Mites, Now Need New Hiders, Advice?

Lexipiggie

Lexipiggie

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone,

A few days ago I noticed Coco scratching her back so I investigated and noticed a few small flakey patches under her fur. I took her to the vet and they confirmed she has mites.
They said that mites can also burrow into wooden hides in the cage and that when we apply the medicine we need to change the cage out and replace the wooden hides with other material or plastic hides.

However, I'm not sure what to get because also all of our hides are wooden :no:
I was therefore hoping you guys might have some suggestions?

Thanks
Lexi
 
Lexipiggie said:
Hi everyone,

A few days ago I noticed Coco scratching her back so I investigated and noticed a few small flakey patches under her fur. I took her to the vet and they confirmed she has mites.
They said that mites can also burrow into wooden hides in the cage and that when we apply the medicine we need to change the cage out and replace the wooden hides with other material or plastic hides.

However, I'm not sure what to get because also all of our hides are wooden :no:
I was therefore hoping you guys might have some suggestions?

Thanks
Lexi
Click to expand...
You need material hides or tunnels that you can wash in really hot water or you can buy plastic tunnels or hides in pet shops. You could use F10 disinfectant to spray your cage etc as this is good for cleaning.
 
Cardboard boxes! Lots of cardboard boxes that you can recycle after they've been trashed by your pigs. Ideally plain cardboard ones with no colour printing etc are the best. Turn them into hay nest boxes etc, or just remove the bottom, cut some holes in the sides and use them as tunnels/ junction boxes etc. I remove any tape that may be on the box first, and I obviously don't use any that have staples in them.

If you can't get boxes from work (I raid our printer room for paper boxes) you can usually pick them up in the supermarket. Our garden centre also has a 'help yourself pile' for customers which is handy as they often have long pipe shaped boxes that make great tunnels until they get peed on!

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When you've cleared the mite infestation you can get more wooden hides etc if you want to.
 
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Your best bet is getting just a few plastic hides, mites can't get into those and you can soak them in boiling water and disinfectant.

Cardboard is good but you'd have to chuck them away every few days as the mites will live in it.

Have you thrown the wooden houses away? You don't have to, bag them up and put them somewhere for 3+ weeks (I did it for about 5-6 weeks I believe) and the houses will be fine after that x
 
Janice C said:
You need material hides or tunnels that you can wash in really hot water or you can buy plastic tunnels or hides in pet shops. You could use F10 disinfectant to spray your cage etc as this is good for cleaning.
Click to expand...

Yep thanks!
 
Tewdric said:
Cardboard boxes! Lots of cardboard boxes that you can recycle after they've been trashed by your pigs. Ideally plain cardboard ones with no colour printing etc are the best. Turn them into hay nest boxes etc, or just remove the bottom, cut some holes in the sides and use them as tunnels/ junction boxes etc. I remove any tape that may be on the box first, and I obviously don't use any that have staples in them.

If you can't get boxes from work (I raid our printer room for paper boxes) you can usually pick them up in the supermarket. Our garden centre also has a 'help yourself pile' for customers which is handy as they often have long pipe shaped boxes that make great tunnels until they get peed on!

View attachment 73291

When you've cleared the mite infestation you can get more wooden hides etc if you want to.
Click to expand...

Didn't think of that. It's a good tip thanks
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
Your best bet is getting just a few plastic hides, mites can't get into those and you can soak them in boiling water and disinfectant.

Cardboard is good but you'd have to chuck them away every few days as the mites will live in it.

Have you thrown the wooden houses away? You don't have to, bag them up and put them somewhere for 3+ weeks (I did it for about 5-6 weeks I believe) and the houses will be fine after that x
Click to expand...

Unfortunately our vet told us to chuck them out and they now have 2 plastic hides we found on amazon but they don't particularly like them
 
Lexipiggie said:
Unfortunately our vet told us to chuck them out and they now have 2 plastic hides we found on amazon but they don't particularly like them
Click to expand...

Ah that's a shame! Wooden items only need quarantining for a while with mites/lice.

I'm sure they'll get used to the plastic ones! :)
 
When I had a fungal outbreak I left my wooden hides soaking in boiling F10 solution for a couple of hours. Just needed to leave them somewhere safe to completely dry for a few days before they went back in
 
I use fleece tunnels and hides which you can easily run up yourself. They can be washed in really hot water and matched with your fleece (if you use it)
 
Reenie said:
I use fleece tunnels and hides which you can easily run up yourself. They can be washed in really hot water and matched with your fleece (if you use it)
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We are actually thinking about switching to fleece as I think it will look nicer and be easier to clean out as we have now bought some fleece items anyway and they can all be washed together.
 
Tewdric said:
Yes, that's true. Mind you, I've got a couple of pigs who love to tip boxes on their sides and pee in them so the smaller/lighters ones don't last more than an a day or two anyway. :xd:
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That's my experience with the carrot houses too, they knock it over and pee all over it :))
 
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