Potty No Zone

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Frogtoad

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Hey folks,

I'm new to having baby piggies, as my old guinea pig was given to me and was trained from the first day I had her.

I have 4 pigs, all under 6 months old, living in a 9x2 c&c cage with a 2x2 hay loft. One of my guinea pigs has managed to learn to go to the bathroom in the corner potty but... the other 3 just don't get it or care.

See, the problem is that the other 3 have decided that the ramp between the 1St floor and the hayloft is where they want to go to the bathroom, which is frustrating because it's the only area of the cage not lined with a fleece pad. The ramp consists of a bottom tray made from coroplast, and turned into a tunnel isinglass excess curved cage squares so they can't fall off.

It's making things difficult, and I'm not sure the solution. I cleaned the ramp very thoroughly, with vinegar to eliminate scent. But not ten minutes after they were pooping and peeing on the ramp again.

Without a liner to absorb the urine, it's resulting in rather gross and unsightly messes inside the ramp.

Is there any way to deter my piggies from peeing there?
 
very few piggies are anywhere near what can be defined as " potty trained ". - they tend to pee and poo where they eat so ......I am wondering if having the upper level as their hay loft is exacerbating this problem .

Would you consider changing your hay area - maybe having a hay tray on the lower level ?
 
I have 13 in 4 groups and all pee and poo where they are cosiest! That means in their hay covered fleece bedding areas! They have snugglesafes in each too so they are always yuk!
That's piggies!
 
Hi & welcome to our friendly forum.
Ours go where they want to as well. I think you have to remember that they won't do what you would like. They do what they want. Training piggies is very very rare.
All you can do is go with the flow & work round them.
How about photos please
 
Piggy training doesn't generally not work. Guinea pigs don't burrow; they have evolved roaming a suprisingly large territory that supplies their need for grass and using any abondoned burrows within that area. That means that they have never had to develop the best of toiletting habits as their waste is not a long term problem - it will decay enough by the time they come back to the same place.

Combine that with indiscriminate mass breeding, often in substandard conditions where toiletting habits are pretty much moot, so youngsters have no chance of learning any clean habits from generations that haven't had a chance, and you get about the scale of the problem. Piggies will poo everywhere because of the volume of hay/grass they need to process. They generally have their peeing corners, though. You need to poo patrol a cage once or twice daily.
 
Mine pee mainly in their hay trays and poo under their beds onto mats which are shaken out daily. I clean out hay trays every few days.

The rest of the cage has lino and a cage liner both of which get the odd pee and a fair bit of poo on them.
 
flowerfairy said:
Mine pee mainly in their hay trays and poo under their beds onto mats which are shaken out daily. I clean out hay trays every few days.

The rest of the cage has lino and a cage liner both of which get the odd pee and a fair bit of poo on them.
Click to expand...
Have never expected piggies to behave otherwise!
Mine have lovely fleece and hay cosy corners, fleecy hanging nests plus fleece on the floors - every area covered in poo and pee!
Fortunately Flossie rabbit has given up peeing on the sofa but poo everywhere! Just as well we love them!
 
My two have always done the majority of their pee's in the one corner ever since I have introduced them to that cage when they were babies and it hasn't always been their food area. They are eating a huge amount of hay at the moment and they have both started to drink more water so it's been a bit of a nightmare keeping that area dry so I have spent the weekend making pee pads with thicker absorbent layers but I still think it will be a losing battle lol.
 
I have gotta do something... this is after less than 12 hours. As you can see it is quite disgusting. I have to clean it with a toilet brush.

They aren't really pooping elsewhere. AMD they aren't really pooping in the hay loft either. They've made it their designated toilet and it just... can't be their toilet. Is there like a deterrence spray I can buy or... something?

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Could you put a changeable bit of fleece on the bottom, then it will brush off easily, and you can replace the fleece when you change the cage?
 
As @Reenie said, perhaps have a little fleecey pad that you can whip out and shake the poops into the bin :)
 
I don't care about the bottom so much as inside the ramp itself. The pink bedding IS a fleece pad. I can wash that. The ramp however I've been unable to get any fleece liners that will fit it. I don't own a sowing machine, the fleece pads I ordered came from across the country and they don't do custom size orders.

See the problem is the urine, in combination with the poo. They are peeing on the ramp and turning it into a water fall. Then, when they poop, it rolls all the way down through the wet ramp until it becomes a pooey, mushy mess on the bottom. I end up having to scrape and scrub it off the ramp with an actual toilet brush.

I tried using a cut fleece blanket in the ramp. It became so disgusting so quick that in one day it smelled bad enough that the entire living room stunk. My condo is 750 sq feet. I have to be very conscientious of the odour because it amasses quickly.

They're either going to lose the ramp entirely as well as the 2x2 loft OR I find a way to make them poop elsewhere. Those are the options. So far I haven't been able to make them poop elsewhere. Even putting their poops in a corner potty hasn't helped. They have decided that the ramp is their toilet and I need a solution on how to stop them from pooping and peeing there. So if anybody has any solutions on how to -deter- them from doing so, not accommodate the behaviour, I would appreciate that.

Would something like a bitter spray help? Also, I know that piggies have sensitive respiratory systems, what odour elimination options are available to me? Scented candles?
 
Scented sprays won't work .

I'm feeling that your guineas are spending a lot of time in your ramp as this is the area they feel safest in .

What sort of hideys have you got ?
 
@PiggyOwner makes a good point.
Your ramp looks fantastic, but maybe if we had a photo of the entire cage we could come up with more suggestions on how to encourage them to pee and poop elsewhere.
Is their hay area covered - I use an old fleece blanket of the top of mine, so the piggies feel safe there.
Do you have a dominant piggy?
Is it possible that one is sitting at the top or bottom of the ramp and preventing the others coming up and down freely?

If nothing else works I would try removing the ramp for a week or so.
Your ground floor area is great for four piggies, so maybe they will get used to toileting elsewhere and then later on you can reintroduce the ramp and loft area.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the replies!

Yes, I have one dominant piggie, she is the oldest although only by a month or two. But she is definitely the biggest and knows it lol. As for hideys, I have the hay loft staggering on top of the bottom level so I can use one end for storage. To clarify, I mean to say that only half of the 2x2 hay loft is actually over the bottom level. So I have a dedicated 2x1 area underneath that is a full fleece forest, as in danglers through not just on the edge.

I have one large piggie hut on the bottom level , a long bendy accordion style blue tube that is about four feet in length and their second favorite place to go to the bathroom, a 1x1 fleece tunnel, and there is also obviously a bit of a hidey underneath the ramp. In the hayloft there is a large fleece cozy with a wire frame opening that has room to comfortably fit two piggies not touching each other. The Hay Loft is not covered.

I actually find quite often that a pig will sit up at the top opening of the ramp, but that usually only happens if I'm not paying attention and put their veggies right at the top. Then the first pig will come along and start munching away, utterly oblivious that there is a queue forming behind him.
 
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