Cleaning the cage

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Dee

I have read through all the posts here and many people have different views of course, I am surprised to read about the chippings, the pet shop actually sold us our cage with the chippings and now I am reading that it is bad for their health, I have been using it for 2 weeks now. Should I stop ?

I was told before we go the guinea pigs that the cage could be cleaned out every second day and to just put down newspapers and grass hay, but I clean mine every day, I wash it out and I layer it with newspaper about4 layers, I put the chippings in their sleeping area and where they go to the loo and I top iti up with lots of grass hay.

I find the cage smells so I always scrub it out, I hate the smell to be honest, I hope I am doing it right, maybe I should be doing more or using something different.

I wondered if anyone uses something different and finds it much better.

I am going through tons of grass hay, I am on my 3rd bag and they are quite large bags, I have the guinea pigs 2 weeks and a bag of the grass is €10.
 
Hi Dee, welcome to the forum!

Lots of different views on here about bedding. I was using shavings - always have done, until I came on here and read the reviews. I'm now using Megazorb which is horse bedding made out of compressed paper - very absorbent- with newspaper underneath and hay on top. I clean mine out thoroughly twice a week and spot clean in between.

Odd that you think they smell if you clean daily - do you use any discinfectant or anything? Um, lots of views on this too.....! ;)

Guineas tend to use a particular spot for their toilet, could you spot-clean this daily and do the rest (which will be much cleaner) less often? Just a thought

Sophie
x
 
I'm one who can't stand shavings - they're dusty and can really irritate piggies. The best thing is to grab a handful and rub them into your hands for a minute or so. It STINGS! I can't imagine having my nose a cm from that for most of the day so goodness knows what it does to their little lungs - it says a lot that pine oil is used in toilet cleaners!

Not sure why your cage would smell - how big is it and how many pigs are in it? I use a combination of fleece and megazorb and the only thing I can smell when I walk into the room they're in is hay.
 
I was about to say, it could be the hay. When people come into our house and comment on the "farm smell" its mainly because of the strong - but in my opinion pleasant - odour of the hay.
If cleaned regularly, and in your case even every day!, the piggy wee etc. should not smell that strongly.
It would worry me if it was, as a very strong urine could suggest infections etc. However, like daftscotslass already said, it also depends on how many piggies are in what size cage - if you have too many piggies in too cramped a space, the urine smell will of course be stronger.


With regards to the woodshavings - I have been using them for about 9 years now, first for my rabbits, and now for the last four years for my piggies. Never had any problems with them, guinea pigs OR me, so I would personally recommend them. But everybody on here has different opinions :)
 
Wow thanks everyone for your replies and views.

The smell is not a strong urine smell, I find when I used the newspapers and the urine soaks onto it it gives of a strange smell ( I really don't know how to describe it) it sort of smells like cream cheese ? maybe it's just me an it's not the newspapers and it's just animal smell. The hay is quite strong but I don't mind that, my sister came here the other day and the minute she came in she said she could smell them, I was quite embarrassed as I do wash out the cage, I use hot water and fairy liquid, I scrub it and I dry it with Kitchen towel then layer everything fresh into it.


I will look into the Megazorb and see if it is more suitable to the cash I have to spend on them.

They are only starting to use one corner now for the toilet but wees all along the edge and the 4 corners. I do see poos in the middle of the cage sometimes.

The cage is a rabbits cage, it was the biggest one they had, it has a house and a large play area and a part that they can climb ontop of the house, the house would be the width of it, it is very large for 2 guineas and the shop girls said I wouldn't need one so big but I didn't want them cramped.


I hope now that they don't have infections or anything wrong, maybe I am just really sensitive to the smell, I am really not use to having pets at all, this is the first.. my hubby says he can't smell anything..

I'll check out some bedding and see if I can change what I am using but the newspaper seems the most popular the shavings a bit of a mixed response, but they do make it softer for the guineas to walk on or is hat just me thinking that ?

Does anyone buy their bedding online ? the nearest pet shop to me is 45 minute bus journey...
 
if you are not having animals yourself, then yes you can definitely tell by walking into a house that they have got pets.
My uncle is really funny about this sort of thing, he would always complain about the smell of cat in my sisters house, and I couldnt even smell it - because I am used to it!

From what you are describing it is the smell of wet paper that you find obtrusive? Not sure what advice to offer here, because even switching to other bedding, even vetbed, would still require you to use newspaper underneath, so I am at a loss of what to advise :-\

On another note:

The girl in the petshop obviously did not know what she was talking about; it sounds like you bought a cage that is approx. 120x60 cm? This is the minimum size for two piggies... For 2 pigs it should be about half a square meter. The people who sell the cages measure the outside of the cage, most cages have that "lip" on the outside so you can knock a few cenitmeters off again, as the actual usable area size of the cage on the INSIDE is alot smaller. I would not use anything that is smaller than the cage that you have got!

Your cage sounds about right :) Obviously they still need floor time, because they cant do much running around in a cage like that, but from the point of urine smell and cramped cages you dont really have any problem as the size is alright.
 
