OMG! He just said they can move indoors! Advice please x

[AbiS]

I cant believe it. Since I got our 2 boys hubby has been absolutely adamant that there was NO WAY ON THIS EARTH that they would EVER live indoors. The plan was for them to go into the unheated garage in the winter. 5 months on..... its now getting colder. I think Toby put the absolute guilts on him this afternoon when we were having 5 mins of piggy cuddles this afternoon in the living room. I mentioned that we couldn't do this for much longer as the temperature difference would be getting too extreme for them. At that point, Toby snuggled into Hubby's fleece, closed his eyes and went to sleep. I said that Toby must trust him and love him lots if he was prepared to close his eyes to sleep. I then heard the immortal words "if you can find a way to make sure they don't stink of pee, they can come indoors over winter"! HALLELUJAH!

So - QUICK - before he changes his mind.... I am going to have a boat load of questions over the next couple of weeks but am going to drip feed them so you don't have to answer questions that end up unnecessary.

1) I know that I don't want an indoor cage - really don't like them so option is either a C&C (am I right in thinking that I will need a 5x2 for 2 boys?). Is it totally ridiculous to just bring their hutch into the house (I have only just spent £80 buying a new one). Whatever I have has to be raised off the floor as we have underfloor heating.

2) Should they be in the living room with us or would they prefer the quieter dining room?

3) How do I stop the pee smell. I currently use newspaper and woodshavings (although was about to try fitch) and hay. I spotclean every 2 days changing all the hay at that time too and clean the whole hutch out every 6 days. Would I be better using fleece and should I clean out more regularly.

Any advice would be great - am in a bit of a hurry to get this sorted out but nee to make sure I get it spot on as cant afford to have to rectify any mistakes.

Thank you

Abi
x

 

[AbiS]

Just looking at the sizes of grids a 4x2 would be the same size as the large new hutch I just bought - they are currently in something smaller. Wold 4x2 be ok? Would probs fit in the house better

 

[gogoguineas]

Yay great news!
You can have whatever you like indoors, there's no right or wrong, just the bigger the better! With regards to smell, i use fleece with a couple of old towels underneath and a thick layer of news paper under them. I clean mine out every 4 days and don't have a problem. Keep an eye on whatever you choose to use and I'm sure you'll be fine. If you use fleece be sure to wash the fleece at least twice without fabric softener (never use the softener thereafter either) as softner forms a barrier which stops the pee wicking through and it will just puddle on the top otherwise.

Mine live in the kitchen so they get quiet and activity as we have to walk through the kitchen to the bathroom, but they used to be in the living room, I don't think they cared either way! I have 2 c&c cages, both 4x2 for my two pairs of boys and they're happy but the bigger the better with boys!

 

[Stewybus]

It's great to hear that your piggies are coming in, out of the cold. If you move their hutch in doors I'd have them in the living room. It's great to be able to see them doing their own thing. We always had smells after only a couple of days using wood shavings & have tried just about everything you can. Personally, I prefer Megazorb which apparently isn't recommended for small animals, but I think it's down to how you use it. We put a 1/2 inch layer of it in bottom of run covered with a good layer of hay. We just get a bale of hay from a local farm at £4 a bale. We store it in one of those outdoor plastic storage boxes you can get from Argos or B&Q for about £30. A bale should easily last 3+ months. We don't bother with any other shop bought hay as ours love it so it's really value for money.

We've been trying all types of different bedding including the white paper bedding from Lawson Pet Foods at Ferryhill, Fitch, Fleece & just got some MaxiBed but don't feel too confident with that. Going to use it on Saturday when we clean out our piggies indoor run plus the foster piggies 3 cages. It might be better than it looks, I'll report on it next week but I'm seriously thinking of going back to Megazorb because it's the only one that we can keep for a week without smells. When you do your weekly clean out usually a 1/4 of it can be re-used the following week.

This is our set up being used with Megazorb & hay. The only thing I'll change is to add a layer of newspapers beneath the Megazorb. We've been doing this with the other types of bedding & it makes cleaning out a lot easier.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?103194-A-Different-Type-of-Run&highlight=

 

[sport_billy]

4X2 is fine as Bev has said for 2 pigiges. Get some picnic tablecloth from Dunhelm and cut that to size this will keep the corex nice and clean as its waterproof (and wee proof) put newspaper on top then your choice of bedding. We use woodshavings in our C&C and clean every 4 days as we never got on with fleece, but lots of people do.

C&C's available in a kit from:


The pre made kit webistes I have found are:

http://correxcages.weebly.com/ which I kimlou5288 runs
and
http://www.candccages.co.uk/ which we bought off on ebay

Great news that you can have them in!

 

[AbiS]

Thank you for those responses. I think I might try newspaper and fitch first. I have tried megazorb and hate the smell (also found it quite dusty) and that was outside so don't think I could tolerate that indoors. If the fitch still isn't too good I think I would have to splash out on fleece.

So now I just have to decide - hutch indoors (think it might look a bit daft) or C&C in which case I have to try to work out how to do it cheaply because I am broke at the moment.

