Cutting down on the smell

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xkellyx

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So I've been told by my landlord that he doesn't want me to keep the guinea pigs inside as they smell. Maybe I'm just used to it now but I don't think they smell too bad :( they're in a huge c&c cage with towel and then fleece- What would you recommend to help prevent the smell of the guinea pigs? my boyfriend said they smell quite strong too. I use a hand held Hoover to get rid of the poos and they get a big clean every 3-5 days. I'm hoping if I can get this smell down I'll be able to keep them inside. There is nowhere for them to go outside that is sheltered and warm so if he still doesn't agree then I'm going to have to rehome them :((( it's so annoying when he originally agreed!
 
I’ve heard air purifiers can be quite good for clearing smells ! :) They’re about £18 on ebay and amazon for a cheap but cheerful one, may help ! :)
 
I am sorry for your situation :( I found that towels and fleece smelled after a couple of hours with mine :( but maybe I was diong it wrong?! I use the wood pellet cat litter for the rabbit and that seems to cut down on the smell completely, I'm not sure if its OK for guinea pigs or not - I have used megazorb before though.
 
Goth Mummy said:
I am sorry for your situation :( I found that towels and fleece smelled after a couple of hours with mine :( but maybe I was diong it wrong?! I use the wood pellet cat litter for the rabbit and that seems to cut down on the smell completely, I'm not sure if its OK for guinea pigs or not - I have used megazorb before though.
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Similarly I found fleece to smell quite a bit, I now use a recycled card bedding which I don't think smells as much. x
 
I use fleece but wash it every other day. Mine dont smell at all really. You can buy cage deodorant powder that you put in under bedding. This keeps smell down too. I also have strategically placed plug ins around the room too! Hope ths helps x
 
I do not understand that at all as if you clean the bedding every three days there is no smell. I wonder if your landlord is just being picky.
 
I'm afraid I found fleece/vetbed smelt after only a day as well - using inco pads underneath as the absorbent layer. I now use inco pads/puppy pads with hay ontop. As long as you spot clean the damp hay daily and change the pads twice a week, there's no smell (or none that I can detect). However, if I have visitors coming, I use an air purifier such as the PureAire which uses water and essential oils to 'cleanse' the air. Works a treat.
 
Sorry to hear that you might have to move them or get rid of them! That must be horrible :(
I changed cages on friday and put in fresh fleece, i spot clean poos daily and use a litter tray with sawdust and get out the wet patches daily too. It is now monday and i can't smell anything unless i stick my head near their wee spots, my boyfriend also has a very good sense of smell and he hasnt complained yet! My fleece cage liners are fleece with towels and then a fleece under layer, and i made sure to prepare my fleece before using and it seems to work well! I have 3 piggies.

You can get like things for pet smells too maybe you can try them as well as what other people said the purifier and maybe scented plug ins?
 
Thank you for your replies! It is so hard- everyone I look at them I want to cry knowing I may have to give them up :(( I worry so much that if it did come to that they'd have nowhere decent to go as no-one seems to be near me :( hopefully with everything crossed I can combat the smell!

Are plug ins okay to put in a room? It's a spare bedroom that they are in- their cage is half of the bedroom but there is a plug near the door so I could always put a plug in there and keep it on Lower?

The cage is a 5x3 c&c cage so if I used bedding such as negatory etc it would cost me so much :( tw problem at the moment is that they all sit in the same place allege time. They always seem to poo and wee in the corners- if I used a litter tray with sawdust or something in do you think they would use it? That may be easier if I can put something removable in the wee corner so I can change that daily. With fleece because te wee is wicking through and then soaking the towel underneath it's 3-5 days before it gets washed again so the wee is soaked in for a few days.
 
I clean my two every two days. Any longer and there is a definite whiff. I like to keep the window slighty open to get fresh air in their room. But I am careful that it's not too draughty for them
 
I would try litter trays in the corners anyway... with something really absorbant in it like to minimise the smell :(
I'm sure it wont come to you having to rehome them. But equally I'm sure that if you did people on this forum would try to help you out, maybe even someone could foster for you? I really dont think mine smelt at all (whereas I really notice the bunny!) so I'm sure you will find a solution. Would it not be better to slightly reduce the size of the cage so that you could afford to bed it down with an absorbant bedding rather than rehome them and risk them being passed around?

