
Have you tried a little corner potty for them, with newspaper and hay in, i have this and they do the best part of their weeing in it, but i have to change that every day, usually morning and night, they still do wee on the fleece, but not as much

also have you washed the fleece a few times before using?
 
Thank god I'm not the only one thought it was something I'm doing, were doing a c&c cage at the weekend so I wanted them to get use to the fleece for then, plus woodshavings are not an option now hes allergic to it.
 
Jammy Baby I will try and do the newspaper thing, I havent used a litter tray yet might wait till I do the C&C cage where there will be more room, cause at the moment theres not much room for one, Ive washed the fleece once before using it, does it need to be washed more times? Sorry all new to fleece only thing I knew was not to use fabric softner.
 
I swapped to fleece recently due to an influx of mini piggies and did find it quite smelly until I put a tray full of hay under their hay rack, they seem to pee and poo a lot in there and I have gone from poop scooping 3 or 4 times a day and changing fleece every 2nd day to psing twice a day and changing fleece every 4 or 5 days. The tray gets cleaned out twice a day minimum as it can get quite wet and stinky in there. Hope this helps :)
 
Hi

I use a cage liner which is fleece with a mattress topper sewn underneath. Unlike the towel a mattress topper allows the pee to dry so the liner isnt wet and you dont get the pong!

My boys wee for britain and it can be very smelly, however I can easily make my liner last a week with no smell.

I think the thing that made the biggest difference for me was adding a hayloft to my C&C cage and putting all their food, hayrack and water up there with a megazorb filled tray underneath. The tray needs cleaning daily as it is always wet with wee.

Before I had the hayloft they were stinky after two days, so if a hayloft isn't an option then try placing a cat litter tray with absorbant bedding in it, underneath their hayrack and water bottle and place their food bowl in it.

I also put extra squares of fleece in the corners where they weed the most but I don't need these now. I would definitely recommend replacing the towels under the fleece with a mattress topper. My tray is never wet when I change it and neither is the liner

HTH

x
 
Right I'm confused as my boys eat lots of hay so if I put hay in there litter trays wont they try and eat it instead of peeing on it. sorry if I'm sounding dumb I just thought hay was for eating not peeing on , wont it confuse them haha
 
In the litter tray I place their food bowl with their pellets and nuggets. On the grids I hang their hayrack and water bottle.

So while they sit and eat their hay and drink their water they are sitting in the litter tray. Does this make sense

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Curly bums!

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yeah Claire that makes sense, can I just ask what you have in the litter tray to soak up the wee, I can see like a sort of cat litter but its probably not that , blimey wood shavings was much easier haha
 
piggieboys said:
yeah Claire that makes sense, can I just ask what you have in the litter tray to soak up the wee, I can see like a sort of cat litter but its probably not that , blimey wood shavings was much easier haha
Click to expand...

Ha ha! Its taken a lot of trial and error to come up with this but now I wouldn't change it for the world. I struggled with the fleece and the pong until I popped the litter tray in.

I use megazorb in there which is a type of horse bedding. I get mine from a local pet/equestrian store and its about £7 for a 85l sack. It is really absorbant and as I have long haired piggies it doesn't get stuck in their hair. I change my tray every day and am always amazed at how wet the megazorb at the bottom is, while the top is always dry.

Definitely improved the smell no end. Like I said I change my liners once a week and even then they don't stink like they did before I used the tray

HTH

x
 
haha great well thanks for the advise everyone will give it all ago as this stink is knocking me sick, smelly piggies lol
 
I feel for you, I adore my boys but my god they pong!

How can two tiny and gorgeous little things produce soooo much pee :))
 
My girls have always been on fleece and I don't notice any smells. Saying that I have 2 smelly dogs so probably don't notice, I dread to think what my house smells like to 'outsiders' :))
 
haha i worry about that too, my dog stinks when her hair gets long. you get used to it dont you but sometimes when i get home i think 'oh no i can smell the dog' lol
 
This is a fantastic idea, I saw something simlar on here yesterday. :)p

Think Ill now try this method instead of fleeces. I'm finding that to keep on top of the mess and pong, I'm having to wash the fleeces everyday and this is now clogging the washing machine up with hairs and these hairs are also getting all over my clothes. (This is even though I put the washer on for an empty load to wash it out in between washing the piggys fleeces and my clothes). grrrr

Can you get Megazorb from P@H or anyway accessable?
 
P@H dont sell megazorb. Have a look in the yellow pages for equestrian supplies or places that sell animal feed. If they dont stock it they can usually order it in for you
 
I also find that the hay tray method works for my smelly boys. I actually use a big seed tray instead of a litter tray but it works fine. I then use a little newspaper in the bottom, megazorb layer. another sheet of newspaper and then hay - a kind of megazorb sandwich with hay on top:)) So worth trying variations on a theme to see which works.
One pair of boys don't have this at all because they tip trays uprolleyes so they are just on megazorb and not fleece liner. So it does depend on the pigs as well as the humans as to what works!
PS A bag of megazorb seems to last quite a long time - i get it from a farm shop.
 
I had changed to fleece for exactly the same reason as you (because my boars had mites).

However, after several months of my room smelling of wee and poo and also clogging up my washing machine with GP hairs (I was washing the fleeces everyday).
I decided to go to P@H last night and buy some cat litter trays to try out.

Ive put news paper in the bottom and then covered with sawdust to see how my boys get on (theyre on Xenot 450 anyway as the vets recommend that even if you dont have mites, just to keep them on a maintenance dose to prevent any reinfestation of mites). Alternatively, I might try some (cheap and disposable) new tea towels as their bedding in the litter trays. So that I dont have to clog the washing machine up and cover my clothes with GP hairs.

I'm finding that this litter tray method is quite effective in catching most of their wee and poo and is also a lot less smelly. Ill see how my boys get on with it and if they seem to take to it (they were pop corning ++++++ last night when I put all their new appliances in) Ill keep it as it is.
 
Great that you have sorted out the smells, I'm sorting out there C&C cage at the weekend so gonna get there trays and that then and see how it goes, I cant use sawdust as one of my pigs are having a reaction to it so gonna use newspaper and hay for now till I can find where i get this megazorb from near by
 
piggieboys said:
Great that you have sorted out the smells, I'm sorting out there C&C cage at the weekend so gonna get there trays and that then and see how it goes, I cant use sawdust as one of my pigs are having a reaction to it so gonna use newspaper and hay for now till I can find where i get this megazorb from near by
Click to expand...

Yes I was looking for megazorb last night but couldnt find any in P@H (it was a smaller store - the newer stores that dont have pets in).

Please post when and where you find the Megazorb if you do find it. Thank you :)p
 
fleece verss woodshavings

i swapped to towels and flleece for six months but despite cleaning the runs every three days i couldn't stand the pong and that was with my two adult ladies weeing and pooing mostly in the litter trays i had in the corners full of woodshavings and
topped with hay. They did use the litter trays a lot but still weed sometimes on the fleece and cleaning up the poos twice a day and cleaning the litter trays morning and night was time consuming, so i went back to woodshavings and my girls instantly looked happier and no more pong!
definatley prefer woodshavings and hay! oh and they did eat the hay in the litter trays!
 
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