First cage cleaning.

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thatch32

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I've had my guinea pigs for about 4 days now and need to replace their fleece. They've warmed up quite a bit to me already, but I don't think their ready to be picked up. Would it be more stressful to them to be picked up and moved or for me to just work around them?
 
If your guinea pigs are not ready to be picked up then most likely what you should probably do is clean half the cage and then clean the other half.

I made the mistake of taking my boys out every time I clean the cage because I didn’t have enough towels or fleece as a back up.

It just took them about two months longer to warm up to me so I don’t think it will damage your relationship with them but it may prolong things from painting out for you to become comfortable with them.
 
I would work around them. You’re ideally supposed to leave them settle in for a week with no handling or feeding etc.
 
I've had my piggies since March and I still just work around them. They seem to find it quite amusing now. They popcorn on the fresh fleece when the cage is empty. And they like to investigate as I clean. Luna frantically eats the old hay as I take it away as if I'm taking all her food.
 
Gently coax them to one side of the cage. Clean the empty side, then coax them over to the clean side and clean the rest which is dirty.

I have had most of my pigs over a year and they're really comfortable with me around and that is how I still do it. Normally play tug of war with Po and Jupi as they want the dustpan and scoop. Lots of popcorns which results in them normally jumping into my arm sending poops everywhere. Or the girls and Basil will make a point of exploring under the fleece before I peg it to the correx to prevent them from going underneath. Or Mia will casually plod out the cage when my backs turned and explore the room before taking her sweet time plodding back to a clean cage. She's so not bothered, unless you pet her then she'll headbutt you. :))

Enjoy this time where you can spend 5 mins on a full clean, before long it'll take 30 minutes to an hour because theyve done something to slow down the process. Normally something entertaining and will leave you in stitches.
 
Engel said:
Gently coax them to one side of the cage. Clean the empty side, then coax them over to the clean side and clean the rest which is dirty.

I have had most of my pigs over a year and they're really comfortable with me around and that is how I still do it. Normally play tug of war with Po and Jupi as they want the dustpan and scoop. Lots of popcorns which results in them normally jumping into my arm sending poops everywhere. Or the girls and Basil will make a point of exploring under the fleece before I peg it to the correx to prevent them from going underneath. Or Mia will casually plod out the cage when my backs turned and explore the room before taking her sweet time plodding back to a clean cage. She's so not bothered, unless you pet her then she'll headbutt you. :))

Enjoy this time where you can spend 5 mins on a full clean, before long it'll take 30 minutes to an hour because theyve done something to slow down the process. Normally something entertaining and will leave you in stitches.
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Glad it's not just me! Luna likes to try and eat the bristles of the brush, she'd take a bite out the pan given long enough. And Nova likes to run over my hands. Both will cause mayhem trying to lay down fresh fleece and will refuse to get off the mucky one. The hand hoover is still scarey though and they run from that.
 
Same! Lily and Nugget think that the broom is food and start nibbling on it. I usually clean half of the cage and once they move to the other side, I clean the other half.
 
ThatPurpleB said:
Glad it's not just me! Luna likes to try and eat the bristles of the brush, she'd take a bite out the pan given long enough. And Nova likes to run over my hands. Both will cause mayhem trying to lay down fresh fleece and will refuse to get off the mucky one. The hand hoover is still scarey though and they run from that.
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My guinea pigs absolutely LOVE dustpans, They take turns jumping into it whenever i have it in their cage! Its so cute.
 
One side at a time worked great, they really liked the new fleece. They didn't mind it nearly as much as I expected, I actually had trouble shooing them to the other side.
 
thatch32 said:
One side at a time worked great, they really liked the new fleece. They didn't mind it nearly as much as I expected, I actually had trouble shooing them to the other side.
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They just get so into seeing what you're doing and what new stuff they have. It's so cute.
 
My piggies sometimes get hungry when I’m cleaning. Because usually, after cleaning their cage, I give them a leaf of lettuce each. But sometimes they decide they want eat earlier and start wheeking and telling me to give them food NOW. If I don’t, they start nibbling on other stuff like the dustpan, the broom and sometimes even my finger!
 
LilyandNugget said:
My piggies sometimes get hungry when I’m cleaning. Because usually, after cleaning their cage, I give them a leaf of lettuce each. But sometimes they decide they want eat earlier and start wheeking and telling me to give them food NOW. If I don’t, they start nibbling on other stuff like the dustpan, the broom and sometimes even my finger!
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Lol, one of mine keeps trying to eat the broom too. I think it looks to much like hay.
 
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