I have mine in a ferplast 100 with an absorbant horse dust free bedding and hay (and their food in there too) and have the cage attached to a metal playpen via a ramp which has towels and fleece down on top of an old shower curtain - that way most of the wee and poo seems to be in the ferplast cage and they still get to run around the playpen area. I'm sure you could do something similar with your C&C cage?
x
 
I have a spare 120 cage which they've come out of so I could always put that in the c&c cage like you suggest and have that as their bedding area. I don't really want to make the cage any smaller because I have 3 boys so they need a large area to help prevent fighting.

They go in the corners a lot because their pigloo and box is in the corner and this is where they spend a lot of time. If I changed them to litter trays I'm not sure they'd use them because there's nowhere for them to hide. I need to think of something to put in the corner with litter on but something that has a lid as a hidey.
 
If you don't want your guinea pigs to smell at all, you need to be prepared to be a bit OCD like me ;) My cleaning routine probably seems a bit excessive, but since I keep my two guinea pigs in my bedroom I need to keep their cage clean otherwise they begin to smell and it bothers me. My mum (who happens to be very sensitive to smells!) says the guinea pigs don't smell at all.

They are bedded on fleece, but I have custom cage liners which make cleaning really quick and easy. I do a full cage clean every two days where I take out the old cage liner, wipe down the cage base with a water/vinegar solution, put down some newspaper in the areas that they go to the toilet the most, and then put a clean cage liner on top. I also put a fleece potty pad (also custom made) under their hidey house where they tend to pee.

Every second day I do a mini clean where I take the cage liner outside, shake off all the hay, then put it back in the cage with the clean side facing up. I also put down a fresh fleece potty pad underneath their hidey house. It probably sounds like a lot of work, but a full cage clean only takes me 5-10 minutes and the mini clean takes less than 5 minutes. I let the pigs out for floor time and clean their cage while they're zooming around the living room so they can't get in the way.

At the end of the week I simply throw their 3 cage liners and 6 potty pads in the wash with some vinegar, Napisan and washing detergent. Easy :)

They have a litter box which I put their hay in and I find that helps isolate a lot of the urine/poop as they tend to go in there most of the time. Guinea pigs tend to go to the toilet where they eat (ew!). I empty and clean the litter box with a vinegar/water solution EVERY DAY while I'm cleaning the rest of their cage, and replace it with fresh newspaper/hay.

Their cage is also kept close to a window which I keep open all day to allow airflow and ventilation.
 
I clean mine out everyday
I use newspaper, puppy pads and fleece.. I take the dirty puppy pads away daily and replace with new, the fleece I wash every two days ( I have a wash and a wear :) ) it doesn't cost much and there's no smell at all. I have to do this as mine are in the conservatory and my three year old plays with them a lot. It doesn't take me long anyways I poop scoop a couple of times a day..
 
I have 7 pigs in the lounge and I change the hay & fleece every day otherwise they do smell - so my washing machine always seems to be on -
 
Try covering them where you want them to go My litter trays are covered as are their beds so extra fleece and towels there that get changed every day.
 
i gave up fleece because i couldn't stand it, i now use purely newspaper and a carpet of cheaper hay (big bags bought from independent pet shops tend to be around £5 and last me a good couple of weeks and they cover a large surface area much cheaper than pet bedding does.) now i just give them a quick clean out every few days, roll the paper and hay up chuck it in a bag quick clean and new lot goes in. its so much easier and if they start to pong a bit then i just clean the toilet areas. i also use pottys under my water bottles because i find damp starts to smell quite strong so i just use bedding there to hide the smell but i clean them out every other day at least along with toilet areas. mine don't need shelter for their toilets they are happy to go where ever regardless of what i put in the way so litter box training them wouldn't be too hard i put all their hideys around the centre of the walls and let them use the corners for toilets without obstacles in the way. I have 4 boys in 2 5x2 c&c cages
 
Could you put the Igloos/hidey boxes on top of the litter trays - if you used the larger cat size litter trays, then a pigloo would fit on top? I agree, you dont want boys cramped and then fighting....!
 
I noticed last night that 2 of the piggies are using the litter box that has their hay in it as their wee zone. It's when they're in the pigloo or box that they wee in the corners. I put their pigloo and box in each corner as that's where they like to sit so maybe if I moved them away from the corner and then put a litter box there maybe thy will use it- I'll find a big one so I can put the pigloo on there like suggested :)

I'm tempted to give up fleece but I just don't know what other bedding to try :((
 
I found fleece smelt after a day to, clean in the morning but by the Eve it stank :(, mine are in a ferplast 120 and have newspaper lined and hay on top, I clean them everyday, just roll up and throw away :) no smell
 
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