Poo picking

SallyM79

SallyM79

Junior Guinea Pig
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Dec 5, 2018
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Hertfordshire, UK
Hi.
We got our first guinea pigs yesterday and they seem to be settling in well.
This morning there is a lot of poo all over the cage. We have a fleece liner so bought a mini dustpan and brush to collect the poo. Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks
 
Congratulations on your new family members! Is it a pair or more? We have fleece for our 2 girls (who have been with us a month now) and some designated dustpans and brushes for poops. They are basically poop factories so there will always be some to clean up, but we did find that it only took a few days for them to choose particular spots to favour with bigger piles of poop which can make clean up a bit more efficient for hooman slaves! You can strategically place things for them to poop in - ours choose to use a fleece cuddle cup I made (didn't realise I was lovingly sewing a toilet!) and we've bought a corner plastic litter tray for the corner they prefer during floor time in their run. I save up poop cleaning to once a day but I think people with indoor piggies often do it twice (or more?). I find it easier to pick the whole fleece up and brush poops and hay into a bucket than brush it in situ. I'm sure you will find your perfect method before long, but it definitely helps to read tips from everybody on the forum and choose things that make sense in your set up and daily routine.
 
Welcome to the forum.

I use my vacuum cleaner to clean-up the fleece while my piggies are having floor time. My piggies do tend to use their hay trays (seed trays) as a toilet, i line these with newspaper and empty the trays and replace the hay every day.
 
Every morning I do a poo patrol. Hands tend to be the most versatile tool I've found. Guinea poo is very clean.
 
Thanks everyone. I was thinking about getting a mini handheld Hoover to suck them up. Will see how we get on with the dustpan and brush and may resort to hands if needed.
 
I have had the same handheld dyson for years now and its great. When I'm working I pick up loose hay with my hands and put it back in the pile then Hoover the small pieces and poos up about 3 times a day. Then at night I change all the hay, beds and vet bed under there houses. I'm a bit OTT with the changing but I never smell them this way so just my preference!
 
I've found that having smaller "pee pads" in their popular poops areas allows me to pick the small pad up and shake into the bin, and then i dustpan and brush up what is left. I've tried a hoover but found it just dragged the fleece out and made harder work, but each to their own, over time you will get to know your pigs fave toilet places and cater your cleaner more easily :)
 
This week its a bit cold so my piggies are mainly pooping in their fleecy tunnels and beds, which looks gross but is easy to tip out! We pick poops up by hand from the fleecy cage area every day, and empty the corner hay trays which magically turn timothy hay into wee and poops overnight- we normally leave the paper bedding/floor hay areas of the cage until clean out days seeing as we clean out twice a week and the poops fall down onto the newspaper underneath and the wee gets soaked up, we never really find any damp smelly patches now the cage is bigger!
 
I use my bare hands. Any grazing animals turd doesnt bother me, i wouldnt dip into a cow pat though lol Its cats and dogs that is horrid . Not as bad as human though 😕
 
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