 

[Mizzpigz]

Hi Abi,

We use puppy pads then newspaper and then comfy bed. We never have wee smells and if you use puppy pads you just roll it all up and throw it out. Comfy bed is £7 for a huge bale and lasts for months

 

[jenniferanneharris]

How exciting. I remember when my first piggies came indoors....:-) i havr used both finacard and fleece...i made my own cage liners from a youtube video...and i love them...i clean the litter trays dailt and spot clean and sorted... cant wait to see your cage/c&c/hutch when they come indoors :-). What ever you decide I'm sure you will have 2 happy piggies :-)

meant to add i likr both finacard and fleece...but found fleece less bother.

 

[AbiS]

Can you train them to use litter trays? Mine just pee anywhere!

 

[jenniferanneharris]

I put the litter tray in the most soiled corner...and they use it pretty well...yes they still wee and poo on the fleece....but it deffinatly slows the urine build up. :-) especially helps as my litter tray is under the hay rack...minr like to eat hay and wee...lol...so works out great for them :-)

 

[Hermes]

You could move your hutch inside, quite a few people do that. You can always dress it up with some kind of cover such as the table covering stuff from dunelm mill that someone else mentioned - it comes in a whole array of patterns/colours. Another option would be to paint it so it's more in keeping with your decor but then you'd need somewhere else to put the piggies in the meantime.

I have my two boars in the living room all the time and have only really had an issue with smells if I've been late cleaning them out (which I usually do weekly) although I do have rats which out-stink the pigs without trying!

I used the puppy pads from B&M to line the base which I feel work better than newspaper unless you have plenty of newspaper so can use a really thick layer. I've used finacard, Fitch and newspaper pellets (papelit/breeder celect) as well as a layer of hay. The Fitch is lovely and soft and clean looking (being white) but I don't think it's keeps smell down as well as finacard. Finacard is still fairly soft (being shredded cardboard) but perhaps a little more dusty. I think a mixture of the two would probably be good though. Newspaper pellets are really good for retaining smells and absorbing urine but I don't think they are very comfy as a bedding and aren't very stable underfoot on their own. I think the best substrate would probably be a combination of newspaper pellets and Fitch or shredded cardboard with a thick layer or newspaper or puppy pads underneath and then some hay on top. If you clear the layer of hay regularly between cleanouts then they're not going to smell bad. You will have hay and substrate spread to every corner of your house though - unless you're super tidy and have a hoover that's better than mine!

 

[maxinedawn]

I've just started using fitch . I find it better not to use new paper under it as the Fitch really sucks up the wee. When I clean out my boys cage the bottom of the cage is totally clean and dry. I was using wood shaving but 1 of my boys had allergy to it.

 

[Ben and Jerry]

Ben and Jerry are in a large C&C cage with loft in the corner of my living room and I only notice the smell if I get up close and its ready for cleaning out. They have vetbed over towels which I cut and stitched to fit exactly the cage size. The towels are changed every 3 days and the vetbed every 6. They are all put through the washing machine (no softener) and tumble dried. Even the vetbed on a low setting. I change the litter tray and pigloos daily and even these have towels and vetbed. I usually hand wash these and let them dry naturally. For good measure I have a neutradol gel air freshener behind the cage this is unfragranced it just absorbs smells. I think the worst thing is the smell of the hay! I have hay fever and asthma, although only mildly, but I do notice the smell of hay more than anything else.

 

[AbiS]

Well, following further conversations with Mr S, it has become clear that he has been doing a bit of research into the indoor situation over the last couple of weeks (wasn't going to tell me though). He knew all about C&C and where to get correx from (I had to laugh). he has even had his mother saving up all her old newspapers (he claims it was just for winter in general but I know better than that).

Any way - he has spent all day on internet and phoning around, he already "accidentally" bought too much wood with a waterproof (hard plasticky type) layer on it which will be used as a base and the rest will be wood/mesh and perpex. He says this will be built over the next fortnight.

I am going to use newspaper, fitch and hay and see how that goes. I really don't fancy the idea of fleece/vetbed but will have to move onto that if the fitch doesn't work.

Am just so excited!

 

[willow]

Great that you can move your piggies inside and that Mr S is being so helpful.
I have 2 indoor cages and use hay on newspaper, but i do love the smell of hay.
I do a complete clean roughly every 5 or 6 days and it's fine, although the piggies do spend some time in an outside run if it's warm enough so some of the wees are out there.

 

[piggyfan]

Ben and Jerry are in a large C&C cage with loft in the corner of my living room and I only notice the smell if I get up close and its ready for cleaning out. They have vetbed over towels which I cut and stitched to fit exactly the cage size. The towels are changed every 3 days and the vetbed every 6. They are all put through the washing machine (no softener) and tumble dried. Even the vetbed on a low setting. I change the litter tray and pigloos daily and even these have towels and vetbed. I usually hand wash these and let them dry naturally. For good measure I have a neutradol gel air freshener behind the cage this is unfragranced it just absorbs smells. I think the worst thing is the smell of the hay! I have hay fever and asthma, although only mildly, but I do notice the smell of hay more than anything else.

I change the vet bed every three days and was it on 60 degrees to ensure all germs are killed. I think six days is long to leave it. Sorry I do not mean to upset you by saying that.