Final Chance With Bedding

Status
Not open for further replies.
X

xkellyx

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
Messages
131
Reaction score
22
Points
0
Most of you may remember I had a problem with my landlord not liking the smell of the guineas even though he allowed me to have them.. I feel like I'm on my final chance to sort the smell out before he insists I rehome them!

In the past I've tried:
towels with fleece
Towels and fitch bedding
Towels, puppy pads & fitch bedding

Towel and fleece just smelt so bad and needed changing very regular. The fitch bedding gets everywhere and makes such a mess because they're in a c&c cage. It also takes me ages to clean them out because their cage is so big.

I'm thinking of going back to fleece, fleece liner or vet bed but what would you recommend to keep under the fleece/vet bed?

Also, can I use plug in air freshener in the room or a neutraliser of some sort to help with the smell?
 
I find readygrass applied liberally to a cage before the parents visit is enough to over power the smell of the pigs (IMHO even freshly cleaned pigs have a "smell") and make the air smell sweet and fresh :-) maybe something to consider regardless of your bedding choice, plus the pigs love it and its a natural air freshener ... mind it doesnt last long as they snaffle it all up!
 
Last edited:
I use recycled card bedding with puppy pads and newspaper underneath and don't find they smell that much (well not as much as when i used fleece with newspaper underneath) and last about 7 days.
You could potentially use cardboard under fleece as that may absorb more but smell less than towels . I haven't tried this so not sure how fleece will sit on top of it, again you can use puppy pads in the base of thw cage underneath it all.
 
I use Back 2 Nature under vet bed as it's really absorbent and I have found it keeps the smell down really well even with 4 stinky boys! It's a bit harsh on piggy feet to use without something else like lots of hay, fleece or vet bed on top though.

It's not super cheap but I find I only need to change it every 5 or 6 days and it is working really well. I put a layer of newspaper underneath it all but only really to make it easier for me to clean out!
 
The best bedding for odor control is wood pellets. With this setup, I've only had to do full cleaning of the whole cage twice a week. I put small fleece pads down for the pigs to sleep on. My cage is the same size as a 2x7 C&C. The cage never smells, even on the cleaning day.

I no longer use this setup though, the pellets are extremely heavy.

Since they are heavy, the pellets rarely gets kicked out of the cage.

Now I'm using fleece with uhaul pads on the bottom, with wood pellets in the kitchen/feeding area. The feeding area is about the size of 1x2 C&C.

P93574703.jpg

P93573402.jpg
 
Thank you for all your replies so far :)

I've got 3 smelly boys so do need something absorbent :) with the cage being so big to do a full clean it takes me about 1.5 hours with loose bedding so I was hoping for something like fleece but still the first priority of choosing a bedding is the smell.
 
For my setup with fleece, I put the small pads where they sleep, and change those out everyday. It helps keep the smell down. My pigs mostly pee and poop where they eat and sleep.
The kitchen area was a big help to keep the smell down.
With the fleece, small pads, and the kitchen, I do a full cleaning once a week.

When I had full cage with only fleece and absorbent material, it can never go a full week.
 
How well do you think/know this setup would work?
Newspaper with layer of puppy pads or incontient sheet topped with vetbed?

For those that use vetbed I only have a 6kg washing machine and the cage is 6x4ft apprx- would I be able to fit the vetbed in the machine or would it be best to cut it in half. I don't know whether to go for vetbed or fleece liner made for me?
 
Doesn't that cost a Fortune to keep replacing the puppy pads everyday?

My piggies seem to poo wherever they are! Maybe because I don't have a kitchen area? They have 2 cozie sacks, a tunnel and a sofa cup thing and a pigloo but I have them scattered around the cage so they sleep all over the cage- maybe I should add a kitchen- I have the correx and grids just need to make a ramp? Then have all their cozies etc in one half of the cage rather than scattered around? I would like vet bed or fleece so I can Hoover orbrush the poos up daily but again it's the smell that I need to eliminate.. Hmm
 
Mine poop everywhere too. It does not bother me as I think it is natural behaviour.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top