Piggy cage odour

[Katie1988]

Hello,
I'm having a battle trying to keep our living room from smelling. We have two sows that share a c and c cage, I change their fleece bedding 2-3 days and cage sweep once in the morning and at night. Before I change the fleeces I rub in vinegar to try and remove odour and then put them in the washing machine.

The cage is under the windows which are constantly left open. I have to remove card board boxes after two days as they really stink after they urinate in them, but they need something to chew on and they like boxes.

The thing is, they don't like eating Hay! I've tried 3-4 different brands with them and they just tend to pick at it but love their nuggets!

Any suggestions? Which hay is fool proof and doesn't cost a fortune. I'm suprised they don't like Burgess Excell, my other piggies did.

Thanks!
Katie

 

[Piggies&buns]

Are you keeping nuggets limited to just one tablespoon per pig per day, and ensuring the bowl/nuggets are not left in the cage all day? That is vital in ensuring they dont overfill on them and instead eat plenty of hay. Plus not having many pellets is also vital to ensuring they don’t take in too much calcium and the associated problems.

They don’t need cardboard to chew on - they need to hay to chew on. Cardboard won’t do anything to wear down the molars and chewing too much cardboard runs the risk of causing a blockage.

Do you remove the hay daily? Hay which has been urinated on will smell quite a bit.

Hay is very much personal taste! The only one my lot won’t eat is stalky timothy hay, but otherwise they eat soft timothy, meadow and orchard hay.

 

[PoptartShop]

What kind of hay have you given them? My piggies can be picky when it comes to hay as well. They seem to always just want Oxbow!
Timothy hay mostly but they don't mind orchard too much either.

They definitely need forage 24/7, unlimited amounts.

Under the fleece you can try puppy pads and towels, that seemed to always help keep the odor down for me.

 

[XOforever]

I agree with removing wet hay and using puppy pads that can be hanged more frequently. I think in general anything where the urine will build up (since that’s the smelly part) it’s important to stay on top of.

For the actual fleeces you could try washing with more and hotter water, using an odour busting detergent, and especially pre-soaking if you’re not already. Also make sure there’s no detergent buildup in them.

I like to wash mine in lots of warm water and I always pre-soak for 20 min. Before I was adding Oxi Clean, and I’ve recently been using a little washing soda instead.

Also this is more debatable but for me a good air purifier has been great. It however can’t be relied on heavily and really only shines in combination with other measures. The air purifier works for the surroundings of course not the cage so if you come up close it may still smell.