Have you thought about changing from using fairy liquid to a pet disinfectant/weak normal disinfectant solution to clean the cage out? I would have thought that if there were any odours from the urine etc (although I doubt it as you're cleaning them everyday) then a disinfectant would get rid of it far better than fairy. Ours are cleaned out every 3 days, I do almost the same as you in respect of washing the inside of the cage out and drying it with kitchen roll, but it's disinfected every time and we don't have any problems with smell from them - they're inside in our conservatory just off the living room too and no-one has complained yet ;D
 
I use a Pet cleaner from Asda and it works a treat. I spray it then spray water ontop. :)
 
I use the clear distilled vinegar and rinse well with water. ( cheap and works well)
 
White vinegar is great. It completely eats away at urine stains and gets rid of smells. Tho you'll want to make sure you'll well ventilated when you clean as it'll stink like a chippy for a bit! ;D
 
I'll try the vinegar that sounds easy enough to get, we only have one shop beside me and they don't do pet cleaners, I'm in the middle of nowhere ;D ;D

I am probably being too sensitive to the smell, I should just let them get on with it and change them like everyone else every few days ;D ;D I tried the floor time with them and they ran that fast that it took 40 minutes to catch them ;D ;D one hid so well that we couldn't find him, I think I'll have to clear the room out for their floor time ;D ;D

thanks again for all the advice.
 
If you want to carry on cleaning them out every day that's up to you - it's your house they're in at the end of the day regardless of what other people do ;D

White vinegar is a natural disinfectant in itself and it does do a really good job - just open a window like someone mentioned as the smell can be a bit overpowering while you're doing it ;D ;D ;D

Oh, leave it to soak into any urine/newspaper print stains and they'll come off really easy too with a bit of a scrub O0
 
Dee said:
I tried the floor time with them and they ran that fast that it took 40 minutes to catch them ;D ;D one hid so well that we couldn't find him, I think I'll have to clear the room out for their floor time ;D ;D
Click to expand...

Or you use some grids to cordon off all the no-go areas.

This is where I used to put my guinea pigs while cleaning out their cage:

wozi1.jpg


Now if you do the same thing, but larger, then they cannot hide underneath the couch or behind the telly ;)
 
I use a rabbit/guinea pig hutch cleaner and that really cleans out the rabbit and guinea pigs hutch..i do that once a week or sometimes twice a week...

i do the poo/urine area every day/or other day.......

Julie
 
I have recently put lino in the main living area of my hutch (one of my boars has a dust allergy) so litter is just confined to the litter trays. This makes it a breeze to clean out and as my cage is pretty big much cheaper than covering the whole floor. I also get shreadded paper from work for the bedroom which is free.
 
Personally i didn't like to use newspaper because it is not recommended (since the piggies will chew away the newspaper and its not so gd for them) and the smell of the newspaper + pee pee is reallie :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ too strong.

although some would say that with newspaper at the bottom would make the cleaning process easier =p

i used white vinegar + water to spray and wipe the cage. works well becos once u wipe off the solution.. vinegar will clear off the sticky poop if there's any and as a non-toxic agent too.. so it wouldnt be harmful for them~
mine is a 4x2 cage and i clean them totally in abt 5 days. back then when I'm using smaller commercial cage, i clean the whole thing abt 1-2days.

I'm still trying to toilet trained them.. LOL.. guess with toilet train would make the cage cleaner! lol.. so currently I'm still scooping and picking up their poops every now and then. lol~
 
I clean their cage out every 3 - 4 days but spot clean every day. I use Bob Martin's disinfectant for cleaning but am going to be trying the white vinegar (just keep forgetting to buy it). My cage is indoors and I sometimes smell it too (although think mostly its just the hay I'm smelling). I have 2 layers of newspaper on the bottom - then I used to use between Carefresh/woodshavings. Love Carefresh but its too expensive so just bought myself Megazorb - which looks like it willl last me months going by the size of the 85l bag. Will be trying this out today for the first time when I clean them out later on. Then I have bedding hay on the top of all that. O0
 
I've tried various pet cleaners but there is something about the Bob Martin One that makes my chest feel really tight like I can't breath so I don't use it anymore.
 
I use megazorb ontop of paper with hay on top, I only clean them out once a week. I dont notice the smell. I wouldnt use anything else.
 
when i first got my gp's i used newspaper and hay but i built a c&c cage and decided this might get a bit a bit expensive! ::)
so i found some cheap fleece and decided to give it a try :D
both the gp's and myself love it! :smitten:
easier to clean, much cheaper, less waste! O0
i put newspaper down first then an old towel and a layer of fleece on top, i change this every second or third day, depending how lazy i am >:D or how messy they have been! ;D
in one corner i have a toilet tray filled daily with meadow hay and on the second level i have a hay loft, most of the wee and poop ends up in the toilet or upstairs! :)
and occasionally when they work out how to get under the blanket i find it on top of the towel! >:D
DSCF0007.jpg

my cage with fleece and hay loft ;D
Picture005.jpg

if you look carefully you can see a lump under the blanket! that's molly >:D making noises that sounded like "i can smell the food but why cant i find it!" ;D ;D ;D
 
I use Newspaper and Aspen shavings on top, i find the aspen to be very soft and its cheap to purchase.
 
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